WASHINGTON: US Senator Ted Cruz struck first in Saturday's
(Mar 5) handful of presidential nomination contests, decisively winning
Kansas and Maine, and boosting his claim as the most viable alternative
to billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump.
On the Democratic side, it was Senator Bernie Sanders, the
self-described democratic socialist, who claimed the first two
victories, in Kansas and Nebraska. But Hillary Clinton bounced back to
easily win Louisiana, seen as the weekend's big prize.
For Republicans, the Saturday races provide the first tests of
whether the establishment's desperate effort to halt Trump, led this
week by 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, is having any effect on voters.
The brash real estate mogul Trump is ahead in the all-important
delegate count for the Republicans, having won 10 of the 17 states that
have now voted in the process that determines the nominees for both
parties.
But Cruz's wins are a reminder that while Trump still
appears to be the likely nominee, it is by no means inevitable. The
conservative senator performed beyond expectations in Kansas, where he
earned 48.2 per cent of the vote, doubling up on Trump who received 23.3
per cent. Senator Marco Rubio was third at 16.7, followed by Ohio
Governor John Kasich with 10.7 percent.
In Maine, it was a startling result for the
arch-conservative Cruz in the more moderate New England region. The
centrist candidate Romney won Maine caucuses twice, in 2012 and 2008.
Republicans were still awaiting results in Kentucky and Louisiana, with Trump leading in both states.
"God bless Kansas!" Cruz told a campaign rally in Idaho, upon learning that he was projected the winner.
"The scream you hear -- the howl that comes from Washington, DC -- is
utter terror at what we the people are doing together," he said, adding
that conservatives are "coming together... and standing as one behind
this campaign."
The Republican race has been winnowed to four men: political
outsiders Trump and Cruz, and more mainstream candidates Rubio and
Kasich. Many in the Republican establishment are apoplectic over whether
anyone can stop Trump's march.
Sanders meanwhile reveled in winning the night's first two races
against Clinton. "It's official: @BernieSanders takes Kansas," the
state's Democratic Party posted on Twitter.
While Clinton won just one state Saturday, it was big enough
for her to expand her delegate lead as she inches closer to securing
the nomination. The former secretary of state dominated in Louisiana,
because of its large African-American vote.
But Sanders did well in the other two states in large part because of
their substantial white populations, a demographic with which Sanders
has done well.
Maine, also overwhelmingly white, holds its Democratic caucus Sunday.
The races are wedged between more consequential contests: the dozen
states that voted on "Super Tuesday" March 1 and the big battles on
March 15, when many Republican races, including in Rubio's Florida and
Kasich's Ohio, become winner-take-all affairs.
Cruz received an added boost Saturday when he won the straw
poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a prominent
gathering of grass roots far-right activists.
Trump made waves when he cancelled a scheduled Saturday
morning appearance at CPAC near Washington, opting instead to hold a
rally in Wichita, Kansas. The move angered members of the American
Conservative Union which hosts CPAC.
"I think it was a big mistake for Donald Trump not to be here," ACU chairman Matt Schlapp told CNN.
‘ESTABLISHMENT IS AGAINST US’
Trump told the Wichita crowd that Romney, who on Thursday called
Trump "a fraud," was a "loser" who should have defeated President Barack
Obama. "It's the establishment. The establishment is against us," Trump
said.
Rubio, seen by many political observers as the best hope to
defeat Trump, issued a forceful repudiation of the frontrunner,
challenging him, like many Republicans have, on his conservative
credentials.
Rubio brought the house down at CPAC when he warned about a
dire future for Republicans "if the conservative movement is hijacked by
someone that's not a conservative." But the first-term senator from
Florida was having a rough Saturday night.
With Trump's challengers insisting they are in it for the
long haul, there is a chance no candidate will rack up the 1,237
delegates needed to secure the nomination before the convention in July.
That would mean a contested or "brokered" convention, a scenario that
could turn chaotic, especially if establishment figures seek to somehow
actively prevent delegates from coalescing around Trump.
There are 155 delegates at stake in Saturday's Republican races.
Heading into Saturday, Trump led the field with 329
delegates, followed by Cruz with 231 and Rubio with 110. Kasich trailed
with 25. Trump has won 10 state contests, while Cruz has claimed six
including Kansas and Maine. Rubio has won one.
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