Cruz is also up over Trump 43-36 with 9% reporting in that red-state bastion of the confederacy, Maine. Oh, wait....
Maybe you're being facetious, but the voting isn't rigged. The demographics that make up Trump's coalition don't turn out well.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WmeRheEfm1o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Cruz-ing? :grin:
That red-state bastion of the confederacy. Just in case anybody still thought Cruz couldn't win primaries in blue states this pretty well puts that myth to rest.
Kentucky is going to come down to Fayette County (Lexington) and especially Jefferson County (Louisville). Trump is not doing as well in SE Kentucky as expected, so the two big cities will be decisive (FiveThirtyEight, Sean Trende/RCP).
Thanks for the information. From Nate Silver at 538: What Cruz’s Performance In Maine Means Although the margin of Cruz’s win in Kansas is a big deal — with all results reported, he beat Trump 48 percent to 23 percent — his performance in Maine might be even more surprising. Decision Desk HQ has now called Maine for Cruz — in fact, it looks like Cruz could win by some margin — although the networks haven’t yet. When I wrote about Maine a few days ago, I said it was unpredictable (that part looks smart) but mentioned Kasich, not Cruz, as the candidate to keep an eye on (that part doesn’t look so smart). Cruz couldn’t have won Maine just by winning evangelicals, since it has relatively few of them (although more than other parts of New England). Cruz also seems to have made inroads with a relatively broad spectrum of conservatives: libertarian-ish voters who nearly gave Ron Paul a win their four years ago; working-class voters Down East. If this all sounds a bit vague, it’s because there are neither exit polls in Maine nor detailed county-by-county results yet. But it doesn’t make Cruz’s performance any less impressive.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rememberrecincts<>votes. 18% of the precincts in KY are in, but it is mostly small counties. 1/2</p>— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanTrende/status/706285727882059777">March 6, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">So far Cruz has won the two urban-ish counties: Marshall County (Benton, some resort-y stuff) and Nelson (Bardstown). 2/2</p>— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanTrende/status/706285759683280896">March 6, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> At the very least, expect the gap between Trump and Cruz to narrow.
From Harry Enten at the 538 blog: There’s clearly some geographic patterns to Cruz’s and Trump’s support in Kentucky. Trump is cleaning up in coal country in the eastern part of the state, while Cruz has gotten his best percentages from the two counties that have reported in the west. A lot more of coal country has reported than the west, so on that basis one would expect Trump’s 11-percentage-point lead to shrink. We are, of course, also waiting on the vote from Lexington and Louisville, which are big population centers.
Ted Cruz wins Maine: Ted Cruz 45.84% (12 delegates) Donald Trump 32.55% (9) John Kasich 12.17% (2) Marco Rubio 8.00% (0)
Cruz has apparently also won a majority of the delegates in Kansas and Maine. He had previously won a majority of the delegates in Texas. Cruz now has three of the eight states he needs to win a majority of the delegates in to satisfy rule 40 of the Republican nomination rules. And who knows, he still has a chance to add more to that number tonight in Kentucky and Louisiana.
The fact that Cruz is winning the closed primaries shows a lot of Democrats are voting for Trump in the open primaries as well as saying they are voting for him in the polls. Hopefully tonight will make Rubio wise up and drop out before he is embarrassed in his home state effectively ruining his political career.
If Rubio would just drop out already, I think Cruz will do very well in Florida. If Rubio stays in it shows he cares more for himself than his country.
Be careful what you wish for. Florida is winner take all. Rubio is the only one that keeps Trump from winning it. If Cruz wants a shot at the nomination, they have to keep Trump from winning that state. If he drops out, Trump wins it and is a virtual lock for first ballot nomination.
