Defying an all-out bid by the Republican establishment to derail his candidacy, front-runner Donald Trump swept the Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii primaries on Tuesday night and braced himself up for the make-or-break round in five major States on March 15.
The billionaire businessman headed off the blistering establishment attacks mounted by former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney over the past week as he captured three of the four States on Tuesday. The fourth, Idaho, went to his only challenger of consequence, Senator Ted Cruz.
On the Democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders pulled off a sensational upset in Michigan, beating Hillary Clinton in the crucial industrial State narrowly. Clinton, however, won by a landslide the day’s other Democratic primary in Mississippi.
In his victory speech, Trump sought to play the unity card and expressed the hope that the Republican Party will embrace the “movement” that he has triggered by rallying not only millions of Republicans, but also bringing Democrats and independents to his side at the expense of the Democratic Party.
“It’s the biggest story in politics today. I hope the Republicans will embrace it,” he said, asserting: “The turnout has been just massive for every week. We will take many, many people away from the Democrats. What we’re going to do is beat Hillary Clinton – and we’re going to beat her badly.”
For Trump, the Tuesday victory may have been doubly-sweet as Michigan happens to be his bete noire Romney’s home State. During the week, Romney, coming out of his political wilderness, had slammed Trump, calling him a “phony” and a “fraud”, and asking Republicans to choose one of the other three candidates in the fray.
With an addition of 71 delegates on Tuesday, Trump now has an overall 458. Cruz mopped up 56, taking his aggregate to 359. It was a bad day for Senator Marco Rubio, who did not gain a single additional delegate and his tally remained at 151, while that of Ohio Governor John Kasich rose by 17 to a total of 54.
In the Democratic race, Sanders had a morale-boosting victory over Clinton in Michigan, winning the State narrowly (50%-48%). Earlier in the day, however, Clinton smothered Sanders in Mississippi (83%-17%). The runaway victory was aided largely by the massive support that Clinton enjoys among African-Americans – a grim reality that Sanders has been encountering in State after State.
Clinton mopped up more delegates (87) on Tuesday than Sanders (69). Overall, Clinton is comfortably placed with 760 delegates as against Sanders’ 546.