Rubio Out; Trump and Clinton Keep Rolling

Marco

Marco

Justine Schwarz

The events of Tuesday night’s primaries in Florida, Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio continues the course set thus far for the 2016 election.

With Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton coming out winners, Tuesday night was extremely disappointing for Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, while Ohio Governor John Kasich pulled of his goal of winning his home state.

Trump swept all the states aside from Ohio,andhas 646 delegates as of Wednesday morning. This number places him far in the lead and 52 percent of the way towards the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republicannomination.

Cruz picked up27 delegates in North Carolina and is theonly candidate capable of competing with Trump prior to the possibility ofa brokered convention. With Rubio’s campaign suspension, the three man race for the nomination should put Cruz much closer to Trump in the remaining states. Overall, Cruz was second in Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina.

Kasich did surprisingly well in Tuesday’s primaries managing to win in Ohio, his home state, and gain its 66 delegates. A loss in Ohio would have been devastating to Kasich’s campaign as he was considering dropping out if he lost. With his campaign reaffirmed and a total of 142 delegates as of Wednesday morning, Kasich still stands 255 delegates short of Cruz.

Rubio’s disappointing finish in his home state of Floridaled to the suspension of his campaign. With Florida being a winner-take-all state, this failure destroyed any hope Rubio had of winning the nomination prior to the convention.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton’s results seemed to mirror Trumps as she also won fourof the five primaries that took place Tuesday night. Clinton triumphed over Sanders in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio. This puts her delegate total over 1,600 compared to Bernie Sanders’s having about 850. With 2,383 delegates needed for nomination, Clinton is rapidly securing the nomination. Missouri was the closest race with Clinton having 49.6% of the vote and 31 delegates and Sanders having 49.4% and 32 delegates with 99% of precincts reporting.

Overall, the night’s primaries were disappointingfor everyone except Trump and Clinton. However,with many states yet to vote the nominations are far from conclusively decided.