Hillary tops Sanders by nearly 20 points; on Republican side, 49% back Donald, 16% Marco, 15% Cruz.
Hillary tops Sanders by nearly 20 points; on Republican side, 49% back Donald, 16% Marco, 15% Cruz.
Americans began voting on Tuesday, in what is deemed the most critical day in the presidential nominating process. The first state to open its polling stations was Virginia at 6 am.
A total of 12 states, from Alabama to Alaska, are holding primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, with frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hoping to finish off their challengers.
If Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump — an outspoken billionaire political neophyte who has unexpectedly tapped into a vein of conservative rage at conventional politics — win big, it could spell doom for their challengers.
Hours before polls opened, the duo made last-ditch appeals to supporters ahead of a day like few others on the calendar leading up to the November election for the White House.
Mr Trump has expanded his lead over the diminished field to capture the support of nearly half of Republican voters, while Ms Clinton tops her rival Mr Sanders by nearly 20 points on the Democrat votes, according to a CNN/ORC poll.
Mr Trump’s Republican rivals — Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz — were frantically trying to halt the real estate magnate’s march toward nomination, seeking to unite the party against the man they see as a non-conservative political interloper.
Taking an aim at the increasingly hostile campaign rhetoric on the Republican side, Ms Clinton said, “I really regret the language being used by Republicans. Scapegoating people, finger-pointing, blaming. That is not how we should behave toward one another,” she told hundreds gathered at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
But Mr Trump is clearly in the driver’s seat. He is leading in polls in at least eight of the 11 Super Tuesday states. And a new CNN/ORC poll shows the billionaire expanding his lead nationally, earning a stunning 49 per cent of support compared to second place Marco Rubio at 16 per cent.
Ted Cruz of Texas is third, at 15 per cent, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 10 per cent and Ohio governor John Kasich at six per cent. Mr Trump punched back against Mr Rubio, calling him “Little Marco,” mocking him for sweating on the campaign trail and warning that he could not stand up to strong men like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, backers of Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio have spent nearly as much money in the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday’s nominating contests. The Super PAC supporting the US Senator from Florida, Conservative Solutions, poured $4.2 million into 10 Super Tuesday states between February 10 to 27.
