One week after the big Super Tuesday and three days after “super Saturday,” the second “Super Tuesday” occurs. The big state on the line for this day is Michigan. The Republicans will battle for three more states, while the democrats will compete in just one other, Mississippi. The questions then are, who won? Who lost? And what do these results mean?
The Winners: The night’s biggest winner was Bernie Sanders. Actually, Sanders only won Michigan narrowly and in the only other state voting on Tuesday, Mississippi, he lost by a landslide (see all the results on the bottom of this page). However, Sanders was not given any chances by the pollsters or media in any of the states, so a win in the delegate-heavy state of Michigan is a huge victory for Sanders. In the Republican race, Donald Trump won three out of four states, with Ted Cruz winning Idaho. Naturally, this means that Trump was one of the night’s winners as well, however he was not as dominant as last Tuesday and Cruz is starting to look like the strongest contender to Trump ahead of Marco Rubio.
The Losers: Hillary Clinton must be considered this second Super Tuesday’s biggest loser. Although, she will probably gain more delegates than Sanders, the surprise loss in the important Michigan Primary is a big bump on the Clinton campaign’s road to the Democratic nomination. Clinton was expected to win the state, according to polls and the media, so this loss serves yet another blow to the campaign’s confidence.
In the Republican race, Marco Rubio fell even more behind Cruz in the race to become the Republican party’s strongest bet to beat the outsider Trump. Rubio even succumbed to two fourth places after John Kasich in both Michigan and Mississippi after finishing third far behind Cruz and Trump in Hawaii and Idaho.
What do these results mean? In the Democratic race, the results indicate that Sanders is capable of winning big states where he is not the favorite. Furthermore, the Michigan win provides him with huge momentum combined with the results from Saturday and the fact that the next state’s that will be voting seem more favorably towards him. Conversely, the Clinton campaign might start to get a little nervous for a 2008 repeat, where Hillary was the favorite versus the young unknown Barrack Obama, but eventually lost.
Among the Republican hopefuls the biggest indicator from these results seems to be that Cruz is beating Rubio as the strongest contender to a Trump nomination. There is no doubt that Rubio, along with Kasich, is looking forward to the next big date on the Primary Election schedule, March 15. On this day, both their home states, along with three other big states, are on line and it will most likely be the most decisive day after Super Tuesday and also the last chance for Rubio and Kasich. Furthermore, Sanders will look to take advantage of his momentum, while Clinton will hope to strengthen her delegate lead.
The Numbers*:
The Democratic race:
Michigan:
- Bernie Sanders 50%
- Hillary Clinton 48%
Mississippi:
- Hillary Clinton 83%
- Bernie Sanders 17%
The Republican race:
Hawaii:
- Donald Trump 42%
- Ted Cruz 33%
- Marco Rubio 13%
- John Kasich 11%
Idaho:
- Ted Cruz 45%
- Donald Trump 28%
- Marco Rubio 16%
- John Kasich 7%
Michigan:
- Donald Trump 37%
- Ted Cruz 25%
- John Kasich 24%
- Marco Rubio 9%
Mississippi:
- Donald Trump 47%
- Ted Cruz 36%
- John Kasich 9%
- Marco Rubio 5%
*Numbers taken from CNN’s estimates.
Want to read more about the candidates? Head on over to the candidates’ page.
(Photo credit: Wikimedia & Gage Skidmore)
American Elections 
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