One of the last big days in the Primary Election 2016 is concluded. Five states with a lot of delegates were on the line for both parties, on a day that could go a far way in deciding who wins the nominations. The questions then are, who won? Who lost? And what do these results mean?
The Winners: There were two big winners on March 15 or the 3rd Super Tuesday in a row as it is also known. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won all the states in the two respective races, except for John Kasich‘s home state win in Ohio and the for the moment too-close-to-call state of Missouri. (See all the results at the bottom of this page.) Clinton was the favorites in most of the five states, however, according to polls three of them were close enough for Bernie Sanders to stand a chance. Hence, Clinton will be very happy to have won at least four of them (as mentioned, the fifth Missouri is too close to call at the moment.) Among the Republicans, Trump followed the polls’ predictions and won every state except Ohio, although Missouri is also too close to call between him and Ted Cruz.
The Losers: The night’s big loser on the Democratic side was, of course, Bernie Sanders. Although he was behind in the polls, him and his followers would have hoped for a repeat of last Tuesday where he surprised the pollsters and won Michigan. However, this did not happen on this Tuesday where it seems Sanders have lost all of the five states, albeit some of them narrowly, especially Missouri and Illinois.
In the Republican race, Marco Rubio experienced the largest defeat after a disappointing month of March for him. Not only did he finish last with single-digits in four out of five states, he also lost his home state, Florida, to Donald Trump with almost 20 percentage points. As expected, this caused the Senator and once front-runner to withdraw from the race. Ted Cruz did not win any states either, but did pick up enough delegates to secure his position as the strongest opponent to Trump.
What do these results mean? In the race for the Democrat’s nomination for President, Hillary Clinton seems very close to winning it now. However, Bernie Sanders is expected to stay in the race, not only to pursue his minimal chance of winning but also to force the debate, Clinton and the Democratic party more to the left and his progressive views. As long as Sanders is in the race, Clinton cannot ignore the large amount of Democrats who supports Sanders’ more social democratic views. On the red side of the primaries among the GOP, the results from March 15 meant two things. First, Donald Trump is also getting very close to a nomination. Second, the race is down to only three guys, after Rubio dropped out. This means Ted Cruz and John Kasich are the only candidates left to stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican Party’s nomination. Something which seems almost impossible for them at this point. Looking forward from here, it seems Clinton and Trump will be going head to head for the presidency in November. However, the primaries are not over before the parties’ conventions in July (25-28th for Democrats and 18-21st for Republicans.)
The Numbers*:
The Democratic race:
Florida:
- Hillary Clinton 65%
- Bernie Sanders 33%
Illinois:
- Hillary Clinton 51%
- Bernie Sanders 49%
Missouri:
- Hillary Clinton 50%
- Bernie Sanders 49%
North Carolina:
- Hillary Clinton 55%
- Bernie Sanders 41%
Ohio:
- Hillary Clinton 57%
- Bernie Sanders 43%
The Republican race:
Florida:
- Donald Trump 46%
- Marco Rubio 27%
- Ted Cruz 17%
- John Kasich 7%
Illinois:
- Donald Trump 39%
- Ted Cruz 30%
- John Kasich 20%
- Marco Rubio 9%
Missouri:
- Donald Trump 41%
- Ted Cruz 41%
- John Kasich 10%
- Marco Rubio 6%
North Carolina:
- Donald Trump 40%
- Ted Cruz 37%
- John Kasich 13%
- Marco Rubio 8%
Ohio:
- John Kasich 47%
- Donald Trump 36%
- Ted Cruz 13%
- Marco Rubio 3%
*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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