Trump’s early win in Georgia is the first concrete sign that he may be about to inflict a disappointing night on one of his top rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who once saw his strength among evangelicals as the key to a possible sweep of the Deep South.
Voting has ended in three of 12 states with primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday, the most consequential day yet in the presidential race.
The Super Tuesday contests are a delegate bonanza for front-runners and a test of survival for others as voters went to the polls across the nation, including in the Deep South, in Colorado and Texas, in ice-bound Alaska and Minnesota.
Trump is expected to notch a large number of victories that could help him stretch his lead in the GOP White House battle and underscore his growing support across all sectors of the Republican coalition. Those wins could come despite being embroiled in a GOP fight that has rival candidates and party elders, desperate to stop his march to the nomination, branding him unfit for the presidency.
Cruz faces a must-win primary in his home state of Texas, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is a long shot to squeeze out his debut victory of the campaign after ditching his previously elevated and aspirational campaign to wage a bitter and personal war of words with Trump.
“This campaign is not just about electing a president,” Sanders said at a rally Tuesday night in Vermont. “It is about transforming America.”
A total of 595 Republican delegates are up for grabs in 11 states of the 1,237 needed to clinch the GOP nomination in 11 states. Sanders and Clinton are facing off in 11 states for 865 of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the Democratic race.
