Political primary pile up

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks, as Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, and businessman Donald Trump attempt to interrupt, during the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami,  Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Coral Gables, Fla. Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is at right. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

AP

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks, as Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, and businessman Donald Trump attempt to interrupt, during the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Coral Gables, Fla. Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is at right. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Among the greatest weekdays in the American calendar year, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and NFL Sunday, lie the political primary holidays: Super Tuesday, Super Saturday, and Super Tuesday II: Return of the Primaries. On these dare I say sacred days, several states, predominantly in the South and Midwest, held primaries to further establish the stronger candidates still in the race.

For the Republican Party, of the 16 locations that voted (including and Puerto Rico), Donald Trump won 12 of them. He came away with the win in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. The establishment nightmare claimed most of his wins by a decent margin, except for in Arkansas where Sen. Ted Cruz was only behind by 2 points. Walking away from a series of days that everyone was betting (and maybe hoping) that he would crash and burn in, the billionaire businessman secured 379 delegates, placing his total at 461 and further cementing his lead in the race to be the GOP nominee.

Coming in second, which may as well be last at this point, was Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The Grandpa Munster lookalike turned Presidential candidate was able to scrape up 6 states that didn’t fall for Trump’s colorful campaign techniques. Obviously taking his home state of Texas, Cruz also won Alaska and Oklahoma, Kansas, Maine and Idaho, claiming 344 delegates. Though Trump’s lead appeared to be impossible to break, the Texas Senator is only one large state away from closing the gap.

And that leaves one state, the great state of Minnesota, and Puerto Rico for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. And while Rubio took third overall for the GOP Super Tuesday contest, Minnesota marks the first win from the Republican golden boy. He seems to be the candidate that the Republican Party believes can defeat Hillary Clinton in a general election, but so far he hasn’t done all that well, resting at a third of Donald Trump’s delegate total. It will require a miracle for Rubio to earn the nomination at this rate, but there are still a lot of states to vote yet.

As far as John Kasich goes, the moderate Ohio Governor has essentially faded into irrelevancy, but has not yet dropped from the race like Ben Carson.

Now, as far as the Democrats go, it wasn’t a blowout necessarily, but Hillary Clinton was certainly the clear winner. Leaving 8 states to the Vermont Sen. (Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Vermont, Kansas, Nebraska, Maine, and Michigan), Clinton won most of the larger states, each by a relatively large margin, with the exception of Massachusetts where the two were only a few points apart. The former Secretary of State dominated in the south with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Clinton walked away with 591 delegates, bringing her total to 1,221 delegates (including her 461 superdelegates, which aren’t confirmed or secured supporters). Bernie certainly isn’t out of the race, as he is only 214 actual delegates behind the current frontrunner, a gap that could be closed by the support of a few large states.