Results are a-rolling in. Here in MA, Donald Trump won easily. What’s up with that, local Republicans? As of now, too close to call on the Dem side.
Elsewhere, it looks as though Trump may run the table, save for Texas – Ted Cruz’s home state. Also looking like a promising night for Hillary Clinton, except of course for Vermont. But it’s early, and as of now only a few states have been called.
Also, based on early returns, it’s not looking like a good night for Marco Rubio. He’s not ahead anywhere (not even close, really), and he’s in third place in lots of states. More wind in Ted Cruz’s sails is exactly what Rubio didn’t need.
Please share widely!
Cruz also wins Oklahoma, and is beating Rubio in several states.
Other than perhaps Trump winning everything and putting away the race tonight, I’m not sure if there’s a worse result for the GOP establishment. There’s no reason for Cruz to drop out and, in fact, I’d expect Cruz to start making noises that Rubio should drop out for the good of the party. And frankly he has the better argument than Marco.
Terrible night for Rubio, though he could win MN. But Cruz comes out clearly in 2nd place, it seems to me. Rubio’s argument for consolidating around him is dead for now.
Hillary Clinton
51.5% 316,798 votes
Bernie Sanders
47.3% 290,563 votes
Martin O’Malley
suspended campaign Feb. 1
0.4% 2,528 votes
Others
0.8% 5,052 votes
Funny that O’Malley is getting about the same % of votes now as he was before he suspended his campaign a month ago.
He may not have many of them, but he sure has dedicated supporters!
Trump is a political genius. I’m scared.
I think Trump is a political genius. His press conference looked sharper than most post-voting rallies and speeches. But Marine Le Pen is a genius, and she found her ceiling as she crashed into during last year’s regional elections. Trump has a ceiling, perhaps found only after his nomination. But it will hit him before the Oval Office I have no doubt.
Good news for us, though: Cruz is this week’s scion to take down Trump. Hopefully it will be Rubio next week, so as to keep all three in the mix.
He just keeps making shit up and nobody calls him on it. Ten minutes ago he said the Great Wall of China is 13,000 miles long and was built without gas powered tractors. Except it is only 5500 miles long. And it was built with slave labor. And this is the guy who is telling us he will get Mexico to pay for a border wall??? Are we that stupid?
Trump was very good in that press conference. Best I’ve yet seen him. He is definitely getting better at this.
Trump is good at branding. Branding is but an aspect of politics.
He’s keeping it TCTC in VT and may end up as 2nd in MA.
Never thought I’d see the day I’d want that guy to win anything. Wow does he benefit from contrast.
Still loses to ‘others’.
David was right. The question is, can he win the general? It’s more likely than I thought a week ago.
This thing is nowhere near over (about 20% of the precincts haven’t reported their tallies):
Hillary Clinton
50.6% 485,236 votes
Bernie Sanders
48.2% 462,098 votes
Martin O’Malley
suspended campaign Feb. 1
0.4% 3,793 votes
Others
0.8% 7,688 votes
Does anyone have results from their city or town? I’m curious to see the breakdown in our commonwealth.
MSNBC just called MA for Clinton 51-49%.
has results from cities and towns
https://apps.bostonglobe.com/election-results/2016/primary/democratic/massachusetts/?p1=BG_election_results
My fault, I gave my son a ride to the polls.
Spent much of the day in Lawrence, with the guys giving rides to the polls. We gave 68 rides, to 78 voters, the GOP fellows said they transported 40.
For far too long Republican leaning voters had to choose between voting against their economic interests or voting for their cultural resentments. Trump gives them a two for one deal, an inverted lesson he must’ve got from reading a Thomas Frank book. A socialist won an election in Oklahoma while an openly racist latter day Wallace swept Massachusetts. We are living in interesting times.
From the Boston Election Department:
HILLARY CLINTON
71422 57.39%
BERNIE SANDERS
51524 41.40%
NO PREF
580 0.47%
MARTIN O’MALLEY
519 0.42%
ROQUE DE LA FUENTE
129 0.10%
Write-in Votes
267 0.21%
With 90.02% of all precincts reporting:
Hillary Clinton
50.5% 549,496 votes
Bernie Sanders
48.3% 525,401 votes
Martin O’Malley
suspended campaign Feb. 1
0.4% 4,269 votes
Others
0.8% 8,544 votes
the same margin she won my hometown of Wakefield.
Congratulations to all my fellow Democrats for a spirited campaign and may we all unite behind our nominee — whoever it is — to win in November 1
Fred Rich LaRiccia
Apparently he campaigned at several Massachusetts polling locations. There was a lot of talk about how this blocked people from coming in to vote for a period of time and that he crossed the 150′ barrier, along with Mayor Walsh. Sec. Galvin had to contact them and the poll workers to “remind” them that this is illegal in Massachusetts.
I like the implication in that article that Bill Clinton is a “campaign material” in this context. It’s funny but true.
Good for Galvin for speaking up on this.
Secretary of State spokesperson Brian McNiff said : ” Shaking hands alone isn’t prohibited. Explicit campaigning is what is banned within 150 feet of polling places. Just meeting people does not constitute campaigning. We received no information that anything like that happened.”
fred
rich LaRiccia
Bill isn’t a Massachusetts voter, he should’ve stood 150 feet away like everyone else who holds signs and follows the law.
According to the state’s chief election official : ” meeting people does not constitute campaigning.”
Fred Rich LaRiccia
I haven’t seen anyone allege that Bill Clinton was carrying a sign. There is a world of difference between carrying a sign and meeting people.
As the Secretary of State has observed, there is no prohibition against meeting people. Bill Clinton, as an ex-President, is both a celebrity and someone who has served his country. I reject the suggestion that we should join the GOP and its right-wing fringe elements in treating ANY ex-president with such contempt.
I am honored that Mr. Clinton chose to be in Massachusetts on Super Tuesday.
I found the whole episode funny. A bunch of Berniebros found something to be upset about. Glad they clarified and reminded people to take two steps back. Why is this a story again?
It’s a small trespass, but it sets a bad tone, at a time when there are so many more other ethical problems on the R side with Donald Trump.
Bill should have known better.
Nope.
No bad tone, no ethical issues.
No trespass. No “bad tone”.
If anyone should “know better”, it is the increasingly strident and petty supporters of Mr. Sanders who, through behavior like this, hurt their movement and their candidate.
Actually, Franklin is a “city” now. according to our population of 36,000 residents. I was at the polls for five hours, two hours in the morning and three in the mid to late afternoon; the busiest hours.
I held signs for Bernie Sanders along with a half dozen others who also “felt the bern”. There were a few people with Trump signs.
No one from the Hillary campaign could be seen. No signs. No action. Nothing in a small city of 36,000 that has only one polling location; a breeze to cover.
The same was true of the Coakley campaign. No one present at the polls to campaign for their candidate. That’s running a poor campaign.
Sanders won Franklin by 29 votes.
I like the sign holding at the polls as well. I always assume some people arrive still undecided and that influences.
Some campaigns put people on phones calling to get their known supporters out instead. In my area the Republicans always have more sign holders (trying to swing the independents I think) at the polls than the Democrats, but they still seem to get strong results.
There’s a lot of of debate about yard signs and sign holders but little evidence. I was town captain for a campaign and the field coordinator was manic about Saturday morning standouts, which I think are pointless. They threatened to remove me unless I got more enthusiastic about organizing them. Again no data.
Michael Sullivan, the former mayor of Cambridge and current Middlesex County Clerk once told me his dad Walter would say “a signs worth five votes” but Michael recognizes that’s not true anymore. He still spent money on signs so his supporters could feel like they were active, but he didn’t think it swayed too many at that level. Our old house was infamous for having about a dozen signs since we were on a corner with heavy traffic. And I’ll bluntly say we didn’t even vote for everyone who put one there.
I thought it was interesting that Sanders won the two larger Super Tuesday caucus states (not counting America Samoa). In a thread on the Nevada Caucus it was argued that caucuses are not democratic (and I agree that caucuses are bad even if they can not be said to be totally undemocratic) and that the more democratic the exercise, the better Bernie Sanders does.
But on Super Tuesday – he did better in the caucus states. So while I continue to agree that caucuses are bad – I think how well either Sanders or Clinton does may have more to do with the state than the method.