Wednesday, March 2, 2016

First Read: Rivals Have Just Two Weeks to Stop Trump

 
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
 
Rivals have just two weeks to stop Trump

Donald Trump had a good (though not great) night. Ted Cruz survived (and won a few more states than we thought he would). And Marco Rubio struggled (finishing third in delegates). That's your summary of last night's Republican SuperTuesday contests. As a result, Trump's rivals now have just two weeks to stop him -- in the winner-take-all races of Florida and Ohio onMarch 15. The good news for them: The combined delegate haul from Florida and Ohio (165) is bigger than Trump's overall delegate lead over his closest competition, Cruz (104 delegates). The bad news: None of them has much of an incentive to exit the Republican race, which means that the same five GOP candidates -- Trump, Cruz, Rubio, John Kasich, and Ben Carson -- will continue to split up the vote. And that gives Trump an easier path to victory in Florida and Ohio. If any other Republican had won 10 out of the first 15 contests like Trump has, and if any other Republican was mainly responsible for driving the turnout we've seen so far, we'd say that person was lock to be the GOP nominee. Trump isn't a lock. But he could be therein 13 days. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: NBC News

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