MSNBC and Fox News are projecting Donald Trump as the winner of the Tuesday Republican primary in Tennessee.
Tennessee, which has voted Republican in the last four presidential elections, was widely viewed as a race for second place between Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) since Trump maintained a wide lead there for months.
In the days before the state’s Super Tuesday primary, Trump was polling nearly 30 points ahead of Rubio, with Cruz polling only one point behind Rubio, according to TPM’s Poll Tracker Average.
For Trump, a successful Super Tuesday is seen as a critical stepping stone to securing the Republican Party’s nomination.
The big story shaping up tonight isn’t how many states Drumpf wins, but how many times Cruz comes in third.