Donald Trump walked away from Super Tuesday as the clear victor, with wins in Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Alabama and Tennessee.
It may already be too late for the GOP to take the nomination from him now, but Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) kept his campaign alive, claiming victories in his home state of Texas and neighboring Oklahoma. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), looking to claim his first win of the primary season, won a single victory in Minnesota.
“God Bless the Lone Star state,” Cruz said as he hit the podium in Texas Tuesday night. “We are the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump. once, twice, three times.”
Cruz called on the Republican Party to “come together” to beat a “vulgar” candidate like Trump.
Yet, Tuesday leaves the Republican establishment with a painful choice. They can line up behind rogue-operator Trump — who could be an albatross around the necks of down-ballot candidates in November in swing states from Illinois to New Hampshire — or behind Cruz, whose far flung tactics like shutting down the government have irritated leaders in Washington and hurt the party’s brand with independents.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said that choosing between Trump and Cruz would be like choosing between “being shot or poisoned.”
The establishment’s favorite only broke through Tuesday in Minnesota.
Rubio continued to claim that he was the most electable candidate in a general election against Clinton. But the broad support for Trump left Rubio claiming that he has shrunk his losses against Trump. “We are seeing in state after state, his number’s coming down, our number’s going up,” Rubio said Tuesday night.
In addition to a strong showing in Minnesota, Rubio kept the race in Virginia close by performing well in the D.C. suburbs, but he still lost to Trump 35 percent to 32 percent.
Rubio’s next best chance at a victory will come when his home state Florida votes in its primary in two weeks.
Trump rumbles forward with Cruz still in the picture, a bombastic billionaire versus a proclaimed conservative constitutionalist. Tuesday night Cruz gave a preview of the line of attacks he’s retooled against Donald Trump. Cruz called Trump “Harry Reid’s favorite” and he encouraged voters to say “enough with the Washington corruption, with the deception, with using government to benefit the rich and powerful at the expense of the American people.”
Trump’s posture Tuesday night, however, was surprisingly measured against Cruz. Trump congratulated Cruz on his win in Texas where he acknowledged that Cruz had worked very hard.
Trump also dismissed criticisms Tuesday night that he would hurt the party. Instead, he argued he could easily beat Clinton and unite a party splintering in the wake of his victories.
“Look, I’m a unifier,” Trump said. “I know people are going to find that a little bit hard to believe, but believe me, I am a unifier. Once we get all of this finished, I’m going to go after one person, Hillary Clinton, on the assumption she’s allowed to run which is a big assumption.”
