Trump and Clinton: After Tuesday victories, candidates shift focus from party rivals to each other

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won decisively enough on Super Tuesday to become the presumptive nominees for president for the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively.

Neither candidate swept all the dozen states involved, but each won enough delegates to make it an uphill climb for any opponent.

And each began to switch focus from intraparty rivals to one another, even though they are months away from the nomination.

Trump carried seven states, earned at least 203 delegates and has 285 in all. It takes 1,237 to win the GOP nomination.

But Ted Cruz picked up wins in his home state of Texas as well as Oklahoma and Alaska, enough to keep his campaign alive. Marco Rubio captured Minnesota and kept his campaign on life support.

Clinton also picked up wins in seven states and is assured of winning at least 457 of the 865 delegates at stake Tuesday. She needs 2,383 to get the nomination. But Bernie Sanders earned victories in four states, enough to keep his campaign going as well.

North Carolina voters will get their chance to cast ballots in the next big primary on March 15, along with voters in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and the Northern Marianas.

Published in Editorials on March 2, 2016 11:57 AM