USA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION LATEST :A big night for Clinton, as she wins in four states
WEST
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Tuesday was always supposed to be one of the most
important nights in the Democratic presidential primary race, but for
Hillary Clinton, it was even bigger than she and her team expected.
Clinton’s
victories in Ohio, Florida, Illinois and North Carolina put her firmly
on course to defeat her primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
As the results were announced on Tuesday evening, she took the stage
before a boisterous crowd of supporters here and seemed to pivot towards
the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, who also won in Florida.
“We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination and winning this election in November!” Clinton declared.
Clinton
came into the presidential race as the overwhelming frontrunner for her
party’s nomination. After faltering in the early states, she began to
pull ahead, with a massive victory in South Carolina on Feb. 27. She
followed that win with a string of victories on Super Tuesday, March 1.
Those wins had a campaign source predicting to Yahoo News that Clinton’s
delegate lead over Sanders would be “effectively insurmountable” once
this evening’s votes were counted. Sanders’ team also knew this
evening’s numbers would be crucial, and in early strategy sessions, they
cited March 15 as a turning point, after which they would know whether
or not his underdog bid was truly viable.
It
looked as if Sanders might prove the Clinton campaign’s bullish
prediction wrong after he won a stunning upset in Michigan on March 8,
but Clinton’s victories on Tuesday helped her stop Sanders’ momentum and
establish a seemingly unbeatable lead.
Though
Clinton was expected to win the primaries in North Carolina and Florida
on Tuesday, polls showed her potentially losing in Ohio, Arizona,
Missouri and Illinois. Even if Sanders had won all of the states that
were in play on Tuesday, he would still have faced an uphill battle.
However, by taking Ohio and Illinois, Clinton definitively pulled ahead.
Hillary
Clinton greets supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center
after winning the Ohio, Florida and North Carolina primaries on Tuesday.
(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Though
the results in Arizona, Missouri and Illinois still had not been
projected at the time she spoke, Clinton pointed out that her trio of
victories had allowed her campaign to “add to our delegate lead to
roughly 300.”
“I’ll tell you, this is another Super Tuesday!” Clinton said.
Her lead only grew as the night wore on.
After
congratulating Sanders “for the vigorous campaign he’s waging,” Clinton
turned to Trump, framing the election as “one of the most consequential
campaigns of our lifetimes.” She specifically criticized several key
aspects of his platform, including his positions on immigration and
waterboarding.
“When
we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million
immigrants, banning all Muslims from entering the United States, and he
embraces torture, that doesn’t make him strong, it makes him wrong!”
Clinton said. “We should be breaking down barriers, not building walls.”
Clinton went on to directly invoke Trump and take a shot at his campaign slogan, “Make American Great Again.”
“To
be great, we can’t be small, we can’t lose what made America great in
the first place,“ said Clinton, adding, “And this isn’t just about
Donald Trump, all of us have to do our part.”
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