HOUSTON – Donald Trump’s angry army is positioned to march across 11 states Tuesday with enough firepower to anoint him the inevitable Republican nominee by day’s end, while Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are just aiming to survive the onslaught.
The biggest day of primary and caucus voting of 2016, stretching from New England to Alaska, is a make-or-break day for Trump’s rivals. It’s also a day that threatens to tear apart the Republican Party.
The challengers’ latest weapon involves tax returns. Trump Sunday again refused to release his, and, on “Fox News Sunday,” he would not reveal his gross income, tax rate or charitable contributions. “I’m being singled out,” Trump said.
Rubio, a senator from Florida, and Cruz, a senator from Texas, released partial returns Saturday for the past few years. Cruz charged on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump’s returns would contain bombshells.
Cruz once saw Super Tuesday as his big day, when the Christian right voters he so feverishly courts would give him victories across the South. Instead, he’s spending the last hours fighting to avoid an embarrassing setback in his home state.
Rubio is now the clear Republican mainstream alternative, and is hoping Cruz is staggered enough Tuesday that the race becomes a one-on-one battle with Trump. Rubio’s spent the past week provoking Trump on his own playing field, unleashing insults (“he’s a clown”) and accusations (“exploiting working Americans for 40 years”) with Trump-style fury. He’s also warning that a Trump win could mean doom for the Republican Party.
All this sets a gilded stage for Trump, who leads in polls in eight of the 11 states. By the time voting ends, Republicans will have awarded 595 convention delegates, or nearly half the 1,237 a candidate needs for nomination. A big Trump night means a big, maybe insurmountable, lead for him.
“There is no doubt that, if Donald steamrolls through Super Tuesday, wins everywhere with big margins, that he may well be unstoppable,” Cruz said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday. “I don’t think that will happen.”
Time is running out for Trump’s challengers. Between Tuesday and March 15, delegates will be awarded in primaries and caucuses in 13 more states, and Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Tuesday’s biggest prizes are Texas with 155 delegates and Georgia’s 76. Should Cruz falter in Texas, which polls say is unlikely, he’s probably finished as a candidate, though a victory be seen only as little more than something expected. Trump has made a strong push in Texas, appearing Friday with Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey as his newest supporter.
Georgia once had the look of a strong Cruz state, since nearly two-thirds of its Republican voters regard themselves as evangelicals. Christian right favorite Mike Huckabee won Georgia eight years ago. Instead, polls have shown Trump with a consistent lead. Rubio is aiming to win delegates in suburban areas; Cruz is targeting smaller, more conservative communities.
Trump is ahead in other states with big Christian right electorates – Oklahoma and Alabama.
The Southern states best positioned to break Trump’s grip are Tennessee and Virginia. Gov. Bill Haslam and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee back Rubio.
In Virginia, center-right Republicans of the Washington suburbs have shown little taste for Trump, and Rubio planned to spend most of Sunday campaigning in the state. But Trump has courted both states’ religious communities; in Virginia, evangelical leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell Jr. have endorsed him.
Massachusetts, Vermont, Alaska and Massachusetts also vote Tuesday, and Rubio hopes to win at least one. So does Gov. John Kasich of Ohio. Kasich is betting that his let’s-get-along, pragmatic style will help him in Michigan’s March 8 primary and a week later in Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and North Carolina. But getting shut out this week could drain his prospects for momentum.
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