Sanders-Clinton 1-1, Trump wins 3 more states

WASHINGTON: Blue-collar, working class Americans resentful about flight of jobs from the United States spoke out loud and clear in Michigan on Tuesday, voting for Democratic and Republican presidential candidates who are against an assortment of trade agreements that they blame for the decline in the country’s manufacturing prowess.

The result was a stunning win on the Democratic side for Bernie Sanders against Hillary Clinton in this lakeside state famous for auto manufacturing, while on the Republican side, Donald Trump took the state after fending off challenges from conservative Ted Cruz and John Kasich, governor of nearby Ohio.

The results did not drastically alter the frontrunner status of Hillary Clinton, whose 48-50 Michigan loss was offset by an overwhelming 83-17 victory in Mississippi, a southern redoubt where she has massive black support. Trump too bagged Mississippi and Hawaii in the Republican race, while losing Idaho to Cruz, to stay ahead of the pack.

But the Michigan results served a warning signal to all candidates that there is simmering disquiet in the so-called rust-belt states —the industrial heartland of America stretching from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, through Ohio and Indiana, all the way to Michigan and Wisconsin — over the region’s economic decline, and the White House aspirants are likely to tailor their message and agenda accordingly.

In terms of delegates, Trump won 59 to Cruz’s 44 on Tuesday to lead 446-347. A Republican candidate needs 1,237 delegates to clinch the party nomination, political shenanigans at the convention (widely expected) notwithstanding.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday won 64 delegates to Bernie Sanders’ 67, and she leads 759-546 in terms of delegate count. The Democratic candidate has to win 2,383 delegates to win the party nomination.

But because the Democratic Party has designed (or rigged, to put it bluntly) the process in favour of the establishment favourite, Clinton also has the support of 461 superdelegates whose loyalty is not tied to grassroots results, making it difficult for Sanders to surmount the odds. Sanders has the support of 25 super delegates. Their overall delegate count is 1,220-571.

The number of super delegates on the Republican side is far less, and unlike on the Democratic side, they are beholden to vote for the candidate their state voted for. So effectively, Trump has a lock on many of them, having won 15 states so far to Cruz’s seven.

Establishment favourite Marco Rubio, who has won just two states and has only 151delegates in his column, is under pressure to opt out of the race even before it reaches his home state Florida, where polls show Trump in the lead. Some pundits are suggesting that he bail out of the presidential race to save his Senatorial seat.

On the Democratic side, Clinton has won 13 states to Sanders’ nine in a contest that was expected to be a walkover for her. But Clinton’s victories across a broader swathe of America has been propelled by the African-American votebank that Sanders has had a hard time making inroads into, although Michigan showed the tide could be turning. It could be too little, too late. Tuesday’s results sets the stage for a potentially decisive day of voting on March 15 when Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina hold primaries for both the parties.