emocrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Ted Cruz won the presidential primaries in Wisconsin on Tuesday, toppling national front runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both winners are still a long way away from winning the nominations, but the Wisconsin outcomes could mean that the nomination contests in neither party will be settled before conventions in July.
“We have won seven out of the last eight contests”, said Mr. Sanders. “We have a path toward victory, a path to the White House”. Mr. Sanders is expanding his base with targeted ads appealing to the black and other minority populations that have been Ms. Clinton’s voter bases. Recent polls show him closing the gap with Ms. Clinton among these key social groups that support the Democratic Party. Mr. Sanders has also closed in on Ms. Clinton in New York, the State that elected her senator. He has also managed to raise more money than Ms. Clinton for three successive months — in March, he got $44 million compared with her $29.5 million.
Super-delegate advantage But all this is may not be sufficient to win the nomination. After Wisconsin, Ms. Clinton has 1,743 and Mr. Sanders 1,027 delegates. The overwhelming delegate lead that she maintains is due to a special category called super-delegates — who are not elected through primaries but are party functionaries who are eligible to vote in the national convention. Of the total 712 super delegates, 469 have pledged support to Ms. Clinton.
In an e-mail to followers, Mr. Sanders said what remained of April was “the most important three-week stretch of the campaign”. Wyoming polls on 9th; New York is on 19th and on 26th, northeastern states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have their primaries.
On the Republican side, Mr. Trump faced the most decisive setback in his presidential campaign as the entire party establishment coalesces behind Mr. Cruz, who was also considered an outcast not so long ago.
Mr. Cruz now has 517 delegates against the 1,237 required to win the nomination and Mr. Trump has 743. Mr. Trump has to win 55 per cent of the delegates in the remaining contests; Mr. Cruz will have to win 88 per cent, in order to win the nomination.
“Tonight is a turning point. It is a rallying cry”, Mr. Cruz said, promising to unite the party. Mr. Cruz’s hopes lies not on winning enough numbers before the convention, but in defeating Mr. Trump in a contested convention. If nobody wins the required number in the first ballot, all delegates are free to vote as they please in the second ballot. And the party establishment is hoping to upend Mr. Trump in that moment.
“Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet — he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump”, a spokesperson of the Trump campaign said.
Those agitated over Mr. Trump’s campaign vitriol might now need to catch up on Mr. Cruz’s positions — over the last fortnight, he has called for measures like special police vigilance in Muslim neighbourhoods, reiterated his blanket opposition to abortions; and has promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico.
