Clinton and Trump ahead in state polls
Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a "Breaking Down Barriers Town Hall" at Morris College February 24, 2016 in Sumter, South Carolina. With barely 24 hours before the big day, Mrs Clinton and Trump are well positioned to secure the lion’s share of the delegate bonanza in the 11 states voting in each party’s primaries. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
Clinton, riding high after thrashing rival Bernie Sanders on Saturday in South Carolina, could come close to staking her claim to the nomination on March 1 when the race goes national, after a string of smaller but important single-state contests.
But all signs show 2016 is far from normal, with a fiercely angry electorate keen to back an outsider who persistently attacks the establishment.
PURCELLVILLE, US
Democrat Hillary Clinton aims to build an impregnable lead on “Super Tuesday,” the most consequential day of the presidential nominations calendar, while Republicans struggle to derail their insurgent and controversial frontrunner Donald Trump.
With barely 24 hours before the big day, Mrs Clinton and Trump are well positioned to secure the lion’s share of the delegate bonanza in the 11 states voting in each party’s primaries.
Clinton, riding high after thrashing rival Bernie Sanders on Saturday in South Carolina, could come close to staking her claim to the nomination on March 1 when the race goes national, after a string of smaller but important single-state contests.
Mr Trump, whose brash and incendiary campaign has turned American politics on its head, has a political target on his back, with mainstream favourite Marco Rubio assailing the real estate mogul during every campaign stop now.
Super Tuesday will unquestionably be a gut check for the Republican Party.
It will also test whether Mr Rubio’s newfound aggression against Trump — the 44-year-old senator has attacked his business dealings, temperament, looks, age and policy platforms in recent days — will affect voters.
“We can’t nominate someone who’s going to lose,” Mr Rubio said at a campaign stop in Purcellville, Virginia.
“Never Trump!” an audience member shouted out.
Mr Trump’s extraordinary bombast during the campaign, including calling some Mexican immigrants “rapists” and urging a ban on Muslims entering the country, would have been the undoing of a normal candidate.
But all signs show 2016 is far from normal, with a fiercely angry electorate keen to back an outsider who persistently attacks the establishment.
In the latest controversy, Trump came under withering criticism for refusing to disavow the support of David Duke, a white supremacist who once led the Ku Klux Klan.
“I don’t know what group you’re talking about. You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. I’d have to look,” Mr Trump told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
