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Primary day live: Trump and Clinton lead in Florida as Kasich seeks Ohio win
Rubio ends campaign as Trump and Clinton win Florida – primary day live
(35 minutes later)
11.52pm GMT
12.28am GMT
23:52
00:28
Bernie Sanders isn’t the only one looking ahead to Arizona next week, notes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:
Only a flesh wound...
.@HillaryClinton also looking ahead to #Arizonaprimary with new Spanish language TV ad airing statewide https://t.co/25SsuUK5QN
Rubio confirms his campaign is "suspended"
11.49pm GMT
After Axelrod's "Goodbye Rubio Tuesday" jibe, is it time for a Monty Python reference? Not dead, merely suspended... https://t.co/Crab7nwYFO
23:49
12.28am GMT
Good bye Rubio Tuesday, quips David Axelrod on CNN.
00:28
We’ll take that cue:
11.48pm GMT
23:48
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has Tarzaned away from the Ohio exit polls to land in a jungle of North Carolina exit polling data.
The exits reflect support among North Carolina Republicans for granting legal status for undocumented migrants, which would not seem to bode particularly well for Trump:
A majority of North Carolina Republican voters think illegal immigrants in the US should be given legal status pic.twitter.com/EaTgKE2tyP
But Trump holds a big lead among moderates...
If Trump wins in NC, it's because of his huge lead among moderate voters pic.twitter.com/xqMU7hpbAP
...and an even bigger lead among first-time GOP primary voters:
New voters overwhelmingly support Trump in NC pic.twitter.com/9oGRWnwaKX
11.44pm GMT
23:44
Lucia Graves
Lucia Graves
A good segment of Republican voters would be unsatisfied with Donald Trump as the nominee, according to a new NBC News Exit Poll taken in five Republican primary states voting today. When asked if they’d be satisfied to choose between Trump and Hillary Clinton in the general election, just 57% said they’d be satisfied with their choice – and a whopping 37% said they’d consider a third-party candidate. That’s bad news for the party, given the states voting in tonight’s election – including GOP winner-take-all states Ohio and Florida – are some of the most consequential states still in play.
Polls have just closed in the eastern time zone, and already there are some early indications that John Kasich may actually do well – at least, in his home state of Ohio. Kasich crushed with late deciders, winning 54% of the vote to Donald Trump’s 28%, and polling shows him currently beating Trump by a comfortable margin (45% to 32%). Whatever the verdict in Ohio, we’re unlikely to know it until later in the night.
The good news for Trump is that in the crucial state of Florida, at least, voters seem to love him. A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows him easily besting Marco Rubio there with 46% of the vote to Rubio’s 22%, and early returns in the state are bearing this out.
It’s probably a futile victory for Kasich, though – he faces almost impossibly long odds to clinch the nomination.
Unlike John Kasich, who has said he would drop out if he lost his home state of Ohio, Rubio has not said definitively that he will drop out if he loses Florida, but it’s hard to see him coming back from what looks to be an impending humiliating loss.
And it’s a notably a very different tune than the one being sung in Florida just now by Marco Rubio, who had a more viable candidacy than Kasich throughout the primary.
11.43pm GMT
But now it’s a three-horse race.
23:43
12.27am GMT
Excited perhaps by what looks like a towering Florida victory, Trump calls Fox News host Megyn Kelly “crazy Megyn” on election night:
00:27
"@SCNAK45: @megynkelly is trying so hard to bash @realDonaldTrump it's ridiculous" Don't worry, everyone is wise to Crazy Megyn!
Rubio says all things are in god’s hands and “god is perfect, god makes no mistakes and he has things planned for all of us and we await eagerly to find out what lies ahead.”
11.40pm GMT
Rubio wraps his 2016 campaign with a prayer exalting the lord. “May god strengthen our eventual nominee,” he says.
23:40
He’s done. Over and out.
“Kasich is for closers”:
Cheers from the Clinton party as Rubio announces he is exiting the race. #PrimaryDay
Kasich crushes with late deciders in Ohio pic.twitter.com/cGvqDZ7U5x
Warm applause at Cruz party for Rubio speech
The above exit polling data tracks closely with surveys of voters that showed Kasich coming from behind to overtake Trump in Ohio in recent weeks.
11.39pm GMT
23:39
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs is trawling through Ohio exit polls.
He finds Kasich winning with every age group in Ohio, according to exits:
Kasich wins among every age group in Ohio. Biggest edge with young voters pic.twitter.com/xBEDcRWDKD
While Trump takes low-income voters:
The poorer a voter is in Ohio, the better Trump does there pic.twitter.com/Vk4Uo2m0Mb
But Trump crumples as a candidate whose values voters recognize:
Trump gets killed among those looking for a candidate who shares their values pic.twitter.com/xQX63larg2
11.33pm GMT
23:33
Is Bernie Sanders worried about a potential blowout loss in Florida?
He’s already looking ahead to Arizona voting next Tuesday:
.@BernieSanders just landed in Phoenix, Arizona. He seemed cheerful as he waved to reporters. pic.twitter.com/YtjxODiWRk
The power of a big margin in the Democratic race in Florida, in which delegates are awarded proportionally, may be on full display tonight.
To be clear: Bernie Sanders' path looked really remote heading into tonight. But FL on pace to make it next to impossible right now.
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at 11.35pm GMT
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11.33pm GMT
12.25am GMT
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00:25
Mona Chalabi
Clinton wins North Carolina
Initial results suggest that Clinton and Trump are both ahead by a long way in Florida. That’s not really surprising - when I looked at polling averages yesterday, that was the state where both candidates had the largest leads.
Hillary Clinton is projected to win the primary in North Carolina, the AP projects.
The final vote share of Florida’s 99 delegates will matter for Democrats (for Republicans, this is a winner-takes-all state so percentages don’t matter so much) but I’ll be keeping a close eye on the other states where Clinton and Trump have a smaller lead tonight too.
More soon on the margin.
11.32pm GMT
12.24am GMT
23:32
00:24
North Carolina and Ohio polls close and there are no immediate projections. There are no official results in yet, either – but the Tarheel state looks tight in exit polling:
He left the door open a crack on 2020 there, didn’t he? Rubio’s 44.
North Carolina exit poll shows Trump with the edge over Cruz but still close
He’s winding toward a big finish.
11.31pm GMT
12.23am GMT
23:31
00:23
“I wonder how many Republican leaders will be looking at the Florida numbers and shaking their heads about how they might have played this better,” writes Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts.
Rubio suspends campaign
Despite Trump's imminent crushing-looking victory in Florida, it's interesting that he currently has less votes than the others put together
“While it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended...”
11.28pm GMT
12.22am GMT
23:28
00:22
One single bit of good news now for Marco Rubio: he’s looking good in Miami, where he lives.
Rubio says 'we will not be on the winning side'
Rubio is cleaning up in early voting in Miami-Dade. It may not matter though
Rubio is delivering what feels very much like a valedictory, describing “the campaign we’ve run.”
HUGE Rubio lead among Miami-Dade's early voters: He got 64% of 64,000 voters, compared to just 20% for Trump!Clinton up 80% to 20% here.
He said he campaigned to be a “president that would love all the American people.”
Well wait, here’s another little bit of good news: Rubio looks likely not to come in third:
Then he flies even closer to a withdrawal:
The only good Florida news for Marco Rubio? It doesn't appear he's any danger of finishing 3rd behind Ted Cruz.
“After tonight it is clear that while we are on the right side, this year we will not be on the winning side...
“While this may not have been a year for a hopeful and optimistic message about our future, I still remain optimistic about our party.”
But then he pulls back to tell his parent’s immigrant stories.
Updated
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11.25pm GMT
12.20am GMT
23:25
00:20
Ohio, North Carolina polls to close
Hillary Clinton fails to make live TV again – like last week, when the networks carried Trump for an hour.
Five minutes till the 2016 Ohio primary (GOP: 66 winner-take-all) is on the books. North Carolina too (GOP: 72 proportional).
Now with all cameras on Rubio, Clinton begins to address supporters:
Can the governor pull it off?
.@HillaryClinton thanks her volunteers and the "more than 950,000 Americans who've contributed to this campaign" in a fundraising email
11.17pm GMT
12.18am GMT
23:17
00:18
Many close observers of Florida counties are impressed with Trump’s numbers – and Clinton’s.
Rubio decries 'politics of resentment'
Huge early vote margins for Clinton and Trump in the early returns in Florida.
Rubio now delivers a criticism of Trump, not by name. He says that stoking people’s fears would have been the “easiest” way to win. But he took the high road:
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino is on to a happy-looking scene at Clinton’s election night redoubt in West Palm Beach:
“From a political standpoint, the easiest thing to have done in this campaign, is to jump on all of those anxieties I just talked about. To make people angrier, to make people more frustrated.
Vibes from @HillaryClinton election night party #FloridaPrimary 💃🏽 pic.twitter.com/EuLgdTXxyr
“But that is not what’s best for America. The politics of resentment... are going to leave us a fractured nation... where people literally hate each other.”
The Democratic race in Florida is proportional, not winner-take-all – meaning a big margin there, and in the other states, would matter for Clinton in the game of delegate capture, which is the only game going.
12.16am GMT
00:16
Rubio says he has lived the immigrant experience and “I understand all of these frustrations.”
“I decided to run a campaign that was realistic about all of these challenges,” but optimistic, too, Rubio says.
Press at the Kasich event watching Rubio's speech as the first Kasich speaker takes the stage.
12.14am GMT
00:14
Rubio: USA in middle of political 'tsunami'
“America’s in the middle of a real political storm. A real tsunami, and we should have seen this coming.”
He’s interrupted by a protester who may be saying “Go home Marco.”
“Don’t worry,” Rubio says. “He won’t get beat up at our event.” The crowd shouts Marco! Marco!
He continues, telling a story of frustration in the country rooted in the 2008 downturn.
12.14am GMT
00:14
Updated
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at 11.18pm GMT
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12.13am GMT
00:13
“It was a big win,” Rubio says of Trump’s Florida victory.
He thanks his supporters. He says they worked hard. He thank supporters who voted for him across the country.
“We had a great team. We have a great team.”
12.12am GMT
00:12
Rubio takes stage in Florida
Rubio is addressing supporters. He congratulates Trump, to boos.
12.10am GMT
00:10
Who is forcing Donald Trump to watch Fox News? It’s clearly driving him to distraction. We figured he was following the returns on the blog here. But if he prefers TV – can somebody tell him about CNN, and a gentleman called Wolf Blitzer?
Can't watch Crazy Megyn anymore. Talks about me at 43% but never mentions that there are four people in race. With two people, big & over!
Watching other networks and local news. Really good night! Crazy @megynkelly is unwatchable.
