|
 Trump hopes to regain his momentum after suffering a week of
blistering attacks from the party's establishment and splitting four
contests on Saturday with rival Ted Cruz, who positioned himself as
the prime alternative to the brash billionaire in the race for the
party's nomination for the Nov. 8 election.
Most opinion polls show Trump hanging on to a solid double-digit
lead in Michigan over Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, and Ohio
Governor John Kasich.
The establishment favorite, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida,
lags behind and is seen needing a breakthrough win in his home state
next week to keep his campaign alive.
Republicans and Democrats will also vote in Mississippi, and
Republicans in Idaho and Hawaii will make their choices on a day
when 150 Republican delegates and 166 Democratic delegates will be
up for grabs.
But the focus on Tuesday is the industrial battleground of Michigan,
where Trump's relentless anti-free trade rhetoric and promise to
slap taxes on cars and parts shipped in from Mexico has resonated in
a state that has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing and auto
industry jobs.
 "Trump has been holding strong and no one seems to be catching up,"
said Republican pollster Steve Mitchell, whose latest Fox 2/Detroit
poll on Sunday showed Trump with a 22-point lead on Cruz and Kasich.
"The anti-Trump vote is being divided almost evenly, and neither of
them can get an edge," he said.
Among Democrats, Clinton, 68, also has a solid double-digit lead in
Michigan opinion polls over rival Bernie Sanders, 74, a U.S. senator
from Vermont. The former secretary of state is also expected to do
well in Mississippi, where the Democratic electorate will be
dominated by black voters who have overwhelmingly favored her over
Sanders.
Big Michigan wins for Trump and Clinton would set them up for a
potentially decisive day of voting on March 15, when the
delegate-rich states of Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North
Carolina cast ballots.
The Republican contests in Florida and Ohio award all the state's
delegates to the winner. If Trump, 69, could sweep those two states
and pile up delegates elsewhere, it would probably knock home-state
favorites Rubio and Kasich out of the race and make it tough for
Cruz to catch him.
[to top of second column] |
'ALL TALK, NO ACTION'
Trump, a blunt-spoken political outsider who has been under
relentless attack from establishment figures and Super PACs since
winning seven of 11 races on Super Tuesday last week, launched his
own attack ad against Rubio, calling him a "corrupt, all-talk,
no-action politician."
"That guy, he couldn't be elected dogcatcher in Florida," Trump told
supporters in North Carolina.
Trump has so far won 384 delegates to 300 for Cruz, but the contests
over the next week will play a big role in determining whether any
candidate gathers the 1,237 needed to win the nomination or if the
decision will have to be made at the convention in July.
In the Democratic race, Clinton has built a lead of nearly 200
pledged delegates over Sanders, and the party's rules awarding
delegates proportionally in all states will make it hard for him to
catch up because she can keep piling up delegates even in states she
loses.
The two candidates spent Monday campaigning in Michigan, one day
after their debate in Flint that featured sharp clashes on free
trade agreements and the auto bailout.
They resumed their battle on Monday, with Sanders accusing Clinton
of distorting his record when she said he opposed the auto bailout
credited with rescuing General Motors and Chrysler during the
economic crisis.
Sanders, a democratic socialist, said he supported the bailout and
voted for it in the Senate, but that bill failed to win approval. He
later voted to block auto bailout funds because they were combined
with funds to bail out Wall Street.
Sanders released a radio ad on Monday saying Clinton was trying to
distort his record. Sanders, the ad said, "has always been on the
side of Michigan workers and working families."
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
