Cruz and Trump split Super Saturday, Rubio wins Puerto Rico
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March 5 presidential primary elections and caucuses, 2016
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 Date: November 8, 2016 |
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March 6, 2016
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and billionaire Donald Trump split the four Republican nominating contests on March 5. Cruz won the Kansas and Maine GOP presidential caucuses, with 48 and 46 percent of the vote, respectively. Trump won the Louisiana presidential primary with 41 percent of the vote and the Kentucky caucuses with 36 percent. In both of those Trump victories, Cruz was a close runner-up.
In Kansas, Cruz carried all four congressional districts, but he ran strongest in the fourth, represented by GOP Congressman Mike Pompeo, who had endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. In that district, Cruz won 58 percent of the vote, to Trump’s 22 percent, to Rubio’s 13 percent. (Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP Sen. Pat Roberts had also endorsed Rubio.) The Floridian did manage to finish second in district three, with 22 percent of the vote to Cruz’s 42 percent. The second CD is metropolitan Kansas City and includes Wyandotte County and a large portion of Kansas City that is about half African-American and half Hispanic. But most of the district’s voters are in affluent suburban Johnson County.
Republicans opened up an additional precinct caucus in St. Louise, where Wichita State basketball fans gathered for a tournament. According to The Kansas City Star, GOP officials said some 600 Republicans voted in the St. Louis caucus.
In 2012, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum carried Kansas with 51 percent of the vote. A total of 29,727 votes were cast that year, less than half of the 73,000-plus that were cast this year.
Cruz also unexpectedly won the Maine caucuses over Trump who had been endorsed by GOP Gov. Paul LePage. Cruz captured 46 percent of the vote to Trump’s 33 percent. Ohio Gov. John Kasich finished third with 12 percent. The overall Republican caucus turnout was 15,545, almost three times as many voters who cast ballots in the 2012 and 2008 GOP caucuses in Maine.
Trump continued his success in capturing Southern primaries—territory where Cruz had been expected to do well—winning the Louisiana GOP contest with over 41 percent of the vote to Cruz’s 38 percent. Trump won 47 of 64 parishes. Cruz won the rest.
The final contest decided on the evening of March 5, was the Kentucky GOP caucuses, originally organized to allow Sen. Rand Paul to seek re-nomination for his 2016 Senate reelection race. Trump won the state with 36 percent of the vote, largely on his strong performance in counties in Eastern Kentucky, coal country and rural territory. Trump also narrowly carried Jefferson County, home to Louisville, 30 percent to under 29 percent for Cruz.
But Cruz won both the Louisville suburbs and the Cincinnati suburbs in northern Kentucky, as well as the Bluegrass counties. These two areas of the state make up most of the so-called “Golden Triangle,” the most prosperous territory that also includes Louisville. Cruz also narrowly carried Western Kentucky, but those three areas could not overcome Trump’s performance in Eastern Kentucky where he won almost half the GOP caucus vote.
The overall Republican caucus turnout in Kentucky was 228,461, more than the roughly 176,000 who cast ballots in the May 22 GOP presidential primary in 2012, which Mitt Romney won.
On Sunday, March 6, Rubio bounced back and won the Puerto Rico GOP presidential primary over Trump, 74-to-14 percent, and captured all 23 of the Republican delegates at stake. The turnout was 36,531, which was far below the 2012 mark of roughly 128,000 votes. However, due to the financial crisis in Puerto Rico, the government cut back the number of polling places from roughly 1,500 to 110.
James A. Barnes is a senior writer for Ballotpedia and co-author of the 2016 edition of the Almanac of American Politics. He is a member of the CNN Decision Desk and will be helping to project the Democratic and Republican winners throughout the election cycle.
See also
- March 5 presidential primary elections and caucuses, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Presidential election, 2016/Polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
- Presidential election, 2016/Straw polls
