GOP badly split as Trump, Clinton seek Super Tuesday wins

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hope to lock their frontrunner status in the U.S. presidential race as Republicans face primaries in 12 states and Democrats in 11 on Super Tuesday.

Welcome to Super Tuesday, the biggest single day of this exhausting presidential primary season.

The Republican and Democratic front runners fended off rivals and appealed to supporters in a dozen states, a day before they head to the polls.

Map of Democratic and Republican primaries on “Super Tuesday”, March 1 2016, as well as the …

Democrats are voting in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Colorado and Minnesota, as well as in the United States territory of American Samoa.

But she was leaving nothing to chance, traveling to multiple states Monday to urge a strong turnout. Republicans vote in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado.

Cruz warned that the “Trump train” could become “unstoppable” if he rolls to big victories Tuesday.

The Republicans are in a deep hole and I do not see them coming out of it right now. Scapegoating people, fingerpointing, blaming.

“Years from now people are still going to remember who was with Trump and who was against him”, said Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney, a former Republican staffer.

The Florida senator warned supporters in Tennessee that USA media and Democratic groups will jump on Trump “like the hounds of hell” if he wins the nomination.

But Mr Trump is clearly in the driver’s seat.

Republican breakdown: The governor is backing Rubio, but the lieutenant governor speaks fondly of Trump, whom he says has “electrified the Republican base and independent voters”.

The national survey of 427 voters who describe themselves as Republicans or GOP-leaning independents found 49 percent support for Trump, 16 percent for Rubio, 15 percent for Cruz, 10 percent Carson and 6 percent for Kasich.

Mr Trump hit back hard against Mr Rubio, calling him “Little Marco”, mocking him for sweating on the campaign trail and warning Mr Rubio could not stand up to strong men like Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is why they are spending millions of dollars in support of Bernie Sanders with their political action committees (PACs) to defeat Hillary Clinton.

But the 2016 cycle has been far from normal, with a furious electorate keen to back an outsider who scorns the establishment. “I don’t know what our founders, some of those early patriots, would think about what we’re up against today”.

“It’s clear tonight that the stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower”, she said.

Trump was asked Sunday on CNN whether he rejected support from the former KKK Grand Dragon and other white supremacists after Duke told his radio followers this week that a vote against Trump was equivalent to “treason to your heritage”.

“That would leave every Republican with a momentous decision”, said Kevin Spillane, a veteran California GOP strategist who said he won’t vote for Trump.

“This is the party of Abraham Lincoln”, said Senator Ben Sasse, accusing Trump of being a non-conservative plotting a “hostile takeover” of the party.

“We are listening to the American people and their pain and their needs rather than hustling all over the country collecting millions of dollars from the 1 percent”, Sanders said at a Minneapolis rally on Monday, pointing to his agenda of overhauling the campaign finance system and expanding Social Security benefits for retirees.

Each US state has set number of delegates who go on to nominate eventual presidential nominees at Conventions, the American equivalent of party conferences, in the summer.

Meanwhile, with Trump leading in all the states going to the polls Tuesday except Texas, the New York Times said Trump has an opportunity to amass more delegates and put much more distance between him and Rubio and Cruz. He trails in almost all other Super Tuesday states.

Virginia is home to one of Super Tuesday’s biggest contests, and a key step on Clinton’s path to the Democratic nomination.