Super Tuesday Results 2016: Ted Cruz Becomes First Latino to Win Texas Presidential Primary
Ted Cruz became the first Latino, regardless of political party affiliation, to win a Texas presidential primary.
Cruz Cruises to Victory
Among the 13 states hosting either primary or caucus contests, Texas, hosting primaries, held the most delegates of the night with 155 delegates. Texas, however, is not a "winner take all" state, therefore the winner won't leave the Lone Star State with all 155 delegates, but he will have comfortable gains.
Prior to Tuesday's vote, Cruz did lead polling data in diverse margins of victory ranging from one percent as seen in an ARG poll to 15 percent in a Monmouth University poll. Once precinct returns were finalized, Cruz won Texas by double digits.
According to the Texas Secretary of State office, as of 12:34 a.m. local time and 71.98 percent of the precincts reporting, Cruz won the Lone Star State's Republican presidential primary with 43.89 percent. Cruz's victory saw a boost from early voting, which accounted for 493,660 votes for his approximate total vote of 1.1 million votes. With the win, Cruz becomes the first Latino, as the son of a Cuban father, to win a Texas presidential primary.
"I'd like to congratulate our Senator Ted Cruz for winning the biggest prize on Super Tuesday," said Texas GOP Chairman Tom Mechler. "Tonight's record-breaking turnout is another sign that Texas Republicans are poised to win big in 2016 and we look forward to defeating the Democrats up and down the ballot in November."
The Texas Democratic Party acknowledged Cruz's win but using the percentage win against him.
Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said, "It seems almost 60% of Republicans agree with all Texas Democrats and even President George W. Bush: we just don't like Ted Cruz. Texas Republicans' own Cuban-American, Canadian-born U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has let Texas families down time and again. Like most of the Republican Party, Cruz has been obsessed with fringe issues and the politics of fear, meanwhile Texas families are desperate for real solutions."
With the win, Cruz wins most of the 155 delegates, although final delegate counts will vary.
Rival Donald Trump placed second with 27.09 percent of the vote. Marco Rubio placed third with 17.14 percent of the vote. Trump, however, will win delegates since he ranked second and received more than 20 percent of the vote. Rubio may not have won second place, overall, but may win a few delegates if it's found the placed second in specific districts; otherwise, Rubio will not win delegates for also not going over 20 percent throughout the state.
A Republican presidential candidate requires 1,237 delegates to clinch the party's presidential nomination. While votes from other Super Tuesday states are still being counted overnight, Trump currently leads, based on RealClearPolitics' projections, with 274 delegates, ahead 149 delegates for Cruz and 82 delegates for Rubio. The aforementioned delegates numbers are expected to change come Monday morning.
Clinton Conquers Democratic Party Votes
On the other side of the aisle, Clinton easily won Texas with 65.35 percent of the vote, with 83.22 percent of the precincts reporting as of 1:10 a.m. local time. Similar to Cruz, Clinton saw early gains in early voting with 411,092 votes cast to boost the more than 853,000 overall votes with Tuesday's ballots.
Bernie Sanders received 32.95 percent, or 430,041 votes.
Clinton's Texas win was expected based on several surveys, which saw the former secretary of state with victory margins ranging from 20 percent in an ARG poll to 42 percent in an Emerson poll.
Nationally, the delegate count for the Democratic Party is a bit more complex. A Democratic presidential candidate requires 2,382 delegates to clinch the nomination, and, based on projections, Clinton leads with 1,000 delegates to 371 delegates for Sanders. But Clinton's delegate is largely due to the "superdelegates," who are specific delegates who have already pledged to support her. Without the superdelegates, RealClearPolitics estimates Clinton with 543 delegates to Sanders' 349 delegates.
Specifically in Texas, home to a large Latino population and 222 delegates up for grabs, not counting superdelegates. According to the Texas Democratic Party, 29 super delegates are allocated for the Lone Star state, which brings its total to 251, the most of any Super Tuesday state.
The Latino Vote
Texas is home to 10.4 million Latinos, based on 2014 data. According to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) Education Fund, as of October 2015, nearly one of every four Texan registered voter is Latino. NALEO noted more than 3.24 million Latinos are registered voters, which represents 23 percent of the total registered voter population in the state.
Based on exit poll data of 1,969 participating respondents, via CNN, Cruz was the preferred choice. Of the 1,969 respondents, however, only 10 percent were Latino, and 35 percent favored Cruz, ahead of 27 percent for Rubio and 26 percent for Trump.
With Democrats, 1,481 Democratic voters participated in CNN's exit poll, but only 32 percent were Latino. Of the Latino exit poll respondents, 71 percent favored Clinton, while 29 percent went for Sanders.
The specific vote count for Cruz and Clinton are unclear.
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