Super Tuesday 2 Preview: Hundreds of Thousands of Latinos Eligible to Vote on March 8
More than 100 delegates will be available for Republican presidential candidates on March 8's "Super Tuesday 2," across states where the Latino electorate is on the rise.
Michigan
Michigan will host both Democratic and Republican presidential primaries on Tuesday.
In the Democratic field, 147 delegates are at stake in a state where Hillary Clinton is expected to win. Based on the latest Monmouth University poll, surveying 302 likely Democratic primary voters between March 3 and March 6, Clinton has a 13-point advantage over fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, 55 percent to 42 percent.
"Clinton had Michigan all to herself eight years ago after her opponents pulled out when the state violated party rules in scheduling its primary too early. This time she appears to be holding on in the face of a tough challenge from Sanders," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.
In the Republican field, the same Monmouth poll found Donald Trump in the lead. With a 13-percentage point advantage, Trump received 36 percent, ahead of Ted Cruz's 23 percent, John Kasich's 21 percent and Marco Rubio's 13 percent. If the Monmouth statistics stand, Cruz, Kasich and Trump will share Michigan's 59 delegates since each would have passed the 15 percent threshold.
Michigan's Latino population is the 20th largest in the country with 231,000 eligible Latino voters. Almost half of the state's Latino population, at 49 percent, are eligible to vote.
Mississippi
Mississippi has 40 GOP and 41 Democratic proportional delegates at stake.
With almost 1,000 Republican likely voters polled, a survey by Magellan Strategies and Y'all Politics found Trump with a large lead. The poll, conducted on Feb. 29, saw Trump with 41 percent, while Cruz and Rubio jousted for second place. Cruz, by 1 percentage point, placed second with 17 percent to Rubio's 16 percent. Kasich received 8 percent.
In the Democratic field, Clinton is expected to convincingly win Mississippi. In the same poll, Clinton received 64 percent to Sanders' 11 percent, but 24 percent were still undecided.
The survey did ask for respondents' race, and only 1 percent were identified as Hispanic among both Republicans and Democratics. As indicated in the Magellan Strategies poll, Mississippi's Latino population is quite small. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 80,000 Latinos live in the state, which includes 31,000 eligible voters.
Idaho and Hawaii: GOP Only
Democrats only have two primaries on March 8, but Republicans have two other elections: Idaho's primary and Hawaii's caucus.
Idaho is home to 32 delegates and more than double the Latino population of Mississippi. Latinos, who comprise 12 percent of Idaho's population, represent 80,000 eligible votes.
Polling data in Idaho has been scarce, but Trump once again has a lead in a survey by Idaho Politics and Dan Jones and Associates. Conducted between Feb. 17 and Feb. 26 with 230 likely voters, Trump received 30 percent. Cruz and Rubio received 19 percent and 16 percent, respectively, while Kasich attracted 5 percent. The poll's margin of error, however, was 6.5 percent, meaning second place could go for either Cruz and Rubio.
Hawaii, with 19 delegates, does not have polling data available or averages from RealClearPolitics. Stats are available on the island's Latino population, which stands as the 39th largest in the U.S. Nearly 142,000 Latinos reside in Hawaii, including 85,000 Latino eligible voters.
__
For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.