Polling and caucus sites opened Saturday moing in five states in which rivals to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump think they can win and slow the Democratic and Republican front-ruers' march to their respective party’s presidential nomination.
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz is hoping to do well in caucuses in Kansas, Kentucky and Maine and a primary in Louisiana. A good showing would help him secure his position as the No. 2 GOP candidate ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. But neither appears to have a path toward wiing enough delegates or the nomination.
Vermont Sen. Beie Sanders, Clinton’s only competitor, is favored to win the Kansas and Nebraska caucuses.
Clinton’s campaign manager braced supporters for the potential setback in a memo Wednesday that suggested the former secretary of state may lose the caucus states this weekend.
“Sen. Sanders has clear advantages and is investing heavily in two upcoming caucuses (Kansas and Nebraska),” Robby Mook wrote in a memo.
In addition the Kansas and Nebraska caucuses for Democrats on Saturday, Louisiana will also hold a Democratic caucus.
Democratic candidates will compete for 109 delegates.
Clinton leads Sanders 1,066 to 432 in the delegate race. Either needs 4,763 delegates to win the party nomination.
Republicans compete for 155. The other remaining GOP candidate is Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson suspended his campaign on Friday.
Trump leads with 329 delegates, followed by 231 for Cruz, 110 for Rubio and 25 for Kasich. A GOP needs 2,472 to win the nomination, with increasing talk, particularly among the GOP establishment, about have a so-called “broker convention” to stop Trump’s insurgent candidacy.
Trump is scheduled to hold a rally Saturday afteoon in Wichita, Kansas.
On Sunday, Maine holds its Democratic caucus, while Puerto Rico has its Republican caucus.
On Friday, Trump pulled out of the aual D.C. conservative confab CPAC. Trump had been scheduled to speak at the four-day gathering but said he would be campaigning instead in Kansas and Florida. Florida holds its primaries on March 15.
CPAC organizers suggested they cancelled Trump’s appearance because he won’t take questions.
“Guess what, tomorrow is an election,” a Trump spokeswoman said Friday, giving her explanation about why the candidate won’t attend the event.
The CPAC controversy follows a raucous Fox News Republican debate Thursday night in Detroit in which Cruz, Rubio and Kasich teamed up against Trump to cast him as a political salesman willing to say anything and take any position to win the nomination.
They hammered him on alleged inconsistences on his policy details and business dealings, including the now-defunct Trump University, which is being sued for scamming students out of thousands of dollars.