Late-deciders and independents are breaking for Gov. John Kasich in his home state of Ohio Tuesday, while Donald Trump is wiing over the influential senior vote in Florida, according to early Fox News exit polls for the Republican presidential primaries.
Voters went to the polls Tuesday across five states in what’s been dubbed Super Tuesday II – with contests in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois.
On the Republican side, Ohio and Florida are the most hard-fought primaries, as the states award all their delegates to the respective wier.
Exit polls show a whopping 54 percent of late-deciders are going for Kasich in Ohio, compared with 28 for Trump. Kasich also is edging Trump, 41-38 percent among independents.
But in Florida, Trump is dominating the home-state candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, among senior voters. Exit polls show 47 percent of seniors breaking for Trump, compared with 26 percent for Rubio. But Hispanic voters in Florida – another critical voting bloc – are breaking for Rubio over Trump, 51-29 percent, according to the early exit polls.
For both Kasich and Rubio, a win in their home states is considered critical Tuesday night.
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Still, Rubio, despite expectations that he’d drop out if he fails to win his home state of Florida, changed course Tuesday moing – telling Fox News that he’d move on “irrespective” of the results in Florida. Rubio, who trails front-ruer Trump badly in his home state, told Fox News he’ll be traveling on to Utah, which votes next week, no matter what.
“Obviously the difference is we’ll either be in Utah with a lot of momentum with the wind at our back or we’ll be in Utah after a disappointing night but we’ll be there nonetheless,” Rubio said.
He added, “This election is far from over.”
Further, Ohio Gov. Kasich is voicing confidence that he’ll be able to press on after Tuesday. Both Ohio and Florida are wier-take-all contests for the Republicans.
Though Kasich is caught in a tight race with Trump in his home state, his campaign is not entertaining a losing scenario; Kasich is vowing to win and to continue on to Pesylvania.
Asked by Fox News what the goveor would do if he loses, a spokesman said: “He's going to win Ohio, so I'm not going to entertain your question.”
The remarks scramble expectations for the primary race. To date, Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have been pressuring both Rubio and Kasich to get out, hoping Tuesday’s five primaries might be the final blow to their underdog bids. But if they stay in, they could continue to draw delegates and help prevent any candidate from clinching the nomination before the convention.
Trump and Hillary Clinton both entered the Tuesday contests eager to lock down the race, but are facing the possibility that their rivals could live on to drag out the contest for weeks, even months, longer.
Kasich, speaking to reporters in Ohio after casting a vote for himself for president, also said he’ll be “forced, going forward, to talk about some of the deep conces” he has about Trump’s campaign including combative Idea the Republican front-ruer has made in recent days about his rallies.
Tuesday has more delegates up for grabs than almost any other day on the campaign calendar.
There are 691 at stake on the Democratic side, and 367 at stake on the GOP side.
Already, Trump scored a win Tuesday in the Northe Mariana Islands' GOP caucus.
The Republican Party said the billionaire businessman won almost 73 percent of the vote in Tuesday's caucus. He will get all nine delegates from the U.S. territory. Cruz came in second with 24 percent of the vote, while Kasich and Rubio finished a distant third and fourth, respectively.
Trump currently leads the race for delegates with 469. Cruz has 370, Rubio has 163 and Kasich has 63.
It takes 1,237 delegates to win the GOP nomination.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.