Cristina Silva
UPDATE: 10:07 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders categorized his win in West Virginia's Democratic presidential
primary Tuesday as "pretty good news," but the reality is that it keeps
his campaign more than alive and gave the Vermont senator his second
consecutive primary win after emerging victorious in Indiana last week.
Sanders took the stage at a rally in Salem, Oregon, Tuesday night to
revel in the fact that "tonight it appears that we’ve won a big, big
victory in West Virginia," he said to thunderous applause from what
appeared to be thousands of people in attendance.
Sanders went on to thank the people of West
Virginia for giving him what he said "ends up being a double-digit
victory tonight," a seemingly perfect contextual segue for his next
point: “[West Virginia] is a state where Hillary Clinton won by over 40
points against Barack Obama in 2008.”
He acknowledged his differences with Clinton,
but there was one thing, he said, that they most certainly agree on: "We
must defeat Donald Trump."
Pointing to polls that show he would beat the
billionaire real estate mogul by “bigger numbers than Secretary
Clinton," Sanders concluded in part that “we will defeat Donald Trump.”
UPDATE: 9:45 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders was in Salem, Oregon, Tuesday night when it was announced he
was the projected winner of the West Virginia Democratic presidential
primary, leaving the thousands of people in attendance at a rally there
to erupt in cheers. He was expected to take the stage to deliver his
victory speech, which can be seen below.
UPDATE: 9:25 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders is projected to win the Democratic presidential primary in West
Virginia, according to media reports. The Associated Press confirmed
Sanders' victory.
It was not immediately clear how many
delegates were handed to him with the victory, but the Vermont senator
will still need a considerable number of them to catch up with former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who as of Monday needed 154
delegates to reach the requisite 2,382 mark and clinch her party’s
presidential nomination.
Sanders needs 928 more delegates to secure the nomination, according to RealClearPolitics.
UPDATE: 8:50 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump is the projected winner of the Nebraska Republican presidential
primary, CNN reported on live TV. The results were all but a foregone
conclusion after Trump's last two GOP rivals — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and
Ohio Gov. John Kasich — both suspended their campaigns last week
following Trump's lopsided win in the Indiana GOP primary.
The presumptive Republican presidential
nominee also won the West Virginia GOP primary earlier Tuesday evening
and was inching closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to officially
clinch the party nomination.
UPDATE: 8:50 p.m. EDT — White
nationalist William Johnson is apparently still on Donald Trump's list
of state delegates in California despite the billionaire candidate's
campaign insisting otherwise Tuesday. A spokesperson for the California
Secretary of State confirmed Johnson's inclusion, saying in part that
Trump's campaign failed to meet the deadline to have Johnson's name
removed.
Johnson said Trump's campaign contacted him
Tuesday to say the white nationalist's name was "erroneously listed,"
according to a tweet from Sacramento Bee reporter David Siders. It was
immediately unclear how Johnson's name made it on the list in the first
place.
One potential solution for Trump's campaign would be to submit the name of an alternate to take Johnson's spot.
UPDATE: 8:25 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders' campaign is claiming a victory in the West Virginia Democratic
presidential primary, according to a tweet from a New York Times
reporter. The Vermont senator reportedly sent out a fundraising email
announcing Sanders won "the majority of the delegates in today's primary
in WV," Trip Gabriel tweeted.
Aside from NBC News, no other major media
outlet issued a projection for which candidate is expected to win the
West Virginia Democratic primary.
UPDATE: 8:13 p.m. EDT — Less
than 1 percent of voting precincts in West Virginia have reported their
results for the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary,
according to Politico. While ABC News reported Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders was enjoying a lead, citing exit polling data, Politico showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was actually ahead in terms of total votes in the state's contest.
Even still, NBC News projected Sanders as the
state primary's winner despite the media outlet showing that just 5
percent of the voting had been tallied. Aside from NBC and its
affiliated networks, no other media outlet was reporting their projected
winner of the Democratic contest.
UPDATE: 7:49 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders is holding a lead over Hillary Clinton in the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, according to exit polls
published by ABC News. Sanders was favored to win the contest but has a
ways to go before he can catch up with the former secretary of state’s
lead in terms of delegates.
UPDATE: 7:34 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in West Virginia,
according to media reports. Trump was all but unopposed, as Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich each suspended their presidential
campaigns last week.
UPDATE: 7:22 p.m. EDT — The
demographics of voters who cast ballots in Tuesday's West Virginia
presidential primary are becoming more apparent through a series of exit
polls published by ABC News.
The racial makeup of primary voters was 90
percent white, something that isn't a major indicator of anything
considering the state is made up of nearly 94 percent of white people.
One-third of the voters identified themselves as independents, something
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders calls himself despite running for the
Democratic nomination.
UPDATE: 7:12 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders on Tuesday was more than 2,600 miles away from West Virginia,
where voters have been taking to the polls all day casting ballots in
the state's Democratic presidential primary. The Vermont senator held a
rally there Tuesday afternoon, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
"We have an uphill battle to fight, but you know what? We've been in uphill battles all our lives," Sanders said in between chants of "Bernie, Bernie!" Sanders, who was predicted to win in West Virginia, trails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in California, according to Real Clear Politics.
Sanders stuck to his campaign's main message
of bringing attention to income inequality and the powers that he says
are responsible for the disproportionate distribution of wealth in the
U.S.
"We can create millions of jobs, transforming
our energy system away from fossil fuels and ... we are uniquely going
to tell Wall Street and the billionaire class yes they are going to
start paying their fair share of taxes," Sanders said during the Oakland
rally Tuesday. "So that is what the political revolution is about. It's
not about only the progressive agenda, it is the understanding that
real change never takes place unless millions of people stand up and
fight back."
UPDATE: 6:59 p.m. EDT — Hillary
Clinton is looking ahead to the general election in November and told
the crowd during a rally Tuesday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, "I
am looking forward to debating Donald Trump."
While those in attendance inside reportedly
responded with raucous applause at Clinton's stated intentions, plenty
of people were protesting outside of Louisville Slugger Field. In March,
Trump won the Kentucky Republican caucuses, edging Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who suspended his campaign last week following the Indiana primary.
UPDATE: 6:43 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders has a point when he contends he would fare better than his
rival former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a general election
against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, according to a well-known
pollster.
"I think he makes a very fair point, which is
that in these polls, our polls have shown it as well, that when you do a
head-to-head with Hillary Clinton versus the field or Bernie Sanders
versus the field, Bernie Sanders' numbers are uniformly higher than
Hillary Clinton," J. Ann Selzer told Bloomberg News Tuesday. "It certainly tells us that this is an electorate that is in a mood for a change."
National polling backs up Selzer's opinion.
According to Real Clear Politics polling,
Clinton would edge Trump in a general election by garnering more than
47 percent support from voters versus Trump's nearly 41 percent.
Sanders, in turn, would claim nearly 59 percent of the voting support
compared to Trump's nearly 39 percent, Real Clear Politics found.
UPDATE: 6:18 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump was being mocked Tuesday by a presidential candidate not named
Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, CNN reported. Former New Mexico Gov.
Gary Johnson, who is campaigning for the White House running on the
Libertarian Party’s ticket, called the Republican front-runner’s
commentary “ridiculous” and characterized himself as the leading
candidate when it comes to immigration.
"With regard to Trump, he's saying some things
that I just think are ridiculous and would disqualify any other
candidate," Johnson said during CNN’s “New Day” telecast.
Johnson has tried to emphasize his stance on
immigration — a topic that inspired Trump to propose building a wall
along the U.S. southern border with Mexico — should be a primary reason
why voters should consider him as a viable third-party candidate.
UPDATE: 6 p.m. EDT — Preliminary
exit poll data from West Virginia primary voters show that those who
went to the state's polls Tuesday are primarily concerned about the
country's economy, ABC News reported.
West Virginia's coal industry, a major employer in the state, is likely
causing worry for the more than 60 percent of voters Tuesday who said
the economy and employment are the most pressing issues.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stands to
benefit the most from this preliminary exit poll data, which could
change with more respondents as the primary goes on. His rival, former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said during a March town hall event
in West Virginia that she was “going to put a lot of coal miners and
coal companies out of business,” inciting the wrath of many in the state
who depend on the coal industry for their livelihood.
UPDATE: 5:47 p.m. EDT — A
"database error" is reportedly to blame for one of the nation's most
prominent white nationalists being named as a California delegate for
Donald Trump's campaign, according to a tweet from a Sacramento Bee
reporter.
William Johnson is in fact not a delegate for Trump, the billionaire's campaign said Tuesday, David Siders tweeted.
Trump has attracted the support of other white
nationalists, including David Duke. Other white nationalists have in
recent months begun congregating at Trump rallies, with one in
particular being caught on video shoving a black female protesting Trump's candidacy. The presumptive GOP nominee did not disavow Duke's support, but he did object to the former Ku Klux Klan leader's recent comments that Jews are the "reason why America is not great," a reference to Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America great again."
UPDATE: 5:28 p.m. EDT — Hillary
Clinton apparently has an unlikely ally: Blac Chyna. Who, you ask? The
socialite linked to the Kardashian clan debuted Tuesday her personalized
emojis, one of which shows her support for the former secretary of
state and Democratic front-runner presidential candidate, Refinery 29 reported.
In fact, the emoji, which features a red,
white and blue campaign-style with the names "Hillary" above the word
"Chyna," seems to imply Blac Chyna should be Clinton's running mate.
To see what the Clinton "ChyMoji" looks like, click here.
UPDATE: 4:59 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump has a short list of potential running mates, but he's not saying
who's on it. But the last standing Republican presidential candidate
provided several hints Tuesday by saying what type of vice president is
not needed, the Associated Press reported.
"We don't need another businessperson," Trump said, a clear reference to his own background in business that has made him a billionaire.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who suspended
his own presidential campaign in February, could very well end up being
on that short list, Trump conceded during the exclusive interview.
UPDATE: 4:42 p.m. EDT — U.S.
Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who recently ended his presidential
campaign, returned Tuesday to Capitol Hill. After telling one reporter
that, "It's good to be back," he told a gaggle of journalists waiting
for him outside his office that he has "no interest in a third-party
run."
Cruz made no mention of his purported plans to
potentially revive his presidential campaign, which he abruptly
suspended last week following a lopsided primary loss to Donald Trump in
Indiana.
After running a presidential campaign that
pitted the Texas senator against the so-called Republican establishment,
longtime politicians speculated that Cruz, a freshman in the Senate,
might be ostracized upon his return, Bloomberg News reported.
"I think a lot of people here will always
consider Ted an outsider," U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also a
former 2016 presidential candidate, said Monday.
It should be noted that Graham once joked about how to get away with murdering Cruz.
UPDATE: 4:20 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump’s campaign named one of the nation’s most prominent white
nationalists as a California delegate ahead of July's Republican
National Convention. Williams Johnson was accepted Monday by the
campaign after he submitted his application, Mother Jones reported. He and 168 other delegates will represent Trump in California.
"I, William Johnson, endorse Donald J. Trump
for the office of President of the United States. I pledge to cast ALL
of my ballots to elect Donald J. Trump on every round of balloting at
the 2016 Republican National Convention so that we can MAKE AMERICA
GREAT AGAIN!" he wrote in a pledge.
Johnson is the leader of the American Freedom
Party, a group that "exists to represent the political interests of
White Americans" and aims to preserve "the customs and heritage of the
European American people."
In the California Republican primary,
campaigns must provide a list of pledged delegates -- three from each of
California's 53 congressional districts plus 10 statewide
representatives --before the election.
UPDATE: 4:08 p.m. EDT — Sorry,
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Vice President Joe Biden predicts
Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States.
“I feel confident that Hillary will be the
nominee, and I feel confident she’ll be the next president,” Biden said
in an exclusive interview with ABC's “Good Morning America” co-anchor
Robin Roberts.
Biden has not endorsed Clinton but he has said in April he would “like to see a woman elected” president.
UPDATE: 3:54 p.m. EDT — Former
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is supporting Donald Trump because he wants a
conservative justice appointed to the Supreme Court. Perry, who once
called Trump a “barking carnival act,” said last week he would serve as
Trump’s vice president if asked.
"When you think about what's going to happen
over the next four years, and what has the possibility and probability
of impacting America for the next 40 or 50 years, it is the Supreme
Court," Perry told CNN's Chris Cuomo Tuesday on "New Day." "I'm a lot
more comfortable with Donald Trump choosing an individual that is going
to be on the Supreme Court that's going to impact policies my children
are going to be affected by than Hillary Clinton."
UPDATE: 3:40 p.m. EDT — What exactly does Donald Trump have to do to win Marco Rubio’s vote? Rubio isn’t saying.
Rubio, the Florida senator who dropped out of
the race for the Republican presidential nomination after fighting with
Trump over penis size, yes, penis size, said Tuesday during a foreign
policy discussion in Washington that he still isn’t backing the New York
business mogul.
"As I’ve said before, my policy differences
and reservations about Donald’s campaign are well-established. I’ve said
them often, and I stand by those. Those remain, and I hope they’ll be
addressed but those remain," Rubio said
when asked what Trump could say to signal that he could handle complex
foreign policy challenges. "That said, I don’t view myself as a guy
who’s going to sit here for the next six months taking shots at him.
People know where I stand. They know how I feel. They know what our
differences are."
UPDATE: 3:24 p.m. EDT — Heidi
Cruz on Tuesday compared her husband’s calls to reform Washington,
D.C., to the fight to end slavery, urging supporters to remain faithful, the Texas Tribune reported. Heidi Cruz spoke as her husband, Ted Cruz, said Tuesday he might re-enter the presidential race if he wins Nebraska.
“I don’t want you to feel like any of this was
in vain," Heidi Cruz said on a conference call with the campaign's
National Prayer Team. "I believe in the power of prayer. This doesn’t
always happen on the timing of man, and God does not work in four-year
segments."
"Be full of faith and so full of joy that this
team was chosen to fight a long battle," she continued. "Think about
slavery — it took 25 years to defeat slavery. That is a lot longer than
four years."
She explained her husband’s decision to exit
the race last week after Trump won the Indiana primary, calling her
husband's campaign "just the beginning."
"I want to assure all of you that this was not
a race we gave up," Heidi Cruz said. "This was a race that no longer
had a viable path to victory, and it would’ve been very demoralizing for
you all and the troops to go through nine states of losses. We left on a
high note. We left when there was no possible way that we were going to
win."
"We have changed the Republican Party," she
went out. "This is no longer about the establishment and the old way of
doing things versus the Constitution. This party is now being deceived,
but the old battles are behind us, the new ones are before us."
UPDATE: 2:57 p.m. EDT — After
dropping out of the presidential race, Ted Cruz said Tuesday he might
re-enter the contest if he wins Nebraska. But voters heading to the
polls Tuesday looking to back an outsider candidate have more choices
than just Donald Trump or Cruz. Libertarians have five presidential
candidates on the ballot: Marc Feldman, Gary Johnson, Steve Kerbel, John
McAfee and Austin Petersen. Nonpartisan voters cannot vote in Nebraska's presidential primary.
UPDATE: 2:45 p.m. EDT — The
folks at the Guardian have dreamed up what Donald Trump's victory
speech could sound like in November and their vision describes a humble,
reserved leader. Nah, just kidding. It's all about the Trump ego:
"What a turnout! They have 6,000 people
outside that can’t get in. The press will never report how many people
are here. They’re horrible people. Absolutely dishonest. Absolute
scum. I’ll be the greatest unifier of all!," Trump is predicted as
saying. "We’re being laughed at all over the world. So our country needs
a truly great leader. I’m going to represent our country with dignity
very, very well. I’m a solid, stable person. I’m a man of great
achievement. I went to an Ivy League school. I’m like a really smart
person."
UPDATE: 2:25 p.m. EDT — Fox
News anchor Megyn Kelly says she spent the past year behind security
guards and closed blinds because “of being in Trump's crosshairs.”
Kelly discussed her feud with Donald Trump in
an Associated Press article published Tuesday where she promoted her new
show “Megyn Kelly Presents.” Kelly is also promoting an interview with
Trump that will air during a prime-time special on the Fox broadcasting
network this month.
"I am looking to move beyond the acrimony on his end," Kelly told the AP. "It has never been on my end."
Read the AP's interview here.
UPDATE: 2:03 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump is the most talked-about presidential candidate on Twitter.
The presumptive Republican nominee has dominated the national
conversation from the first full week of September 2015 until the end of
last week, according to an analysis released Tuesday by Twitter.
Trump is a big fan of the social media site.
Since he started tweeting in 2009, he has amassed more than 7.5 million
followers and tweeted more than 31,000 times.
UPDATE: 1:45 p.m. EDT — As GOP
lawmakers demanded answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over
allegations that the social media site’s trending news feature censors
conservative news topics, the Hill reported Tuesday that Facebook
employees are overwhelmingly backing Hillary Clinton this election cycle
when it comes to campaign donations.
Clinton picked up $114,000 from Facebook
workers. A distant second was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out
of the race after getting $16,604 in campaign donations from Facebook
employees. The Hill based its reporting on itemized contributions
through the end of March reported to the Federal Election Commission.
That doesn't necessarily mean Clinton is the
top candidate at the social network. Candidates only have to report
contributions greater than $200. That's why Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders,
who has collected most of his contributions from small donors, might
not be reflected in the Hill's Facebook tally.
Facebook said Monday it “found no evidence
that the anonymous allegations are true" after Gizmodo reported that the
site's human curators had omitted stories from conservative news
outlets.
UPDATE: 1:20 p.m. EDT — Republican
Donald Trump once told radio shock jock Howard Stern he could have
“nailed” Princess Diana. When asked by Playboy magazine in 2004 about
Viagra, Trump boasted: “I just have never needed it.” “I’m just lucky,”
he said.
With Trump expected to win the GOP
presidential nomination, the Washington Post asked the Donald about his
long history of making crass, vulgar or sexist remarks. Trump largely
refused to apologize for any previous comments in an interview published
Tuesday, explaining that he is now in a different place.
“I never anticipated running for office or
being a politician, so I could have fun with Howard on the radio and
everyone would love it. People do love it,” Trump told the Washington Post. “I could say whatever I wanted when I was an entrepreneur, a business guy.”
Trump said the media coverage of his sexual
antics were “overblown," but that he would have been more reserved if he
had known he would eventually be running for office. “Or I wouldn’t
have gone on the show because that is the easier way of doing it,” Trump
said.
UPDATE: 12:52 p.m. EDT — Some
Bernie Sanders voters have said they won’t vote for Hillary Clinton in
November, even against Donald Trump. But that could change if the
Vermont senator backs his rival.
Sanders will likely end up endorsing Clinton
in the November general election because she is the best candidate to
champion his push for a higher minimum wage and accessible health care,
Matthew Yglesias wrote for Vox Tuesday.
“On virtually every issue, Sanders has
promised to go further than Clinton has in the same direction. Which is
another way of saying that implementing Clinton's agenda would be a way
of moving closer to Sanders's goals — so in pursuit of his goals, he's
going to want to put her in the White House,” the article theorizes.
UPDATE: 12:35 p.m. EDT — Ted Cruz said Tuesday
he could relaunch his presidential campaign if he wins Nebraska’s GOP
primary. Cruz, who refused to endorse Donald Trump for president, said
he is still weighing options in the 2016 race.
"We launched this campaign intending to win.
The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I
felt there was no path to victory," he said on Glenn Beck's radio
program. "If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly."
Cruz said it was too soon to come out in
support of Trump. "This is a choice every voter is going to have to
make. I would note, it’s not a choice we as a voters have to make
today," Cruz said when asked about a potential endorsement.
It's unclear what makes Cruz think he has a
shot when Tuesday's election results are announced. Long before Cruz and
Ohio Gov. John Kasich exited the 2016 race last week, Trump was
performing strong in Nebraska, outpolling Cruz and Kasich 61 percent to
22 and 14 percent respectively.
UPDATE: 12:20 p.m. EDT — Hillary
Clinton is the most popular American presidential candidate in Germany,
France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Mexico and Brazil. But northern
neighbor Canada just isn’t too jazzed about the former secretary of
state. About 31 percent of Canadians said they would vote for Bernie
Sanders, who’s been called the American Justin Trudeau by Canadian
press. Clinton would still get 29 percent of the vote, Quartz reported Tuesday.
UPDATE: 12:02 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders is heading to South Dakota Thursday in the latest sign he has
no plans to slow down his longshot campaign against Hillary Clinton.
Sanders will host rallies at a school and a park in Pine Ridge and Rapid
City. South Dakota’s primary is June 7.
UPDATE: 11:50 a.m. EDT — Ted
Cruz has exited the 2016 race, but that doesn’t mean he is ready to
fully give his support to Donald Trump. In Kansas, Cruz is refusing to
release his delegates so that they can stand with Trump.
Kansas GOP bylaws require delegates stick
with the winning candidate until the candidate expressly releases them.
Cruz won the state in March in an upset victory after polls showed him
trailing behind Trump. The National Review reported Monday that Cruz
sent a letter to the Kansas GOP that made it clear he does not plan to
release his delegates.
“Although I have suspended my campaign for
the Republican nomination for President of the United States, I do not
release any Republican National Convention delegates bound to me as a
result of the 2016 delegate selection process that took place in your
state. The delegates remain bound to cast their ballots at the RNC
according to the rules of the Convention and the rules of your state
party,” he said. “I
encourage all delegates who supported my campaign — and who support a
constitutional conservative agenda that will grow jobs , protect our
freedoms, and ensure our security — to actively participate in shaping
the party platform and rules n a manner that will ensure our cause is
advanced.”
UPDATE: 11:32 a.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders' plan to raise taxes and give voters government-run
healthcare, free undergraduate college, enhanced Social Security
and family and medical leave would cost $18 trillion, creating enough
federal debt to hurt the economy, according to a tax analysis released
Monday.
The joint analysis released by the nonpartisan
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the Urban Institute Health Policy
Center, well-known Washington think tanks, found the cost of Sanders'
healthcare plan alone would exceed $30 trillion. For comparison, the
current total government debt is $19 trillion.
"The dramatic increase in government borrowing
would crowd out private investment, raise interest rates, further
increase government borrowing costs and retard economic growth," the analysis concluded.
Sanders has said he would raise taxes by more than $15 trillion over 10 years to pay for his programs.
UPDATE: 11:15 a.m. EDT — The
West Virginia Democratic primary is unfolding at a time when the
state's many coal workers have seen natural gas production drive down
prices and encourage a switch from coal to natural gas. Coal made up
about half of the country’s electricity generation a decade ago, but
that has since dropped to one-third, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
“A lot of people I know are laid off, and you
know that had to hurt the people,” Janet White, 80, a librarian whose
husband was a coal miner, told the Times.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton
infuriated many West Virginia voters when she said while
discussing clean energy at a forum in March, “We’re going to put a lot
of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
UPDATE: 10:55 a.m. EDT — Some voters really don’t
like presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Ahead of primary
voting in Nebraska and West Virginia, a new poll conducted by Public
Policy Polling shows that 61 percent of voters viewed root canals and
jury duty more favorably than the New York business mogul. When asked, "What do you have a higher opinion of, Donald Trump or lice?" Some 54 percent of respondents answered "lice."
"Much has been made of Trump's unpopularity
over the course of this campaign, and certainly we find that to be the
case too — only 34 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of him to
61 percent who have an unfavorable one. But we decided to take it a step
further in finding out just how much people dislike Trump, by matching
him in a series of heads to heads with things such as root canals,
cockroaches, and even hipsters to see who voters had a higher opinion
of," the poll noted.
The poll released Tuesday surveyed 1,222 registered voters from May 6-9 with a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.
UPDATE: 10:40 a.m. EDT — With
the Democratic and Republican primary seeming like a sure thing for
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, voter turnout was light Tuesday at
polling sites in Omaha. About five people waited for poll workers to
open up at 8 a.m. at McMahon Hall. At Bethany Lutheran Church, only 15
people had cast ballots by 8:15 a.m. At the Gretna Community Church,
there were no lines, local media reported.
UPDATE: 10:18 a.m. EDT — Donald
Trump is unfazed by the growing number of Republican leaders who say
they don't want to be his vice president. "It is only the people that
were never asked to be vp who tell the press that they will not take the
position," Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
Former GOP presidential candidate Marco
Rubio wrote a Facebook post Monday that said he was still concerned
about Trump’s campaign and policies. "He will be best served by a
running mate and by surrogates who fully embrace his campaign. As such, I
have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for
Vice President. Instead, I will focus my attention on representing the
people of Florida, retaining a conservative majority in the Senate and
electing principled conservatives across the country," Rubio wrote.
Another former rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich,
has also said he doesn't want the gig. "Never," Kasich spokesman Chris
Schrimpf told The New York Times. "No chance."
Other Republicans have said no, including New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
UPDATE: 10:01 a.m. EDT — Former
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear endorsed Democratic front-runner Hillary
Clinton Tuesday for president a week before the state's May 17 primary
election. Beshear cited Clinton's support for health care rights as a
main reason for this endorsement, local media reported.
"In this time of division and derision, we
need a calm, sensible and experienced hand leading this nation. Hillary
Clinton is that leader, and I enthusiastically endorse her to be
president of these United States," Beshear said.
Clinton was expected to give a major policy speech in Kentucky Tuesday on child care costs.
UPDATE: 9:30 a.m. EDT — Donald
Trump and Hillary Clinton are locked in a tight match in the swing
states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac
University survey released Tuesday. The candidates are tied overall,
but voters are largely split along gender, race and age.
In Florida, Clinton is ahead of Trump 43
percent to 42 percent, but holds a 13-point advantage among women. Trump
wins with men at 49 percent to 36 percent.
In Ohio, registered voters favor Trump
over Clinton, 43 percent to 39 percent, with 49 percent to 32 percent of
white voters going for the Republican candidate. Older voters also
backed Trump.
In Pennsylvania, Clinton leads 43 percent to 42 percent and holds a 7-point lead among voters under 35 years old.
UPDATE: 9:01 a.m. EDT — The
co-founder of PayPal is backing Donald Trump's race for the White
House. Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel appears on a list
of Donald Trump delegates filed with the California Secretary of State,
CNBC reported Tuesday.
Thiel backed Ron Paul's 2008 and 2012 presidential bids, and Ted
Cruz's Senate race in Texas, according to Federal Election Commission
reports.
UPDATE: 8:20 a.m. EDT — Hillary
Clinton is courting mothers Tuesday by announcing an ambitious agenda
to cover some of the cost of high-quality child care for all working
parents. Clinton will give a speech in Kentucky to unveil the plan, The Huffington Post reported. The plan will also demand higher pay for child-care workers to improve retention.
Original story:
Voters in West Virginia and Nebraska head to
the polls Tuesday to weigh in on the 2016 presidential race. However,
with billionaire businessman Donald Trump having basically locked up the
Republican nomination and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton having a big lead over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in
terms of Democratic convention delegates, the election results may not
resonate much beyond the borders of those two states.
Despite the apparently low stakes, Americans
might want to pay attention to the Democratic primary election in West
Virginia to see whether Sanders can gather more fuel in his attempt to
achieve a brokered convention. And they might want to see whether GOP
voters in West Virginia and Nebraska bother to turn out to vote and how
many of them cast their ballots for Trump or for somebody else, given
that their presumptive nominee’s march to the White House has
scandalized party leaders and prompted speculation about whether a
third-party candidate could emerge at the last minute.
Political junkies are closely watching whether Republican leaders who
have so far refused to back The Donald, such as House of Representatives
Speaker Paul Ryan, will ultimately fall in step with the plurarity of
primary season voters who have backed Trump.
“I think people are pretty well — how would
you say? — pretty much resigned to the fact that Trump is going to be
the nominee,” Paul Landow, an assistant professor of political science
at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, told the Omaha World-Herald.
“I think for many Nebraskans, that’s not such a bad thing. He’s
conservative, and he appears to have a possibility of winning. And while
he may not have been their first choice, they will unite behind him.”
Trump has 1,068 of the 1,237 delegates required
to win the GOP nomination. The candidate told voters in West Virginia
this month that the race was over after his last two remaining rivals —
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — dropped
out. “What I want you to do is save your vote, you know, you don’t have
to vote anymore. Save your vote for the general election, OK? Forget
this one. The primary is gone,” Trump said.
“Save your vote for the general election in November, and we’re going
to show you something, and then you’re going to show me something, OK?”
However, political leaders in West Virginia
and Nebraska said voters should still get a say. “This was one of the
longest primaries in the history of our country, and Nebraska still
didn’t have a voice,” state Sen. John Murante told the Associated Press.
“We had such excitement for the presidential race — and just when we
had the opportunity to have our moment in the sun, the race ended.”
The presidential-nomination race is far less
settled on the Democratic side. Sanders faces an almost-impossible path
to the party’s nomination based on the remaining pledged delegates at
stake this primary season, but opinion polls
show West Virginia could support him, providing further fuel to his
grassroots campaign that has engaged millions of largely young and
white voters across the country who are angry about the economy and
Washington politics. Sanders bested Clinton at the Nebraska caucuses in
March, as he secured 15 delegates and she secured 10. A number of other
states voting this month and next month could also fall into Sanders’
column.
“We’re going to stay in until the last vote is
counted, and that will be in the [June 14] primary in Washington,
D.C.,” Sanders said in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep last
week. “We’re going to fight in West Virginia. I think we’ve got a shot
to win there — we’ve got a good shot to win in Oregon, and I think we’ve
got a good shot to win in some other states ... We’re in this race till
the last vote is counted.”
Clinton has struggled to win over voters in
West Virginia, including once-fervent supporters of her husband, former
President Bill Clinton, especially after she commented during a March
town hall that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal
companies out of business.” Clinton has since apologized for her remark.
Christopher Regan, the West Virginia Democratic Party vice chairman who has endorsed Sanders, told Politico the senator will do best among college students across the state.
“Huntington and Cabell County where Marshall
[University] is. There’s also Morgantown for WVU [West Virginia
University],” Regan said. “But I honestly think his support will be
broad and deep in West Virginia. I’m confident that he will find that he
has a great deal of support here ... I think this is Bernie country.”
Because the Nebraska Democrats conducted their
caucuses in March, Clinton and Sanders will be featured on a primary
ballot only because it is required by state law, but this beauty contest
will not have an effect on their respective delegate counts.
Clinton has largely brushed off Sanders’
attacks on her campaign in recent weeks, setting her sights on defeating
Trump in the November general election. As of Monday, Clinton was just
154 delegates short of the 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination,
while Sanders had to find 928 more delegates to secure it, according to
RealClearPolitics.
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