As I pointed out previously, a Trump victory in two of the three large states today, Florida, Ohio, and Missouri, pretty much guarantees him the nomination… barring the RNC overturning the entire primary process:
New state polls released ahead of critical primaries on Tuesday find Donald Trump poised to deliver a knockout blow to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in his home state, while the Republican front-runner is tied with Ohio Gov. John Kasich on his turf.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by a wide margin in Florida, while her advantage over Sanders in Ohio is narrower.
According to the new polling from Quinnipiac University published Monday, Trump has a wide lead on the Republican field in Florida, where he tops Rubio 46% to 22%. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz follows in third place with 14% support, with Kasich in last at 10%.
The new results mirror CNN’s poll of polls in Florida, where Trump leads Rubio at an average of 40% to 26%. Despite Rubio’s public optimism, the new poll suggests Florida — where Rubio has staked his campaign’s future — might serve as a humbling barrier for his White House bid.
On the GOP side in Ohio, the new poll shows Trump and Kasich are tied at 38% each. Cruz places third with the support of 16% of Ohio Republicans, while Rubio finishes a distant fourth at 3% — after his campaign told supporters to back Kasich in Ohio, as part of a strategic effort to prevent Trump from padding his delegate lead there.
Meanwhile, Rubio supporters on Twitter have been going berserk all weekend talking about the very small sampling of early voters favoring Rubio. I wouldn’t put any stock in that, considering the same people have been predicting electoral failure for Trump since before the primaries started.
Regardless, we’ll find out soon enough.