Why is Cruz Kansas’ hope and why wasn’t he killing in the polls?
Kansas reports are final. Cruz won 48% of the vote, and 26 delegates, Trump 11, Rubio 3. So he narrows Trump’s delegate lead, but not enough to make any real difference.
Right now I’m hoping the Blue Moon of Kentucky DON’T keep shinin’. Trumpy just gained 1,000 votes. :smack:
I think the more interesting question is why was Cruz losing in the polls just 48 hours ago, yet emerged (clearly) victorious today? What changed? (Or did, in fact, nothing change?)
The urban areas of Kentucky haven’t reported yet. Louisville, Lexington/Frankfurt, suburbs of Cincinnati. I’ve got to say, I think they’ll go for Trump. I’d give him Kentucky right now.
Maine is stalled out again, this time at 9% reporting.
The Green Papers are saying that Cruz will pick up 24 delegates from Kansas, Trump 9, Rubio 6, Kasich 1.
It’s beginning to look that way. Rubio will likely drop out if and when he loses Florida, which by current polling seems likely. Kasich may as well drop out now. And it will be down to a two-way race between, literally, two crazies. Just amazing!
Trump is catching up in Maine but at 9% reporting Cruz still has a substantial margin.
OK. I’m reporting via CNN. If somebody else has better information, I have no problem with that.
And on research, I now see that CNN has changed their count. So much for me being a reliable source.
And Trump wins.
A majority, or a plurality?
The imperial power of the Republican leadership. They commanded: Don’t vote for Trump! So, they didn’t.
With only one opponent, I expect he’ll get a majority. Sure, some of the votes that would have accrued to Rubio and Kasich will go to Cruz, but some will go to Trump, and some will stay home.
With 24% reporting in Kentucky, Trump’s up by 42-31.
(Google ‘Kentucky caucus’ and the numbers pop up, sourced to AP.)
CNN is calling Kansas for Sanders, with 0% of the vote in.
It looks like Kasich might beat Rubio in Maine and Kentucky. That’s not good at all for Rubio.
Apparently the people of Maine have forgotten how to count. I blame Smoothie, D-Money, and Shifty.
If you google “gop primary” you’ll get a window for both GOP and Democratic party primaries with all states listed as drop down windows; all sourced from the AP.
I don’t know about the straw poll but CPAC is a Big Deal with conservatives, and not showing up for his scheduled speech probably hurt Trump. The denouncement by Romney and then not showing up for CPAC were connected and no doubt affected tonight’s outcome to some extent.
Be careful what you wish for! Cruz may be insane but he’s a lot shrewder and more electable than Trump.
Feel the Kasichmentum! 
I wouldn’t make much of anyone’s lead in Maine until more results come in. The percentages look nontrivial, but then you look at the numbers with 9% reporting: Cruz leads Trump by 230 votes, and Kasich leads Rubio by 118 votes. It wouldn’t take much of a swing to wipe out either of those leads.
Good point. I’d forgotten that Maine is mostly populated by wolves.