Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won the Kansas and Maine GOP caucuses, notching decisive victories over Donald Trump. But the real estate mogul is the projected winner over Cruz in Louisiana and Kentucky, according to the Associated Press.
In the Democratic race, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to win the Kansas and Nebraska caucuses, according to the AP, while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the projected winner in the Louisiana primary.
On the GOP side, both Kansas and Maine are important pickups for Cruz. He beat Trump in the closed caucuses, where only registered Republicans could vote. But Trump could still net the most delegates of the night with a big win in Louisiana.
Trump made a last-minute stop in Kansas this morning, canceling a planned appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in favor of a rally in Wichita. Cruz also campaigned there his week.
In Kansas, where there was record GOP turnout, Cruz beat Trump by more than a two-to-one margin, 48 percent to 23 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was third with almost 17 percent, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich barely cleared the threshold to get delegates with just over 10 percent over the vote.
According to the state GOP chairman, Cruz got a big win in Maine as well, taking 45.84 percent of the vote to Trump's 32.55 percent. Kasich was third with 12.17 percent and Rubio too 8 percent.
Trump had campaigned in Maine this week as well and hoped to have a strong showing, touting his endorsement from Maine Gov. Paul LePage. But Cruz also stumped in the state on Friday, and the more favorable closed GOP caucus format appears to have played to Cruz's strengths.
Polls had predicted Trump would get a big win in Louisiana, and early returns showed him with a 20 point lead over Cruz.
Cruz did get another big win at CPAC's annual straw poll, winning 40 percent of the votes, followed by Rubio at 30 percent and Trump with just 15 percent.
Speaking from Idaho, where he's campaigning ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday, Cruz told the crowd, "The scream you hear, the howl that comes from Washington, D.C., is utter terror at what we the people are doing together."
Among Democrats, Sanders got a boost from wins in Kansas and Nebraska, adding to his wins in the region this past Super Tuesday in Colorado, Minnesota and Oklahoma. Clinton is poised to win big though in Louisiana, where the state's electorate was expected to be heavily African-American. It continues a pattern of Clinton winning big in the South and in states with diverse electorates, while Sanders wins in less diverse, more heavily white states.
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