Western State Primaries and Caucuses on March 22

Western Vacation State Primaries and Caucuses – March 22

Arizona and Utah are my favorite summer vacation states, along with Hawaii, Alaska, and of course, California.

Republican Primaries

Republicans have primaries in Arizona with 58 delegates and in Utah with 40 delegates. Arizona’s delegates are winner-take-all (WTA). Utah’s delegates can be winner-take-all if a candidate gets more than 50%.

The long lines in Phoenix, Arizona, may be a reflection of this Republican state making it difficult for urbanites to vote, since they tend to vote liberal. Trump has, with about 47%, and instead of getting a proportional 27 delegates as in a Democratic primary, he gets all 58, giving him an extra unearned 31 delegates to to boost him to this final nomination. Illegal immigration was a major issue in the state.

In Arizona, Ted Cruz only got 25%, with John Kasich at 10%. As you will notice, 18% of the vote is distributed elsewhere, mainly to Marco Rubio. About 30% of voters voted early or by absentee ballot, before Rubio dropped out. Trump still has trouble getting over 50%, but in Arizona it did not matter.

Ted Cruz won Utah with 69%, allows him to be winner-take-all of Utah’s 40 delegates. Kasich has 17%, and Trump is unusually third with 14%.

Utah initiated online voting, and it met problems with people forgetting their password and following the procedure.

The Republican total is Trump with 739, Cruz with 465, Kasich with 143, and Rubio with 166.  There are 848 delegates yet to be chosen, 1237 needed to win.  That means that Trump is short by 498.  498 out of the remaining 848 is 59%, but there are still several winner-take-all states that can help close the gap.

Democratic Primary and Caucuses

Arizona has been called for winning by Hillary Clinton. But the 75 delegates will be split proportionately. Hillary has won the state by 58% to 40%.  Clinton received 44 delegates, and Sanders got 30.

There is an unexpected turnout for the Idaho Democratic caucus, leading to long lines with a considerable time delay. Maybe it is time to update to a primary.

Utah also had long lines, with people standing outside in the cold.

Sanders has swept Utah’s 37 with 79% to Clinton’s 20%.  He received 26 delegates to Clinton’s 6.

Sanders has also won Idaho with 78% to Clinton’s 21%, receiving 17 delegates to Clinton’s 5.

For the day, Sanders won 73, and Clinton won 55.

In the Democratic total, Clinton has 1223 won delegates, and 467 super delegates.

Sanders has 920 won delegates, and only 26 super delegates.

Clinton’s total is then 1690 to Sanders’ 946.  There are 2245 delegates left, and 2383 is needed to win.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in 2016 Primaries, Politics and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply