Donald Trump turned back a strong challenge from Marco Rubio to win the Virginia primary Tuesday night.
Going into the primary, Trump had a big lead. Rubio’s late surge was a surprise.
The Rubio campaign aggressively courted voters in the D.C. suburbs in the months leading up to the primary in an attempt to win the votes of establishment Republicans. Since these are the more heavily populated areas of the state, the Florida senator was able to capture a large amount of delegates from the region.
In recent days the business mogul received a slew of bad press for failing to disavow the Klu Klux Klan and David Duke. Because of this numerous prominent Republican politicians and other candidates have disavowed Trump, claiming they will not support him in a general election.
But, some Republicans stood by the anti-establishment candidate throughout the media crisis. At a John Kasich event in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday former House Speaker New Gingrich told the Washington Examiner that he believes Trump will win “an overwhelming majority” on Super Tuesday and despite his KKK comments he pledges support Trump if he wins the primary.
“I believe when you’re faced with a choice between Clinton corruption appointing radical judges and disastrous foreign policy, it’s very hard for any serious Republican to say they’re not supporting the nominee,” Gingrich said.
Democratic politicians supporting Clinton were clearly interested by the rise of Rubio in Virginia.
“It shows that there is a deep dissatisfaction and frustration. It worries me when we see candidates like Trump that clearly don’t represent the party,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner told the Washington Examiner just minutes after Trump’s victory in his state. The senator was attending a private Clinton event with Virginia politicians and donors to watch Super Tuesday poll returns.
Governor Terry McAuliffe has spent the past months campaigning for Clinton across his state and warning voters of the evils of Donald Trump, but also boasting how Clinton would easily beat him in a general election. At the Clinton event he said that the rhetoric on the GOP campaign trail lately has been both “insulting” and “disgraceful.”
“I’m not the best one to tell you about the Republican voters,” McAuliffe told the Washington Examiner, shaking his head as he heard Trump was in a tight race with Rubio. He added, “Well I think Donald Trump felt very comfortable about winning Virginia we’ll see what happens if he wins at the end of the day. I think Trump is probably going to run up some victories. I think it’d be very hard to stop Donald Trump as the nominee right now.”
Trump is expected to do well across the country as the results continue to pour in.
