Donald Trump won the Vermont Republican primary Tuesday, broadening his sweep of the states that held their contests on Super Tuesday.
But John Kasich was surprisingly competitive in the state. The Ohio governor had focused on the smaller state with moderate Republicans as a potential opportunity.
Vermont had the fewest delegates to offer of the 12 states that held Republican primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday.
A lightly-polled state given its modest share of delegates, Vermont had not been surveyed since early February, according to RealClearPolitics, which tracks polls.
The lone Castleton University poll placed Trump 15 points ahead of his closest rival, Rubio, and 19 points ahead of Cruz.
Few candidates in either party paid much attention to Vermont in the run-up to Super Tuesday.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders was long expected to dominate in his home state. Hillary Clinton was happy to cede it to him given her projected string of victories in most of the other Super Tuesday contests.
On the Republican side, Trump held a rally in Vermont in early January, where he made headlines for turning away attendees who were not professed supporters of his campaign.
Kasich also held at least one event in Vermont after heading there the day of the Republican primary in South Carolina. The Ohio governor finished fifth in the Palmetto State with just 7.6 percent of the vote, trailing Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the race after his disappointing fourth-place finish. But his second place showing in New Hampshire was the first sign he was going to be unusually strong in New England.
But for the most part, Republican candidates focused their energies in the South, pouring the bulk of their resources into delegate-rich states like Georgia and Texas.
