Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s resounding victories in Kansas and Maine on Saturday have helped him close the delegate gap with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
The “Super Saturday” vote in four states was a resounding success for Cruz, who carried both Kansas and Maine with nearly 50% of the vote, and narrowly lost to Trump in Louisiana and Kentucky by only three and four points respectively.
In the delegate count, Cruz picked up 64 to Trump’s 49, bringing the total delegate figures to a near tie, with Trump ahead 378 since the February 1st Iowa caucus compared to Cruz’s 295.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio had perhaps his weakest night of the primary season, failing to reach second in even a single state and falling to a humiliating fourth place in Maine with only 8%. Rubio picked up a mere 13 delegates, falling behind even further in the race to 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
With roughly a third of delegates already allotted, there is little room for Rubio to plot a course to the nomination short of a brokered convention.
Rubio’s poor showing came despite borrowing some of Trump’s tactics in a series of blistering attacks on the frontrunner, mocking everything from his appearance to the size of his hands. In light of Saturday’s results, only Cruz appears to have benefited from the Rubio-Trump debacle.