Ohio Primary Reveals John Kasich and Hillary Clinton to Be Winners

The Ohio Primary on March 15, 2016, is over, and CNN’s exit polls proved to be extremely tight. Ohio Governor John Kasich was ultimately declared as the winner. Ohio was reported to be a decisive state, along with Florida. For the GOP nominees, according to the exit polls reported by CNN, Donald Trump was expected to win both of those state’s delegates. This was expected despite the fact that Ohio is Kasich’s home state, and Marco Rubio was as confident in his own state of Florida.

However, Trump won the state of Florida, with 45 percent of the vote, and Rubio trailed behind by 27 percent. This crushing loss ultimately caused him to drop out of the presidential race during his Florida concession speech. For Ohio voters, according to a CNN exit poll, 57 percent of them felt betrayed by the GOP, which might have led to the close race between Trump and Kasich.

Throughout the early voter exit polls, Trump, the winner of the Florida primary, kept edging out Kasich by a small margin of 2-5 percent, but Kasich wound up leading and carrying a 43.4 percent lead. Trump was close behind with 34.4 percent of the vote. This was an important win for Kasich, as it halted Trump from reaching the number of delegates (1,237) needed before the Republican convention. Kasich won 57 percent of the moderate GOP voters, and 57 percent of voters declared that they wanted an insider in politics. Kasich called CNN to give an optimistic interview, calling himself the “underdog, and the little engine that can.” Despite the fact that he needs more than 1000 delegates, he remains optimistic.

As for the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton led in Ohio with 67.8 percent of the vote. For Democrats, in every other state except Ohio, there was a majority desire to see the next president continue Barack Obama’s policies. Ohio is her third win today, as she already won Florida and North Carolina. Bernie Sanders was behind her with 34 percent of the vote in Ohio.

By Juanita Lewis
Edited by Cathy Milne

Sources:

CNN: Super Tuesday 3 exit polls: Economic worries, feeling of GOP betrayal dominate
Al Jazeera America: John Kasich and Donald Trump in tight Ohio primary race
Reuters: Ohio, Florida could pave way to presidential nomination for Trump
NewsMax: CNN Exit Polls: GOP Voters Feel Betrayed in Ohio, NC

Image Courtesy of Jeff Kubina’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License