For Donald Trump the road could to the 2016 GOP presidential nomination could smooth sailing if he can pull off a win in both Florida and Ohio the race is all but over. He will likely do well in North Carolina, Illinois and maybe Missouri.
By the end of the night he could win three or four states and getting closer to the 1,237 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination and tonight there is more delegates up for grabs than any other night on the campaign season.
Trump will crush Sen. Marco Rubio, today in his home state of Florida, winning by between 10 percent on the low side or as many as 20 percent on the high side. The winner take all 99 delegates will go to Trump and likely end Rubio’s campaign.
In Ohio Gov. John Kasich needs to hold serve in his home state where in another winner take all state where 66 delegates are on the line. Trump and Kasich are within three to four points of each other in all of the polls leading into today’s race.
The state of Illinois the two-person race between Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz should be interesting on a couple of levels. Cruz targeted a number of conservative congressional districts with the hopes of keeping the race close and peeling off some delegates keeping Trump from sweeping the 69 delegates in Illinois where it is not a winner not all take all state.
Trump is up big in North Carolina and he will pick up most if not all 72 delegates, with Cruz hoping to grab some of the evangelical voters in the state. This should be a win in the Trump column and if Cruz can keep him under 40 percent then he will pick off some delegates.
The only place where Cruz likely to pick up a win is in Missouri where the demographics are in line with the states where the Texas senator has won. A Trump win would be actually being an upset only because Cruz is thought to be strong in the show me state where there are 52 delegates are up for grabs in another non-winner take all state.
Look for the Trump to have a good Tuesday night, Kasich gets a small margin win in Ohio and Cruz wins close in Missouri.