News

Actions

Clinton wins big on 'Do or Die Tuesday'

Posted at 7:22 PM, Mar 15, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-16 02:19:02-04

After taking a few hits in an upset loss in Michigan, Hillary Clinton got on track Tuesday with wins in all five states holding primaries: Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri.

Last week, Bernie Sanders pulled off a stunning upset in Michigan, beating Clinton by the slimmest of margins and taking 67 of the state's 127 delegates. However, Clinton took a resounding win in the Sunshine State before emerging victorious all around.

Clinton addressed supporters after victories in the first three states were announced, igniting cheers as she opened with "I’ll tell ya, this is another Super Tuesday for our campaign." "Thank you Florida, thank you North Carolina and thank you Ohio" she said, adding, "We are moving closer to securing the democratic nomination and winning this election in November."

Clinton noted that her campaign has secured more votes than any other candidate -- Democratic or Republican. She also urged supporters to "please join the 950,000 supporters who have already donated" to her campaign (below is a graphic of Clinton's top contributing states, as of January 31). 

The Democratic front-runner reiterated some main focuses of her campaign, such as gun violence, before making closing remarks. 

"I’ve never had more faith in our future," she said, "and if we work together, if we go forward with this campaign, if we win this campaign, I know our future will be brighter tomorrow than it was yesterday.”

Coming in to Tuesday, Sanders trailed the former First Lady by a significant margin in the delegate count, 1,235-580. All indications pointed toward it being a rough night for the Vermont senator, and that proved to be the case.

The Democratic socialist also addressed supporters with a speech that gave on a different tone -- one of irritation, as he discussed his alleged issues with democracy and a rigged economy in America.

“You know what we’re going to do together?” Sanders addressed the crowd. “We’re gonna create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.”

Discussing democracy, Sanders said, "If you don't want to vote for me, that's fine." He added, "What I do not want to see is billionaires spending millions of sums of money, buying elections and undermining the democracy which has made our country so great."

Sanders added that if he is elected in November, the U.S. will move to public funding of elections.

Sanders then addressed the “cowardly Republican governors that are trying to suppress the vote.” He added, “And I say to those cowardly Republican governors, if you are afraid of a free and fair election, get out politics -- get another job.”
 
The statement ignited cheers from the audience, which began chanting “Bernie” repeatedly.
 
Sanders tackled a number of other topics during his lengthy speech, including social security, increasing taxes for the wealthy, abortion, youth unemployment, universal healthcare, college tuition and the criminal justice system.
 
"We should not spend $80 billion locking up millions of Americans," he said, noting that there's a disproportionate percentage of African Americans and Latinos behind bars.
 
Sanders wrapped up his speech by stating, “If we stand together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish." He added, "Next week, Arizona has a very important election.  We will win if the voter turnout is high; let’s make it high!”
 
Missouri was the last state to be called early Wednesday morning, with Clinton trialing sander until just the very end, when she moved ahead by less than one percentage point and took the state.
 
A total of 691 delegates were at stake on Tuesday.

To see what else you missed in "Do or Die Tuesday," click here.