our viewers in the united states and around the world, the first projection of the night, ted cruz is the winner of the republican presidential caucuses in kansas. take a look at the actual numbers, 56% of the vote is in, a very impressive win for ted cruz over donald trump, 51% to only 24.2% for trump. 14.4% for marco rubio. john kasich only at 9%. if he doesn't get 10%, by the way, he won't make the threshold, get any delegates from the state of kansas. ted cruz is the winner in the state of kansas. chris, that's the first of several projections coming up in the next few hours. >> and you showed us ted cruz giving his acknowledgement to the good people saying god bless

caps cannes, god bless idaho where he was and also god bless maine, at least for now, with the early returns having him up. so how big a deal is this, smerconish, when we look at ted cruz winning and winning over 50%? >> i want to float a theory. i want to be the first to get in on this. could it be that donald's hands have come back to haunt him? may that have been a break point? might that have just been a bit much? despite the fact that rubio despite a lot of establishment marquee support in kansas, thus far not a good day. it was the two of them that got into the hand debate. i wonder if it's come bag to haunt him. >> ted cruz wanted to be the adult in the room, his people i mailing with him, he think the debate mattered and gave him momentum. i think the overarching question for ted cruz is if he can become what rick santorum wanted to be by the end of the contest. and rick santorum wanted to be the person who could be sort of a blue collar moralist.

>> how did he do in kansas? >> he won kansas. >> what percentage of the vote in 50%. very similar to what we're seeing with cruz. >> but more importantly, in michigan, he won i think 37% of the votes to mitt romney's 41%. >> why am i saying it that way? because does this result mean what michael is saying, which is the hands or whatever else, this has been a shift, or is this what that represents? >> too soon to tell. necessary but not sufficient for ted cruz to win kansas. a place that he should win because santorum won it, huckabee won it. throw it through the night. if he wins maine that is perhaps even more significant and also kentucky and louisiana are very important, both heavily blue collar and heavy evangelical. one thing that donald trump that has done to make him so successful, cnn provided these numbers, he is winning blue collar every lo venvangelicalse.

ted cruz hasn't held the working evangelicals in the south. tennessee and kentucky about half evangelical. we'll get a good test before trump is receding later tonight. >> if you hear cruz tonight, whae was talking about was an economic message. we haven't heard a lot of the economic message lately, but he was playing into that sort of pop you'lliul was playing into that sort of pop you'lliuist message, i care you, about your student loans, that your income is going down. i think he's really hitting not only evangelicals but obviously the populist base of this party. i also think one other thing works in cruz's favorite, and that is that marco rubio has been laying off of him lately. they're so busy attacking trump that all of the rubio "you're a liar" sort of stopped. >> if kansas worse for trump or worse for rubio in. >> i think worse for rubio. trump was ahead in early polls of the the cruz people make the case as we've all been texting

with him, trump was supposed to run away with this. i'm not so sure about this. >> all of this is bad for rubio. >> because rubio wants to be the alternative, and this all points to florida honestly. rubio has toe -- >> why does it point to florida? >> because rubio has to win florida or that's it. >> isn't it already sort of it? i mean, florida now, newt gingrich won his home state. that's like a low bar. >> it is. >> let me move to the other side. this is not fair. >> relative to florida, i still continue to believe that rubio needs to win florida not only for rubio's sake but cruz's sake. i can't chart a path and john king is the expert where ted cruz gets 1,237. the best i think he hopes for is to deny trump and everybody hang in. >> to underscore your point from before, ted cruz the promise of the cruz campaign has not been realized so far. he is not broaden beyond

evangelicals more than santorum or huckabee did. maybe in maine you're beginning to see that. until he shows ke do that, there is no path for him. because he's running out of states. >> for you at home, did you see what brownstein did there? he knew i had to move over to the other side. to follow up with a point you made, chris so of course i missed it. very well done. thank you for talking about me. >> i've been looking, in 1980 ronald reagan lost six primaries in 1992 bill clinton lost 16 different primaries and still managed to geñ nominated. so this is what momentum does for you. donald trump can afford to lose. these other guys can't afford to lose, marley rubio. >> why do you think he's lieu losing? that piend wooinds up being the question that fuels the history. reagan, clinton, why is trump losing right now? that tells us whether or not he can afford it. >> i think the evangelical vote

in kansas, santorum won it in '12. >> you think it's pro forma. >> i do. at this point, cruz hasn't demonstrated an ability to get out of that box yet. >> i think coming out of such a huge super tuesday night for trump it will be very hard to spin a bad day on super saturday. i mean, as you say, momentum is everything. so if he can -- he's had a bad night in kansas, if he has a batd night in maine, maybe kentucky, what happened to all of that momentum? that will be the question. and i think there are probably a handful of answers. one i would say the kkk. that was not a pleasant story line for anyone, even trump had difficulty navigating that. i'd also say the ddd, the detroit debate debacle, which even for trump -- >> the triple d. >> not quite the kkk but it is a triple d. you know, even for trump that was a bad night.

and maybe only four people on that stage, a lot of viewers watched and maybe they saw, oh, maybe they saw a little too much trump. i also wonder if mitt romney -- hold your fire -- played a small effect. look, no doubt mitt romney going out to attack donald trump definite live emboldens his supporters. but there are a lot of moderate republicans who i know have been watching from the sidelines thinking, trump's never going to happen, i don't have to do anything about this. they see mitt romney fired up, and maybe they think, oh, i've got tyke this seriously and go out and vote saturday. that might have played a part as well. >> ironically, they didn't do that for mitt romney enough to get him elected. but they may do it now. >> paul begala, what do you see? i saw that you tweeted, threw water on the cruz victory saying santorum won the same way. >> this is an important thing. what we're seeing, counting kansas, there's 16 states on the republican side who have voted.

15 have gone to trump or cruz. the two outsiders. one minnesota, a lovely place with a tiny caucus, went to rubio. that's it. for senator rubio. this is good. we'll know by the end of the night i think if it's a two-man race. and i think it will be. i think by the time we close up shop and only you -- >> count rubio out after tonight if it goes the wrong way. >> yes. >> paul, where does cruz go? >> even if wins louisiana, where does he go? maybe missouri, ohio, north carolina? mississippi? you know, until you show you can win voters who are not evangelicals -- >> michigan. >> maybe michigan. >> hard to see trump not taking this up. the more we look at this, the more you look at the math the more it looks like trump. by the way, at least i and i think most democrats and independents don't look at cruz and go, whew, at least they're voting for this other incredibly conservative and right-wing guy.

look, i think we have to sort of face the facts and start imag e imagining what comes next for our country. this is looking for and more inevitab inevitable. >> can i just say one other thing we ought to look at tonight, which is these are closed elections we're seeing tonight. only republicans can participate. so the question is whether this limits trump's crossover appeal that he's had to independent voters and even some democrats who were able to cross over and vote for him. >> it has in the closed caucuses in the past. there have been four. >> the argument -- so the argument that trump is not a real conservative may be taking hold, and you might be seeing it in some of these caucus states. >> gloria, the caucus might be more important than the closed because trump has won republicans in every state he has won in the exit polls ex-has carried republicans. but the caucus seems -- >> hold it there. let's take a break. we'll tee up listening to cruz.

we want to give senator cruz his due. he just got a big result in kansas. what does he have to say about it? we'll look at the senator himself when we come back. tes or across the globe in under an hour. whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. in less than a century, boeing took the world from seaplanes to space planes, across the universe and beyond. and if you thought that was amazing, you just wait. ♪ ugh! heartburn! no one burns on my watch! try alka-seltzer heartburn reliefchews. they work fast and don't taste chalky. mmm...amazing. i have heartburn. alka-seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. hi i'm kristie. and i'm jess. and we are the bug chicks. we're a nano-business. windows 10 really helps us

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horst. welcome back, the headline right now ted cruz the winner of the republican presidential caucuses. you see it there, 60% of the vote is in, overwhelmingly winning so far more than 2 to 1 over donald trump. he's got 51.1%, donald trump in second place with 24.3%. rubio down in third place with 14.3%, kasich only 8.9% in kansas. you don't get 10%, you don't get any delegates. ted cruz the big winner in kansas right now. let's take a look at the democrats, what's going on now.

stephanie elam is joining us from kansas where there's a big democratic contest under way in r roland park, kansas. what's going on between sanders and clinton? >> reporter: well, there's just phenomenal turnout as far as the democrats are concerned, wolf. they had so many people in here they had to actually let people go. they couldn't caucus the way they normally do and split those up, who's voting for clinton and who's voting for sanders. they had people sign a sheet who they wanted to caucus for. there's a line behind me for people who are now leaving because they've signed. other people are still coming in because there was a line stretching outside. when you take a look at our exit poll as we're taking a look at the numbers coming in right now as people are leaving, right now it looks like sanders is 61% of the people who were here in this room, 39% for clinton. but there they're still taking people coming in, still signing at it point. they were at capacity so now they have to figure out how to

get these people in and get their numbers. it will be a while before things are finally tabulated. but a very different situation in a caucus than we would normally see. >> bernie sanders doing good at that caucus site, stephanie, thanks very much. dana, exciting night. certainly we saw ted cruz very happy so far. the first projection of the night, he gets it. >> that's right. stephanie was talking about the democrats. let's drill down on that. we have jeff zeleny who's been digging on what's going on in kansas and neb noeb raska on th democratic side. >> these are republican state overall, but they're getting a bite of the democratic apple. in talking to officials from both campaigns as well as democratic state officials we are confirming or at least they're confirming that senator sanders is having a strong afternoon there. a lot of liberal supporters interest come out. we've seen the long lines but in all three congressional districts in nebraska both sides agree that bernie sanders is winning the popular vote.

one interesting thing about nebraska, most of the caulk us u.s.ing is done except in lincoln, nebraska, lancaster county, the state capital also home to the university of nebraska lincoln. a lot of students. aloft people who like sanders. i was there on thursday. so many people came out to support him thousands. the sanders campaign said, look rg, even if we were slightly behind which we're not, lancaster county would put us over the edge. but clinton campaign doesn't disagree. this is not 2008. the key lesson they've learned is do not ignore the small rural caucus states. they will still split the delegates, bernie sanders is well ahead in both states. but that is an interesting dynamic. the clinton campaign actually paid attention to this. bill clinton was in lincoln last night, omaha yesterday. he is sort of the campaigner in chief out there. >> and you are by the way our nebraska reporter since you are from nebraska. >> i'm from there. >> which is not why you know everything about it just because

you're a good reporter. but david, to jeff's point about kind of the college towns and the fact that these two state rtz certainly not known as hot spots of liberalism. they're red, red states in presidential years. >> right. >> is this just kind of the same pattern that we've seen so far in terms of how the democratic electorate is splitting up hillary clinton versus bernie sanders? >> i was going to say it's not 2008 in terms of how the clinton campaign approached it, but we are seeing that similar profile -- voter profile again in the state wez saw in 2008. >> raut tight. >> this was barack obama territory not just because of the organization but the kind of democrat that is going to go -- >> the liberal. >> right. it's the progressive. >> that's true. >> once again we are seeing sanders appeal to what was the obama electorate in certain states here, and these two included. you do remember, of course, that barack obama did win in 2008 the

electoral vote in the omaha, nebraska, area so he was able to make a few inroads there. still in talking to some clinton campaign sources earlier today, their sense is that they still -- and this goes directly to what jeff was just saying -- will emerge tonight, this day, with more delegates just out of today's contest than bernie sanders will if it goes how they're expecting. >> because of louisiana tonight. >> that's a big prize. >> exactly. we can't forget. that will be much later tonight, but that will be a big prize. we shue also say, wolf, that bernie sanders will speak later tonight. we'll see him live. hillary clinton will speak live tonight and we can't forget our flint, michigan, debate tomorrow. >> bernie sanders and hillary clinton 8:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow in flint, michigan. we're also standing by to hear from ted cruz. he's been to hold a news conference. he's the big winner so far tonight in cannes kkansas. he's the projected winner. we'll take a quick break. much more right after this.

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ted cruz talking about his win tonight in kansas, answering reporters' questions. let's listen in. >> we were all campaigning in kansas, spent a lot of time there. you know, this morning donald and i were both at the same caucus location speaking to the same group of cannes votkansas . so obviously all the other candidates thought it was going to be really, really close. and i think what we saw in kansas is a manifestation of a real shift of momentum. i think the last two debates indicate. that we also saw the cpac straw poll results where we had a resounding victory in cpac. one thing that's notable is the breadth of those results. by any measure, kansas and maine and the cpac national conference of conserve tivicservatives are different groups of voters.

and to see strong, strong win as cross the board is very encouraging and i think what it represents is republicans coalescing saying, it would be a disaster for donald trump to be our nominee, and we're going to stand behind the strongest conservative in the race and also the candidate who at this point has demonstrated, assuming the kansas and maine results hold up, that we have beaten donald not once, not twice but seven times now. all across this country. no other candidate has beaten him more than once. i think that's part of why people are coming together is they recognize, if we're divided, donald wins. and if donald wins, in all likelihood, hillary wins. we have to come together. we have to unite. that's why i've made a very explicit invitation to people who were supporting other candidates to come stand with us. there were good and honorable people in the race. now it's time to come together. >> senate, you had one, potentially two wins tonight. but donald trump is still very much in the delegate lead.

what is your plan to overtake him? and do you expect to do that by the end of march? >> donald has a delegate lead right now, though it is fewer than 100 delegates. we're within 100 delegates of donald. we'll see what happens after today. we'll see the rest of the results, where the delegate count is. but we continue to rack up delegates. you know, one of the things on super tuesday, we won in oklahoma, we won in alaska, we won overwhelmingly in texas. but even in the states where donald prevailed on super tuesday, we were typically a second place in racking up delegates as well. it's part of why we're so close in the delegate lead and the next closest candidates has fewer than half of the delegates i have. so we'll continue to amass delegates but what hneeds to happen is the field needs to continue to narrow. as long as the field is divide td gives donald an advantage. what i hope and believe will happen is as our candidates are not able to win, at some point, if you're not able to prevail, if you're not able to amass

enough delegates to have any plausible path to 1,237, there comes a point where other candidates, other campaigns have to reflect prayerfully consider, do i have a path going forward? or is it time for us to come together? i hope that happens. i'm certainly encouraging others to. but it will be each of the candidates' decisions whether or not to make that choice. >> and if i can follow up, looking forward to florida, how hard are you going to compete in florida? are you going for a kill shot against marco rubio there? >> look, we are competing vigorously in florida. we'll be campaigning on the ground in florida. we have a great base of support in florida. we have an incredible grassroots team. and we're running a national campaign. we're competing in all 50 states. this is a campaign that's won in texas, also also and appears in maine as well. you want to talk about a national breadth, we have a bread th of support add and our florida support, i'm proud of all the grassroots activists the republican women, the tea party leaders, young women, hispanics

all have come behind the campaign in florida. absolutely we're contesting florida vigorously and every state across this country vigorous vigorously. >> you talked about creating jobs, what would you do to create jobs here in north idaho? >> the most important element for creating jobs is lifting the burden of washington on small businesses. two-thirds of all new jobs in the economy come from small businesses. if i'm elected president, we will repeal every word of obamacare. we'll pass a simple flat tax and abolish the irs and we will pull back the federal regulator, the epa that is strangling farmers and ranchers and small business. the effect of all of that is we'll see the economy take off. we're going to see millions of high paying jobs. we'll see wages rise for working men and women who haven't seen that for a long time. we'll see young people coming out of school with two, three, four, five joffers. all we do is get back to the free market principles that made this country great in the first place. >> the seven wins you say you had against donald trump, maybe other people have only had one or two. do you really think this is a

turn of the times for the republican party for voters to see who should be in office? >> well, look, it's important. nobody has had two wins against donald. only one candidate has beaten him anywhere. one has bheeten him once. we have apparently beaten him seven times. what we've seen whether it was a decisive win in iowa, whether it was a win in oklahoma, in alaska, whether it was a decisive win in texas wlshgs het was a win in kansas, whether it was in minnesota beating donald trump or whether it was what apears to be another strong win in maine, we see geographic diversity, i'd roth cal diversity. we see the broad spectrum of the party coming together behind our campaign. if you want to beat him, you can't beat something with nothing. you've got to unite, and that's what we're seeing happening. i'm very encouraged and i'll tell you here in i'd edaho the support we had is incredible. we had a couple of thousand people inside and at least a thousand outside because there

wasn't room in the event hall. that is a really encouraging and powerful turnout. i'm so proud to be here. >> all right, unfortunately we just lost our connection. that was ted cruz. he's the winner in kansas. he's obviously very, very happy. very early results in maine showing him ahead as well. we're going to continue to monitor what he's saying. we'll try to reconnect with him at the same time dana and david, a big win, no doubt about it, very impressive win, 2 to 1 margin so far in kansas for ted cruz. >> that's right. and you heard him come out. i mean, he's been saying generally that he should be the alternative to donald trump, that conservatives should consolidate around him. he's taking this win in kansas and the one he clearly thinks he's going to get tonight in maine and jumping to the next step saying, i am the alternative to donald trump. >> including his second place showing in minnesota but ahead of donald trump as a victory. >> right. well, this is also remember when he finished third or fourth, he had a victory speech.

but putting that aside, it is a fascinating dynamic because if you talk to the cruz people, they say and they might be right about this, if rubio is gone, they get all of rubio's votes and beat donald trump. if cruz is gone, the opposite happens. all of the cruz voters to go trump. so there really is this weird kind of triangle between the three of them going on here, which is very intense and really could make a huge difference in all of these contests. >> i would imagine donald trump could probably get cruz voters if he were to disappear from the race. i don't think they would all necessarily go to rubio. i thought one of the most interesting things that ted cruz just said there in that press gaggle was, we are competing vigorously in florida. remember, florida is a winner take all state. right now i think most people see it as a battle between trump and rubio. can he win his home state, or can donald trump sort of plant the flag there and win all 99

delegates in one fell swoop. it's a winner take all state and you're ted cruz and you clearly could make a strategic decision, well, perhaps it's not worth my time because i can't even emerge with one delegate unless i win the state. >> it's not just about winning. it's about taking votes away. >> right. >> it he says he's all in in florida, it's about taking votes away. he's trying to make sure wherever he is he's keeping donald trump's number a little further away. >> very good question. >> very good indeed. stand by. we'll be hearing later tonight from donald trump. he'll be speaking. hillary clinton will be speaking. bernie sanders will be speaking. all of the kandz dcandidates. we'll monitor every one of them and bring those statement s to you litch. let's take another break and be right back. ♪ those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. ♪

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this is lloyd. to prove to you that the better choice for him is aleve. he's agreed to give it up. ok, but i have 30 acres to cover by sundown. we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. yeah, i was ok, but after lunch my knee started hurting again so... more pills. yep... another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? for my pain... i want my aleve. get all day minor arthritis pain relief with an easy open cap. ted cruz we've projected is the winner of theaucuses. you see it right there, the first projected winner of the night. cruz right now with 70% of the vote in, he's got 50.9%. that's impressive.

donald trump only 24.3%. rubio down at 14.7%. john kasich at 8.7%. big win for ted cruz in kansas. right now let's go over to john king at the magic wall. john, his fifth win so far, fifth win coming into tonight. he had four wins, now with number five. three more republican contests still couldn't at large. we'll see how they do there. but how did he manage to make this happen in kansas? >> let's look at kansas. as you know, his fifth. we're watching maine where cruz is leading but the results are very early. we are louisiana and kentucky still to come on the republican sight later tonight. let's look at kansas closer. a very convincing win a 2 to 1 over trump win. 70% of the vote is in. he won consistently just about everywhere. you have statewide delegates, then allocating others by congressional districts. if you go district to district, just under 50% there, nearly 60% here, just under 50% here, just

under 50% there. so convincing. this is the slowest strict to report, the third district in the eastern part of the state. the kansas city, kansas, area. just over the line. pretty consistent across the board. ted cruz proving number one as he did in iowa in a caucus state his organization is very good at using data to identify the supporters an turn them out. an impressive win. we won't have the exact numbers until later because as i said it's done by district. it looks like cruz will get at least half of the 40 delegates at stake in kansas, which helps him in what case he is trying to make. let's switch maps again as we wait for results. the case ted cruz is trying to make is, i'm the guy closest to donald trump in the delegates. if we come in here and give him kansas, let me move forward to saturday. if we give him kansas and in this scenario if he holds the lead in maine, let's give cruz first place in maine and trump second place and third place here. that didn't work out. there we go. if that holds, roughly like that, 35% or so, ted cruz again we're still waiting on louisiana and kentucky. on this map, they're assigned to

trump because he led in the polls. at the end of the night if they hold up, louisiana for trump, kentucky for trump but cruz wins kansas and maine he may be able to say, i'm about 100 delegates from donald trump at the end of the night. it depends on the percentages. but this is the argument ted cruz was just trying 0 make in that gaggle, that i am proving that, yes, i'm behind but i'm the one who has the best chance to catch trump. this all sets up, wolf, big contest in michigan next tuesday, mississippi next tuesday where ted cruz another test in the south where donald trump has had a lot of success so far in what was supposed to be ted cruz's wheelhouse down here. even as cruz gets these impressive wins that help him, he has to look at the map here and realize what he left on the board. from south carolina across was supposed to be his evangelical firewall, springboard oust the south. so far, donald trump has dominated. we'll wait for louisiana tonight, mississippi next week. the contest in michigan is huge on tuesday, trump leads. onkasich think he has momentum there. then we get to march 15th which

is florida and ohio, the two home states of the two guys ted cruz wants to drop. cruz wants kasich and rubio to get out of the way to give him a one-on-one. they say no way. march 15th in florida and in ohio will determine whether they have the momentum to go on. we are at a fascinating state in the race, the conversation tonight will be, is there a donald trump pause? we don't know yet. but certainly that's what a lot achbt tie-trump forces are hopeful perhaps there is. but we've got a lot of map to fill. >> starting march 15th according to the republican rules florida and ohio all the states become winner take all. if you win, even mrorlty, you get all the delegates. a lot in florida and a lot in ohio. john, stand by. we're waiting to hear from all of the candidates. they'll be speaking, donald trump, hillary clinton, bernie sanders. of course we will have live coverage. stay wuss. much more coming up.

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just want to remind our viewers we're waiting to hear from donald trump. he'll be speaking at his campaign headquarters tonight. hillary clinton will be speaking. we'll have live coverage of that. bernie sanders has a big rally coming up as well. we'll be hearing all of them live here as our coverage continues. i want to remind you at the same time ted cruz so far we've projected one winner of the southern contest tonight, ted cruz wins the republican presidential caucuses in kansas. there's still three more republican contests to go, kentucky caucuses, maine caucuses and louisiana primary. also on the democratic side, we're still waiting for the kansas caucuses, the louisiana primary, and the nebraska caucuses on the democratic side. so one contest down, six more to go. we'll have extensive live coverage of all of that. we'll see when we can make our next projection. in the meantime, let's go back to chris. >> so we have what's happening, wolf. now we'll talk about what it means in the big picture. michael summer cannish. we were going through different

theories about why cruz is winning. then the other side of the analysis which john king has been spelling out for us, which is cruz may be in an appear ick victory position wre wins tonight looks good, get a's number of state, starts to build and build but can't get to 1,237 the secret number and if he make it's to where trump doesn't get there and it goes to a convention. what happens to cruz at a convention? is this go for him now but -- >> let's start with the initial building block. it's very difficult to look at what's going on tonight and see a path to 1,237 for marco rubio. and it's very difficult to see a path to that same number for john kasich. shy of going to cleveland and winning it on a second ballot. i'm not so sure -- you just heard ted cruz say he'd like the others to get out. i think he's really directing that toward marco rubio. i'm not sure his path gets any easier with rubio getting out because i still see a rubio/kasich dynamic. so donald trump is still in the

cat bird's seat. what's to come tonight is still most important. what's to come tonight is louisiana and to a lesser extent kentucky. >> but what about the idea that cruz also -- again, this man has a brilliant mind not just for the law but also for debate and the logic that goes into it. the idea that, well, if you lose me, my people go to trump. but if you lose rubio, his people will go to me? that is a compelling bit of logic to try out on republicans. >> right. >> what winds up being the obstacles to cruz being the man against trump. >> well, first of all as ron's been pointing out, sort of the base of his support, evangeli l evangelicals, we're going into the industrial midwest. that's not his territory. tonight is his real territory and super tuesday should have been his territory but wasn't his territory. i think you have to give cruz a lot of credit because he really had a strategy and didn't work so well on super tuesday. but this shows you how his

organization has really come through for him. >> and we do know that he does well in caucuses because we know he organizes well. >> are you waving your arms to get my attention? >> i was not going -- i'm happy to talk and i'm -- >> one more point about cruz to add to what david is saying. one more point is, florida, he's clearly making a play to be the spoiler. >> right. >> he doesn't expect to win florida. but he's going to be the spoiler in florida because he doesn't want rubio to win. >> but he's also i think showing that one of marco rubio's big flaws throughout this entire campaign has been his lack of ground game. i mean, the fact that ted cruz is saying, listen, i'm come noog your backyard, i'm opening up ten states, and i'm going to have a kill shot, which is what we're calling it on our website, and try to take you out. that i think points to cruz's boldness, the smart way he's run his campaign in terms of data driven sort of approach. >> rubio is a political colossus in florida. he won in a three-way race.

there's no reason for him to feel exorbitantly confident about his ability to hold the state. for ted cruz i think it is still a very simple equation. as gloria said, the state that's dwindling. missouri, north carolina. >> do we know that's the extent of his race? >> so far he has not won more than 18% of voters who are not evangelicals in any state but texas. he is not doing any better than santorum or huckabee to this point at expanding it. maybe that's begin to change. >> and he's trying to make that happen by talking more about the economy. >> all right. let's address this with the other tape. i feel your tension. i feel your desire. what are you hearing you don't agree with? >> i agree with a lot-it. senator cruz has an acceptable second choice to rubio folks, the point these geniuses were

making. cruz probably pretty acceptable to a lot of the rubio folks. maybe that's why senator rubio is only getting less than 15% in kansas. i think -- look, it was a good second choice. that helps in a caucus where you have a second choice. there's only one more caucus after and that's hawaii. while we love hawaii, we don't have any more second-choice options for cruz to gather up disappointed rubio folks who realize they can't win in that state. >> that plays into what gloria was reading off her phone, they were neck and neck not too long ago. in the cruz camp, neck and neck with trump in kansas not too long ago. maybe it was part of the shift. they were an acceptable second. >> louisiana matters a ton. >> why? why do they matter so much to you? >> primary. we're going to get right to it with people coming in and leaving. it's not any of these complicated caucus things and ground games and all of that. >> how bad is it for trump if he lus louisiana? >> i think it will be a ding but, you know, he's got -- >> is there anything that could happen to trump that would be

bad in your opinion? >> losing everything from now on. >> because every single event, it's hard to impress you. >> i have my reagan optimism. >> if he were to attack a baby sale with a club would you see that as something that was -- >> yeah. >> right. >> this one point we started off with here when john king was showing it earlier on, the map analysis, there is a serious consideration for the cruz camp to figure out, well, okay, how do i win this thing? you know what i mean? how does this wind up being good for me? i don't want to go tho to this convention. i've been making this convention kind of like the cauldron, the crucible of all that is wrong with this party. i don't want to walk into that place. i won't walk out. >> it's not an enviable place for anyone but trump to be at a brokered convention. it's not good for the party. i don't think it's good for democracy. i mean -- >> brokered convention you could say is an oxymoron. >> go back to 1880 when garfield

ended up being nominated because the two front-runners were completely disposed of going into this convention. that's right. i said it. garfield. >> i'm impressed. >> i have been calling the existential crisis for conservatives. ted cruz seems to be the only person who can fell donald trump. meanwhile, i think ted cruz is less electable generally than donald trump is. >> that's right. >> i think marco rubio is the only conservative that could really contest hillary clinton. but he can't get there. so we're in this triad of real, you know, chaos and frustration. >> all right. let's hold it there. >> we're watching this with joy except for if we actually care about our country and the future of these two republican leading candidates could take us. then crisis right there. >> on that we'll go to break, give you time to ponder as well as the real question that came up in this segment, which is

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welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in the cnn election center. this is live special coverage of super saturday. counting down to the top of the hour when we'll get more information from maine and kentucky. we also may be able to make some more major projections. we have six races left to project tonight. but it's already been a big day for senator ted cruz. cnn projects he's the winner in kansas, taking down donald trump by a wider than anticipated margin in that state. the early numbers also show cruz

leading in maine right now. both republican and democratic officials anticipate a potentially record turnout there tonight. cnn's jim acosta is with the trump campaign. he joins us from west palm beach in florida. what do they make so far of truth's very impressive win in kansas? >> reporter: wolf, i talked to a top trump campaign official who says, yes, ted cruz is having a good night, no doubt, but that was to be expected. this official was saying, you know, the trump approach all along has been to allow ted cruz an he has been doing this to, yes, run up a big operation in some of these caucus states. that is something they've watched all along. they regard that as a good strategy. they said ted cruz's ability to do well in the caucus states was a good strategy but this official was telling me, wolf, kansas is not florida. that's a totally different deal. big media markets up and down the state although this official did caution that they have

observed that the cruz campaign has opened up offices across the state of florida in just the last week or so, ten offices across the state of florida. that's going to help ted cruz here. but i'm not getting any sense of trembling inside the trump campaign even though ted cruz is having what is undoubtedly a good night so far. the last time we saw donald trump give a press conference after an election, wolf, it was after super tuesday when he did very well. the outcome is a little different tonight so we'll have to see whether the tone is different from donald trump when he speaks later on here tonight, wolf. >> of course we'll have live coverage of that. that's coming up at the right point as soon as we see donald trump show up behind you, we'll, of course, have live coverage. thanks very much, jim acosta. so far as jim said a very good night for ted cruz. one contest down, six contests for the democrats and the republicans to go. >> that's right. we still have a long night ahead of us. jim was saying the trump camp was trying to say