for more on this and many other success stories go to our good evening. i'm lou dobbs. welcome to our special live coverage of tonight's super saturday of primaries and caucuses. five states voting. already senator ted cruz has been projected to win kansas. 14 delegates at stake there. they will be distributed proportionately. our estimate would be he takes 17 of those delegates. kansas held, as did each caucus state. closed caucuses today so only registered republicans voted. senator cruz was expected to do well with that group but probably not this good. 155 delegates at stake in total tonight for republicans.

109 for democrats. that means that the delegate, total delegate count for all of the caucuses and the one primary in louisiana have the same number of delegates as the state of texas. so a lot at stake today. donald trump and hillary clinton still the front-runners of their respective parties. trump in orlando, florida tonight and a short time ago, dismissed the notion advanced by senator ted cruz and others that he would lose a general election to hillary clinton. >> i used to listen to jeb bush before he flamed out and to say donald trump cannot beat hillary clinton. i said, well why can't you beat me? the one person hillary doesn't want to run against, i will tell you this, is donald trump. that i can tell you. >> we will be bringing you all of the latest developments on this important night for all of

the candidates as they try to build upon their delegate counts. ed rollins, monica crowley among our guests tonight. for republicans, tonight's voting comes amid a deep split within the party leadership and its establishment over the likelihood donald trump will be the nominee of the republican party. first term senators marco rubio and ted cruz are hoping tonight that they will have another chance to try to deprive trump of the grand prize. >> we will win the state of florida. we will beat donald trump there. the way we beat charlie crist. i have experience, i have experience at beating people who say -- who don't say who they truly are. i have experience of beating people who claim to be one thing but are something else. >> promised all of us to be flexible. he said that over and over again, how flexible he was. let me tell you, everyone at

cpac, flexible is code word in washington, d.c. for the get ready to stick it to you. >> joining us tonight, the governor of kentucky, matt bevin. his state voting today, where there was a tremendous turnout, we're told. we will be able to call a winner in kentucky very shortly. also tonight, joining us, former reagan political white house director and republican strategist, ed rollins. "washington times" online editor, fox news contributor monica crowley. great to have you both here. once again, this campaign season taking an unexpected turn. monica, your reaction to first the win of the kansas caucuses by senator cruz. >> i'm not sure many people anticipated this, because the polling in kansas was very spotty and i don't think -- >> downright lousy. >> right. we had no recent polling. this is very good news for ted cruz and if what we are seeing coming insofar from maine, it

looks like ted cruz is poised to have a very good night. the kansas win means this is ted cruz's fifth win, his fourth win in closed caucus and/or primary states. republican voters, conservative voters are leaning toward ted cruz and should his momentum continue tonight, it looks like this might shake out to a two-man race. trump and cruz. >> two elements of clarification, if i may expand on your point. one is the closed caucus means that as monica suggests, more conservative caucus goers and secondly, donald trump didn't have the advantage of any intervention on the part of independents or more moderate democrats coming into the caucus. your thoughts here? it was unexpected. >> first, there wasn't much attention paid to kansas early on, as often is. cruz went in there and worked it pretty hard. cruz has people who have won caucuses before. as a matter of fact, most of his wins with the exception of texas

and oklahoma have been in the caucus states. he's got operatives who know how to do those things and are special. they are republicans only. it's a very targeted list. he may get as many as 26 delegates. he won every congressional district there by the time they finished. that's a big win. the others tonight, i think louisiana is the real primary and i think trump probably wins that and if he does -- >> has a commanding lead. >> and he should. trump made a mistake of not spending much time in kansas. the flyover strategy, the no television advertising, not being in the state much, these caucus people take things very seriously. >> let me follow again on one thing. let me ask our producers. do we have, if we can show the vote total for maine now with the polls have closed there? do we have even the partial vote, it would be helpful to show that and the percentage that are reporting as of this hour. there we have it. the percentage is 12%.

you see there again, cruz with a strong lead but certainly not an insurmountable lead with that little of the vote in in maine. more surprises may be there as well. your thoughts about who will likely win this one, ed? >> i think this is very close. i think again, cruz was not expected to do well. the governor endorsed trump. the governor is very similar to trump in personality, kind of a feisty guy. i think cruz getting out early here, he may very well do well. he may win it. >> that's the surprise. in maine the demographics really did favor donald trump. >> when we use this personal pronoun, are we talking about cruz or trump? >> excuse me. well, the demographics favored trump in maine so the fact that cruz is leading him at least this early on with 12% in is quite a surprise. ted cruz really built a great caucus operation. he is out-organized pretty much everybody in the caucus states. the challenge for ted cruz going

forward is there aren't that many caucuses left and when we head into april, the territory is much more challenging for him. >> and as we contemplate the idea, we will be updating you just as soon as these votes are counted out of maine right now, kentucky also closing at this hour. we don't have any indication there and as we said, governor bevin will be joining us from kentucky. but we are going to wait on his schedule a bit and wait on the schedule of the caucuses to tally up their votes and get them all reported into the secretary of state. kentucky, how does it look to you? >> kentucky was set up for rand paul, the favored son, and he basically had to pay for this caucus, had to pay $250,000 so he could be on both ballots. they have a rule there where if you are running for the senate, you can't run for president. he's now dropped out. it's been a wide open turf. my sense again, i think cruz has got a good operation there and may very well do well just

basically on his caucus operation. trump has spent a little time there but nowhere near as much as he should have, probably. >> as we look broader to the fact both cruz and rubio are now in florida, well actually, senator cruz is in idaho. you want to talk about energy. ted cruz is demonstrating it going from cpac today where by the way, he won the cpac straw poll out to idaho to campaign there for their delegates, and the contest is under way in ohio and florida, of course, but the real battle between cruz now, because he's moved in, he's set up ten offices state-wide, he means to contest marco rubio at the same time the battle that everyone had been watching was between trump and of course, rubio. >> i think the strategy there is to take as many votes away from rubio as possible, make sure trump wins that state. if cruz loses -- if trump -- if rubio loses florida, most people

assume he's out of the game. then it really comes down to a cruz versus trump battle. >> so the strategy here is on the part of the cruz camp, is to give trump a victory in order to eliminate a competitor. >> to deny marco rubio and set it up as a two-man race which i think it's already starting to take that shape. >> john kasich will be very upset with you. >> yeah. well, he's having a disappointing night tonight as is senator rubio. >> he could get a lot of sunshine if he can get into ohio and win that state. >> he basically, if he wins ohio, he's still in the vice presidential list. >> ed rollins, always great to hear your insights. monica crowley, yours as well. we will see you later this evening. joining us now on the phone, the governor of kentucky, matt bevin. great to have you with us here. first, your thoughts about who in your judgment is likely to win this thing if you want to venture that. >> well, that's always a dicey proposition to try to get out in

front of the actual facts. i will say this. going into the recent days, i would say that the general consensus is that trump probably had more of the prestige lead but i think what you have seen both in kentucky and i'm feeling it from what i see and read and hear nationally, is there is starting to be a rethink on the part of people about whether they are moving on emotion or fact. i think as we head into those closed primary states like ours, people are going to start to be a little more thoughtful. we saw extraordinary turnouts of people today. what the final numbers will be, i don't know yet, but in some counties, much higher than we saw in the 2012 primary. a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. this bodes well for people taking their responsibility seriously. >> governor, what you're saying is also consonant with what we are hearing from some of our savants and gurus who we follow and of course, most

convincingly, my own gut. when you see these kinds of percentages develop in kansas and across, up to maine, it was not the atmospherics or the reality we had expected to form up, it tells you that there's something going on here. i hate to be so imprecise but it does look, i'm saying i agree with you 100% that this thing looks a lot like an inflection point in the campaign of some sort. in your judgment, who will be the beneficiary of all this? >> well, i think there were, going into today, two very strong contenders. a third contender that was in the race behind the front two and then a fourth contender who is also a very strong contend hoer who has the ability to win his own state, who is certainly not out of it but is not a guy who has been able to instill in voters a real sense of urgency.

who is the likely beneficiary? probably the one who was at the front of the pack to begin with, ted cruz. i really think he will come out of this as the standard bearer, most likely. rubio certainly trying to beg to differ with that thinking. but i think in terms of consistency, in terms of carrying the values torch for the republican party most consistently along the path, i think cruz is recognized among voters as that person. so for better or worse, i think you are going to see this race tighten up tremendously in the next week in particular. >> as we have been talking, we put up on the screen with 3% reporting from your state, it's a three-pointer. it was as i began that sentence, three-point difference. it has narrowed to about a two-point difference between cruz and trump. trump leading the way at this early stage. governor, great talking with you. we appreciate you taking the time. and we wish you a happy, successful conclusion to the

election and all the counting today. >> thank you so much. i appreciate it. we have four special elections in three days. we will be doing this again in this state. we are not done here. next tuesday's going to be telling. it might be the first time in 95 years republicans are not in the minority in the house. keep tuned. >> we will do so. wish you luck. thanks so much. >> thank you, sir. senator cruz is taking the early lead as we told you in maine. we are also awaiting the result in kentucky. the counting tonight a bit slower, perhaps that reflects caution, perhaps it reflects something else on a saturday night. both races too close to call, obviously. up next, we will have the next big prize in this election season. we will be talking about florida as we await the closing of the only primary election on what seems like otherwise a caucus day. that is louisiana. and it's a winner take all state, florida. we will also remind you it's the

second home for donald trump. he expects to deliver a knockout blow to either cruz or especially marco rubio, his good buddy. >> i watched it the other day where little marco is going well, donald will not win. i mean, this guy's got so many problems, i don't think he'll come close to winning his own state. >> we will take it all up with the washington examiner, sarah westwood and jamie weinstein next. stay with us. we'll be right back. pet moments are beautiful, unless you have allergies. then your eyes may see it differently. only flonase is approved to relieve both itchy, watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. when we breathe in allergens our bodies react by over producing six key inflammatory substances that

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in maine a few more votes coming in. now senator ted cruz is leading by, well, actually he's picking up about a seven point lead there opening it up. the race obviously still too close, too early to call. we're also awaiting the results out of kentucky, talking with governor bevin just moments ago. kentucky experiencing a huge strong turnout there. but the race also much, much too early and much, much too close to call. we'll be staying with it throughout this hour and we

should have a pretty good indication of what's going on in a matter of moments, anyway. two-time losing presidential candidate mitt romney again ramping up his attacks against donald trump over the weekend. romney booked to appear on at least three of those sunday political talk shows, including fox news sunday. today, trump was in wichita, kansas and there, he blasted romney as the establishment's new anti-trump standard bearer. >> they made a tremendous mistake when you chose mitt romney four years ago. he was a disaster as a candidate. no energy, no life, no nothing. he was a stiff. if he would have devoted the same energy four years ago to running for president, where was this guy? so look, it's the establishment, the establishment is against us. >> is it ever. joining us tonight, investigative reporter from the "washington examiner" sarah westwood, senior editor for the

daily caller, jamie weinstein. good to have you both with us. sarah, your thoughts? here we have already called the kansas caucus for senator cruz. it looks as though the senator has taken an early lead, obviously he has, and it seems to be a lead that is widening. what do you make of it? >> it's hard to know whether cruz's strong showing tonight is the result of the fact that these are closed primaries and they are caucuses which seem so far to favor cruz, or if it's the result of the republican party consolidating behind a candidate that's an alternative to trump, at least to people who aren't already with donald trump. if it is, that's reason for marco rubio the start panicking because it means even an upset victory in florida probably couldn't save him because the clear alternative to trump through this never trump movement would be ted cruz. that might be what you're seeing tonight. >> ted cruz also giving marco

rubio some more good news when he opened ten offices in florida to contend directly with him. these are not good moments whatsoever for marco rubio, are they? >> not at all. if you are the cruz campaign, you are going to make the case after tonight, especially if you pick up two, three, who knows, maybe even four of these states, that this should be a two-man race. the only problem for ted cruz is, it doesn't look like marco rubio or john kasich have any plans of getting out before their home state primaries in march 15th. you might even have a strategy, i know that ted cruz is trying to play in florida. he might even want to reconsider that and try to endorse marco rubio in florida just to deny donald trump those delegates. if marco rubio only wins florida, at least he gets those delegates away from donald trump, who is really the big threat i think maybe at this moment to ted cruz. >> to me, the more persuasive strategy is the one that seems to be in operation on the part of the cruz camp which is go

into florida and even if it kills, especially if it kills marco rubio's campaign and gives donald trump a win, it's worth it because he clears the field of at least his chief competitor. what do you think? >> that's exactly right. there is already pressure on john kasich to get out of the race to narrow it down. if marco rubio doesn't win florida by a convincing margin, you will definitely see pressure on rubio to get out of the race from this never trump movement that mitt romney's the perfect embodiment of that the republican party wants to fall in line behind an alternative to donald trump. ted cruz is not the person they originally wanted to fall behind, obviously. there were other candidates they wanted before him. but that seems to be their only alternative at this point if they want someone else. >> but let me -- the problem with that, is that florida and ohio are winner take all states with huge amounts of delegates. if donald trump, you might knock marco rubio out if he don't win florida but donald trump is

going to have a huge windfall of delegates if that's how you knock marco rubio out which would be a negative to the cruz campaign. hard to make up. >> we better get on the phone and talk to the cruz camp quickly here, because that's where they're headed. i understand what you're saying, but getting rid of a competitor here i think i wouldn't want to be the one who had to do the math. giving up 99 delegates sounds a little expensive but also on the other hand it makes considerable sense. the idea that mitt romney's back at it again, the idea that there is a draft ryan pac having been formed despite his protestations, this looks like an ugly piece of dirty establishment politics and at the same time as usual, somewhat clumsy politics, don't you think? >> this is exactly the kind of thing that has made voters angry

and has made them gravitate towards candidates like donald trump and ted cruz, who speak only about burning the establishment down. people talk about -- >> not only. they don't speak only about burning it down. >> well, that's one of the primary -- if you think donald trump would be slow to the republican party, drafting someone who hasn't even participated in the primary so far and to a brokered convention, that would be perhaps even worse for the unity of the party. >> jamie, you get the last word. >> i guess that depends whether you think that donald trump winning the nomination destroys the party to begin with. you use the term establishment. a lot of people think or conservatives who believe donald trump winning the republican nomination would be the death of the party to begin with. maybe sometimes you have to put someone else forward even in a risky strategy that might cost you the general election in order to save the party. that would be their argument. >> that explains how they have lost two presidential election

cycles and continue to infuriate what should be the base of the party and alienate those who should be, one would think, invited to join in the party. thanks so much for being with us. good to see you both. up next, donald trump receives an unexpected ally at cpac. a former rival. guess who? >> i understand and respect the people who did vote for him. i know many of them. >> doesn't sound like that's going to end well, does it? we will tell you what else she had to say. we will be joined by the former chairman of the south carolina republican party and one of our favorite people and one of the brightest political minds in the country.

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you in just a second. let's check in on the latest out of maine where the count is very, very slow tonight. 12% reporting. cruz with 43% of the vote so far, small totals, 12% reporting. trump running behind him by about 6 1/2 points followed by kasich. carli fiorina saying she understands -- let's go to kentucky. i apologize. 42.5% for trump right now. he is leading as you see there by just about nine points. rubio, a distant third. again, early, early counts out of kentucky, 4%. talking with governor bevin earlier on the broadcast, he said he believes that given the

high turnout, all that he is watching, he seems to think that this basically the favored candidate in this may have the best chance of winning it, i.e., donald trump. but ted cruz has been frustrating that view on the part of trump supporters throughout the day and evening. i have been saying carli fiorina a lot so let's get to her. she understands why voters are supporting trump despite not backing the front-runner herself. >> i understand and respect the people who did vote for him. i know many of them. they're not racist or crazy or stupid. while many people call the donald a fraud, a con man, the truth is, the hard truth is there are a lot of voters out there who think they have been conned election after election.

>> and not by donald trump. more likely -- well, the establishments of both parties from time to time, i guess would be fair. joining us now, the former chairman of the south carolina republican party, chairman of american defense international, van hipp. van, i want to compliment you to your face. i think van is one of the smartest people in the country with his analysis of politics and his look toward the trends and the issues that are most important to the country. so van, i just want to say thank you for being with us tonight. we're watching something of a surprise, i think, for a lot of people. clearly ted cruz winning kansas, it looks like he's got a fighting chance to win maine as well, picking up another 20 delegates. >> what's interesting here -- >> or his fair share of them. >> what's interesting here is just a couple days ago there was a poll in kansas showing donald trump with a six point lead coming into the caucuses.

that was supposedly one of the reasons why he canceled cpac and went there. what it does do, it tells us two things. ted cruz does very well in these caucus type of environments, where you have got thousands voting as opposed to hundreds of thousands. that's why i think michigan's going to be very important for donald trump on tuesday, where it's a primary and where you do not register by party. also from a technology standpoint, we talked about this before, technology is so important in general elections and primaries but even more important in a caucus environment, where you have got to make sure your people absolutely show up. i think cruz has had an edge there as far as his data analytics and his really organizing these caucuses. >> not the transactional technology as much as the get out the vote technology. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> as we look at these numbers, we are told by everyone in kansas that the cruz outfit has an amazing ground game. we hear it everywhere there's a

caucus. it doesn't show up as much otherwise. we also thought it would be very strong in south carolina. it turned out to not be sufficient to the wave that was donald trump in south carolina and nine other places as well. where do you think we go from here? is this an inflection point? do you think we are seeing that? or is it simply these closed caucuses are freezing out independents and moderate democrats who otherwise would be supporting as they have in previous times and places, donald trump? >> it's these closed caucuses and smaller i would say election environments where the ground game really matters. you're right, he had a great ground game in south carolina. the problem was, donald trump brought out 125,000 new people that we had never seen before in south carolina. i'm one who believes that's a good thing because we have to find a way to keep these people in the republican party to win in the fall. >> always good to talk with you. we appreciate it. >> thanks, lou.

>> good to see you. up next, we are awaiting the results in maine and kentucky. both races remain too close to call. and only a small number of votes have been processed. a total of six races for both the democrats and the republicans. it's a busy night. candidates already looking ahead to florida. senator cruz trying to stop senator rubio from winning in his home state. and radio host john gambling and dom giordano join us next to take up the issue whether rubio has enough to get across the line. stay with us. when it comes to small business, she's in the know. so strap yourselves in for action flo! small business edition. oh, no! i'm up to my neck in operating costs! i'll save the day! for plumbers and bakers and scapers of lawn, she's got insurance savvy you can count on. you chipped my birdbath! now you're gonna pay! not so fast! i cover more than just cars and trucks. ♪ action flo did somebody say "insurance"? children: flo! ♪ action flo

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we want to bring you up to date. the count is slow coming out of kentucky. we are up to 7% now. trump still leading. it is narrowing, that lead, to about a little more than six points there in kentucky. that looks like it's going to be one of those -- this is going to be one of those nights in kentucky where it's going to be pitching back and forth. going to maine, ted cruz is holding the lead that he had, about 6 1/2 points. again, only 12% of the vote has been reported to this point. in kansas, as we reported to you, ted cruz is the projected

winner and we think the delegates he will get out of the total there approaches something in the neighborhood of 20 to 24 delegates. joining us tonight from sarasota, florida, host of the john gambling show, john gambling. great to see you. >> hello there, mr. dobbs. >> radio talk show host dom giordano, heard on 1210 wpht in philadelphia because he's always talking on that station in philadelphia. great to have you with us. >> thanks, lou, very much. >> let's start first with you, john. a battle royale coming to the great sunshine state. cruz moving in opening ten offices, i hope for your local economy you get one there, and see what happens. this is a decided twist in what everyone has thought would be a pure anti-trump strategy on the part of cruz. >> well, i will tell you, lou,

florida has pre-voting and that started today, and the lines, it's reported to me, were very very long and very very vocal for donald trump. rubio didn't even have any polling out front of the voting place. cruz was there, as you say, and -- yeah, really. it's very surprising. i think marco rubio is really going to have a hard time here in florida. i don't think he's ever going to go anywhere. the trump people as they are across the country are rabid about donald trump. they don't care. i think this romney, the ryan thing only works to trump's favor and against the republicans. the hardcore relationships, the strategists. >> to john's point, can you believe the republican establishment, i mean, lots of people are frustrated. we talk about how most folks in the middle class particularly, those who aspire to it, are very

frustrated with the economy, with this administration, the obama administration gets lost in this but people are sick of this guy and his policies, and they are watching the republican establishment behave as the superior klutzes that they are and then to do this, it just adds to the momentum for trump, doesn't it? >> well, absolutely. what i want to see is mitt romney go home, mitch mcconnell sit there, have a martini in washington and i want to get down to cruz versus trump because then whichever one wins in that scenario, there should be no hard feelings. but the more the establishment jumps in, a, it helps trump, b, if they stiff him at the convention we are going to have a massive blowup. we need to be as carli fiorina, you played that, brings these people in. ted cruz is the guy that can do that, if not donald trump. >> that's interesting. we may have more than a blowup at the convention. this is the stuff of which

unsettling divisions become something quite worse, quite ugly. >> absolutely. i think one of the things you may be seeing tonight in kansas and kentucky and in maine is that some strength obviously moving to the cruz camp. i think after the debate the other night, that boondoggle of a debate, people watched that childish activity and said i have to find somebody else to vote for. donald trump and rubio was as bad, cruz was the lesser of the evils and john kasich looked like a saint but he's not getting any traction with that. >> saints can be so boring, i guess. >> i wouldn't know. i'm not a saint. >> i assure you, it's just hearsay on my part. great to have you with us. thanks so much, guys. >> thank you. >> thank you. up next, ted cruz taking

advantage of trump's absence at the conservative political action conference. cruz winning today's cpac straw poll and former reagan white house political director ed rollins rejoins us next on whether the front-runner, whoever that may be, it is certainly, well, in question tonight on whether or not he will be affected, impacted. stay with us. when you think about success, what does it look like? is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student? is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves? is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders of the natural world? whatever your definition of success is, helping you pursue it, is ours. t-i-a-a.

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call today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. we've got of course breaking news we want to update a number of races if we could put those boards up here. kentucky, donald trump has now gone to double, all the way up to 8% of the reporting. he's above 40% in kentucky and behind now, approaching 7% so trump opening just slightly a lead in this early reporting followed by rubio. in maine, cruz maintaining his lead, about 6 1/2 points there as you see. that hasn't changed even though the reporting to this point is

about 12%. that's where we are. again, we call kansas, kansas has been called for senator ted cruz, giving him an estimated somewhere between 20 and 24 delegates which is considerable. we also, i want to welcome back ed rollins, the smartest, in my opinion, the smartest political strategist in the country. i can say that to his face because i have been saying it to him for years and years. >> i'm just the oldest. >> a lot of us are older. we don't grow smarter. you do both. great to have you with us. white house political director, i did not say, for ronald reagan, republican strategist and fox news contributor. we're hearing now that the democratic turnout in all of these states is down and way down. >> there's been no enthusiasm for this race. obviously hillary has her team and she has certain segments and sanders has the young people, but it's not like our party has every single primary or caucus, republicans have been way up.

trump is obviously driving a lot of that. i think this is becoming very clear, both trump and now cruz will walk out of here with a significant number of delegates. it's really coming down to that two-way race. >> we are watching very carefully these races. any movement, any lead widens or closes, we will be bringing it to you in just a matter of moments. i want to go to the other development. mitt romney throwing those dirty mitt bombs all over the republican party, creating consternation and some considerable resentment in so doing. is he having any effect on trump's performance tonight? >> absolutely not. if anything, he is making the trump anti-establishment movement, the epitome of the establishment that people are against and the fact that he's come out, a lot of us held our nose and voted for him four years ago. lot of conservatives weren't very happy with his nomination but he won. we went out and supported him. for him to come back as the

former nominee who chose not to run this time, having run twice before, and to criticize anybody in the race let alone the front-runner is outrageous. >> yet he's going to keep loading up that plate with plenty of weaponry for the hillary clinton campaign and national media, of course, that's supporting his efforts entirely. the great news is the establishment may have gotten exactly what it wanted. that is a run-off between ted cruz and donald trump. if either one wins, the national republican establishment loses. is that a fair statement? >> that's absolutely correct. equally as important, whoever ends up being the nominee gets to take control of the party and as soon as they become the nominee, they can put their own person in and decide if they want to put another person in there to run it. they really need the resources of the national party. they will basically change the dynamics of this party, platform, convention, the whole nine yards. >> we may know and it looks like it may take some time but we may

know whether or not tonight is an inflection point in the campaign. we will be watching that as well, of course. ed rollins, great to have you with us. thanks so much. up next, just over an hour from the closing of polls in louisiana and nebraska. elizabeth harrington joins me next. stay with us. at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like grandkids equals free tech support. oh, look at you, so great to see you! none of this works. come on in.

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harrington, staff writer, and republican campaign strategist, fox news contributor tony sayed, great to have you with us. elizabeth, let me start with you. while we are watching all of these numbers come in from four caucuses, we prepare for louisiana which closes in about an hour and by the way, neil cavuto will start bringing in the totals at the top of the hour when fox news continues the night of coverage of what has been an eventful saturday in primary politics. do you see a change in direction, any moment that suggests we are in a different place than we were before the debate, before mitt romney decided to commit what many people consider a sin against the party that he so badly disappointed and now may have betrayed? >> i think we are seeing a shift. i think this is a big night for ted cruz.

i also think that that's due partially because these are closed primary caucus states. he does tend to do better in closed primaries and in caucuses and also, one thing to remember, keep in mind all these states are proportional. i don't think the delegate count is going to change that much from ted cruz's big night. what it does change is momentum. he will get a lot of momentum from these big wins, especially in kansas, and i think you are going to see more calls for rubio to kind of step aside, make this a two-man race and make a sort of united anti-trump ticket there and endorse cruz. >> what we have seen is cruz moving into florida for head-to-head competition with marco rubio, who looks to be the man he wants to be a dead man walking after the votes are tallied from florida. do you see it that way, tony? >> yes, for sure.

at the same time you have to look at tonight for something else. elizabeth's right in that the close primary tends to benefit cruz but maine is a big win. donald trump was up by double digits within the past week. kansas was a bit more predictable, it's a conservative state, people understand that cruz's organization was going to be helpful on the ground there. but something did shift after thursday. but this does give ted cruz the ammunition he's been hoping to use which is to suggest that hey, i'm the guy who should be going head-to-head with donald trump. he's beating him in some of these states, much more decidedly than trump is beating cruz in the states he's winning. >> those who argue that donald trump had a bad night thursday must be beside themselves in fury at mitt romney, who has this amazing gift to screw it up by coming out as he did. he deflected all of the attention unless trump paid him to do it, maybe, to come out and deflect all the attention from what was to be kind, an average

performance on the part of donald trump, in my opinion. do you agree, elizabeth? >> yeah. i think it was a poor debate for trump to be sure. i don't know how much an effect romney is actually having, to be honest i think it's more just a culmination of these two weeks of attacks against trump. finally rubio and cruz decided to hit the front-runner and i think that is starting to hurt him. but romney going out i think actually emboldened the die-hard trump supporters even more. >> i think so, too. i do think he also deflected media attention from what was the debate. we got about 20 seconds. >> no doubt. i think something else. look what donald trump has done since then. he skipped cpac, is starting to make plays toward the general election with some of his rhetoric. i understand that from a strategic perspective but he still has to get more than 50% of the republican delegates to side with him or else you can

possibly have an open slash brokered convention. >> thank you both for being with us. stay with fox business. we have a lot more on super saturday. our coverage with neil cavuto right now. super tuesday it is not. how about surprising saturday? because the donald appears to have hit his speed bump. how big a one, we don't know. with voting going on today in kansas and kentucky, in maine, in nebraska, for the democrats, and in louisiana, indications right now that this party only primary procedure is seemingly benefiting at least early on ted cruz. let's go right to it. we can already safely say that the texas senator has