one of them is that he got the date wrong. march 12th, it's actually march 15th. >> details, details. >> reporter: during the rally he did get the date right. he mentioned several times during the rally if we win florida, it's over. if we win florida and ohio, it's really over. we know where trump's focus is. he's moved on past the four states making their decisions today and he knows that if he can win florida, the winner-take-all state, all 99 delegates to him, that he can push marco rubio out of the race and is that much closer to securing the nomination. so that's where his focus is. and tonight of course he has a news conference where he hopes to give a victory speech and we'll see. chris. >> jacob, thank you very much. and we are starting to see that the doors have closed in kentucky. first time again that they have ever held a caucus. too early to call, but we're going to be keeping a close eye on that because we should start

getting some results there after ted cruz has taken an early lead in kansas, another race that is too early to call. let's bring back in our political panel, msnbc contributor and washington post columnist, e.j. dionne and author of the best-selling book "why the right went wrong." editor in chief matt welch and also with us yiamish, thank you for being with us. just looking to see -- okay, so 5:00 closing in kentucky. we do expect momentarily to have some results for us there. can we talk, and let me start with you, yammish, what do you make of the fact we are seeing record turnout, even in a place that may turn out they have never held a caucus before and we saw on people's facebook pages they were angry about what's going on? >> it goes back to what one of the guests said that some people are either voting for trump or

voting against trump. the idea is that trump is on everyone's mind. i think he is mobilizing people in a way that maybe he doesn't understand because i cover bernie sanders a lot for "the new york times" and when i go there and talk to people about why are you voting for bernie sanders, even in those events, which are obviously for the democrats, people say, well trump really got me mad and i wanted to come out. this is my first time voting. and i said bernie sanders is running against hillary clinton. they said, oh, no, she has issues but i might vote for her anyways but really this is about trump. we're seeing all these record turnouts come back to the fact that he's a polarizing figure. that could either help him or hurt him. >> and the question then really does become if he starts to show that there is some crack in the armor, if we start to see that he loses one or more of these caucuses or potentially a primary, why? what would be behind it? >> well, i mean, again, we've seen the never trump campaign has only kind of started. we talk about the one thing --

>> here's what's interesting to me, matt. if you talk to -- if you look at what's coming in, it doesn't seem like they're getting huge amounts of money. they certainly have not coalesced behind a single candidate. and there's fighting within the republican party about this. so do we expect it to be effective? >> i expect it eventually to be effective. "the new york times" had a great piece two weeks ago talking about the complete ineffectuality of the gop establishment to figure out how to spend money. there's a line about trump. they're afraid, the elites of the republican party are afraid of their own best customers. let's reflect on that. there's something horrifying about that and not just about the knuckle dragging donald trump supporters know. it's horrifying on the part of the elite. it's horrifying on the people who have been playing these people like rubes. this is why i think that rubio's con man thing is the only effective critique here because donald trump supporters, there was a rand corporation study that came out. the most telling thing that you

know this person is going to support donald trump, 86% of people who answer the following question yes, who say that the government takes place without me having a say in it. it's people who feel alienated from their own party, from the country, different stages of alienation. if you tell those people, hey, look, he's playing you too, that's where you can start to chip away at it. the fact that republican elites for a long time have just been playing those people like rubes as well is really damning of them. >> he brings up money. where's the indication that money has made a difference anyway? even if all of these super pacs that are coming together against donald trump get millions and millions of dollars, where's the indication in this race that money has made a difference? >> i personally think money makes a lot more difference in lower profile races than presidential races because there is so much free time, especially as we know, for donald trump. but on matt's point, i think

it's absolutely true a lot of these republicans feel they have been played and they're so angry that i'm not even sure that persuading them that trump is a con man would move them over because they see him as an effective, loud gesture against the leadership of the republican party. but i think money could begin to have an effect if -- and i think some of these super pacs are going to spend in florida and they're not going to spend it on ideology. they might do a little that he's not really a conservative, they're going to spend it on trump university, they're going to spend it on ways to say that donald trump -- >> do we think that was the moment of the debate, the trump university exchange? >> i think not only the trump university exchange but when you look at the ads where trump was advertising for trump university, he sounds like trump the candidate. and so if you look at trump university and then the question is, is this the same bill of goods he's selling you as a candidate. but again, when we look at these results, and in kansas we're still missing like suburban kansas city, so rubio's vote may

be low. but again, this could be a very good day for ted cruz. if he runs first in kansas, if these results hold, he looks -- it looks like a one-two race in maine, it could be a one-two race in louisiana. now, going forward, the states aren't as good for ted cruz as they are for marco rubio, but he may be again able to come out tonight and say i'm still the only guy who's managed to give him a race, and it's going to be -- which is not great for rubio sort of trying to struggle to hang on in florida. >> ted cruz just won the cpac straw poll. do we know what the vote was or how close it was? 40% of the vote he got, rubio 30. so 40, 30, 15 for donald trump. >> there it is again, this cruz -- kind of cruzmentum of sort where he wants to establish himself as the only guy against trump. he --

>> very quickly, someone has to, don't they? >> very quickly someone has to because if not then donald trump can continue to say you know what, they're saying they want to have all this unification but no one can beat me. everybody is getting their home state but no one is getting the people that i'm getting, no one is capturing the voice of the people. i think in that straw poll, what i think about that straw poll is that donald trump didn't show up. he's probably going to look at those results and say, well look, it's the establishment picking these people again. i think that that's going to resonate with the people that are already donald trump supporters, who already say i don't want to deal with the establishment. i don't care about their polls, i don't care about cpac. he didn't even show up and look how much of a winner he is. >> that's the problem with the word"establishment." one is different from the congressional group which is somewhat different from the money group, although they overlap. so that's why there is no

effective establishment -- >> cpac is activists from around the country, they skew young and vote for rand paul and ron paul. >> average age 35, i'm told. >> when you talk to young people when you're there, interviewing them and asking them, okay, look, you're at a conservative conference. can you explain to a libertarian let alone an american why you should be in favor of the republican party right now? it's an authoritarian mood. most people under 40 are like i don't know, can't really help you here. we're not bernie sanders. we don't believe in democratic socialism. they run out of things pretty quickly. it's pretty hard for young conservatives to make the case with their fellow people that the current republican party is worth a damn. >> republicans have problems now even with their own young people. that's one of the fascinating things that's going on. >> and i've gone on college campuses and talked to the leaders of young republican groups and they're talking about the struggle they're having trying to articulate who they are and what they are at this point in time.

i want to go to kansas now where they are vying for the 40 delegates. the doors closed an hour ago. they are counting votes now. shaquille brewster is at the gop caucus site in wichita. so what's been going on? >> reporter: chris, how are you? they are counting votes now right behind me. they have them in stacks of ten and you see two people. one from each campaign counting those through. those are rubio votes that she just had there. where we're at right now, we're in wichita, kansas, and this caucus location is the largest in the state. an official just told me about 9,000 people, an estimated 9,000 people came out to vote just in this county today. the official also estimates about 80,000 statewide so a lot of people coming out to vote. a lot of excitement here. the votes still being counted so we should be getting more results pretty soon. >> thank you very much, shaq. let me go to the panel.

how nervous should the democrats be that there is this level of enthusiasm and turnout on the republican side? >> moderately nervous and they have to keep an eye on it. i think that the part of it that is anti-trump may not be a problem for them in the long run because some of those votes could go over. but it is a problem, especially when hillary clinton, if she wins the nomination, is going to need to turn out young people. young people are lower propensity to turn out and she's been losing them to bernie sanders. so it's something on their minds, but it's not an automatic bad thing because it depends on what the motivations of the votes are. >> also voters are at the polls in louisiana's primary where ballots are being cast for both republican and democratic candidates. cal perry remains in new orleans with the latest there. any more people turning out? it still looks like it's fairly slow. >> reporter: it's pretty slow, that's why we're going to get you in and show you the actual ballot while we have a moment. here's the actual louisiana

ballot. you come in here, you check not only your vote for the presidential nominee here on the democratic side, here on the republican, but you've got some local official primaries going on as well. here's ted cruz right here. i have to say in listening to the panel, it's really interesting to me. it seems like the more people turnpike again turn against trump, the more they become passionate about other candidates. we caught up with a ted cruz supporter earlier. take a listen. >> he's a businessman and donald trump is in it for donald trump. what can it do for donald trump. and i feel that that's donald trump. we need someone who's going to stand up for the american people, for the constitution, for god and for this country. ted cruz all the way. >> reporter: chris, one of the things that did not play well here in new orleans especially was the donald trump rally yesterday out at the airport.

a lot of negativity and a lot of people were turned off by that rally. it led the morning papers this morning as well as the local news. it will be interesting to see in about three hours if that hurts him at all. chris. >> thank you so much, cal. one of the things we'll be watching for obviously in louisiana, they have a long history of going with the evangelical candidate. the last two who won in louisiana were mike huckabee and rick santorum, so we will see what happens this year. so kansas, nebraska and louisiana up for grabs right now for the democrats. hillary clinton and bernie sanders fighting to the finish with 126 delegates at stake today. they have that debate tomorrow, they have more contests on tuesday. so we'll check in with both campaigns when our special live coverage of super saturday continues after a quick break.

so right now it is still too early to call in the kansas republican and democratic

caucuses, but look at these numbers on the republican side. with 40 delegates at stake, look, ted cruz has continued this campaign by saying i'm the one who has challenged donald trump more than any other candidate. we need to make this a two-person race. he's been talking about it as a two-person race so these caucuses will be very important for him. but again, just 26% in, so it's too early to call. we don't have any of the reporting in yet from kansas. it's been almost an hour since the final doors closed there, so we have been waiting to see what the result will be for hillary clinton and bernie sanders. again, what's interesting on both sides of this is these are places where there has not been a lot of extensive or good polling. what we have seen has favored donald trump and hillary clinton. and as secretary clinton and senator sanders prepare to face off in a debate tomorrow in flint, michigan, both of them talked about the water crisis at events today.

>> what was so just inexcusable and inexplicable to me was how people in authority knew about this and just dismissed it. >> how does it happen that in a major american city children are being poisoned? >> nbc's kasie hunt and kristen welker are both in flint shall michigan. kristen, let me start with you. obviously a somewhat emotional statement that we saw there from secretary clinton. what is her strategy tomorrow talking about this at the debate that's in flint? >> reporter: well, chris, first of all, she's like going to tout the fact that she was the first to visit flint, michigan. she's been very critical of the governor and his handling of the water crisis. we've just learned that chelsea clinton and the mayor are going to launch a flint water initiative tomorrow which will essentially be not only helping the people of flint but engaging

some of the younger community members in dealing with the crisis there. this is an issue she has been talking about and working on for the past several weeks and months and she's going to emphasize all of that at the debate tomorrow. i also think you can expect to hear her tout the economic policy that she rolled out on friday call for scaled back tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs overseas and she is girding for sharp attacks from senator sanders. he has been previewing those attacks, going after her quite forcefully on the issue of trade. this is a critical state. right now polls show that she has a lead, but of course senator sanders is hoping to gain momentum this weekend. i'll let kasie talk a little more about that. so the clinton campaign not taking any votes for granted and they have been courting and reaching out to the african-american voters here in michigan and in flint and that's another reason why she has been so focused on that critical issue. >> kasie, what does senator

sanders debate prep look like? in the past he has not had the most traditional of debate preparations. he's not a guy that loves to sit and have questions fired at him. >> no, chris, that's correct. i don't think you can really anticipate -- i don't think we've seen bernie sanders' personality change all that much over the course of this campaign. i doubt you'll see too much -- it's one of those things that people seem to -- his supporters seem to love about him. i doubt you'll see him go into this debate much differently. i think, you know, he's been keeping up a pretty intense campaign schedule and he has shown some flashes of frustration over kind of the nature of the campaign trail and people not focusing on the issues he wants to focus on. he's been holding press conferences and insisting that reporters only ask about the topic that he wants to discuss that day. today it was social security, for example. but i do think there is a lot on the line here in michigan. you have some contests today where louisiana, we can probably expect hillary clinton to do better. those caucuses in kansas and

nebraska could favor bernie sanders. but michigan is a pretty big delegate prize and it's also a chance the sanders campaign believes to try and show that they can reach more voters. there's, of course, a significant african-american community here, as kristen was just talking about. and the question is whether or not they can convince voters here, who live in a more northern state who have maybe dealt with the impact of the recession in a very real way, if you consider how it impacted the auto industry here in the state. he's also reaching out to college kids. he was at eastern michigan university a couple of weeks ago, he's going to be in ann ar bor at the university of michigan, go blue, on monday and so we'll see if he can get young people out to the polls to see if it makes a difference. >> casey huntinkasie hunt, when the blue, is not unbiased. mississippi is set to hold its primaries this coming tuesday. let me bring in the mayor of jackson, mississippi, and he supports hillary clinton.

good to see you, mr. mayor. >> good to be here. good to be seen. >> so let's talk a little bit about mississippi, what you're expecting on tuesday. level of enthusiasm, groundi game, all the stuff that you know about as somebody that has run for office there. >> i think you can anticipate mississippians come out, particularly african-americans come out in great numbers to support hillary clinton. she's given us a lot of enthusiasm, particularly here in jackson. we've seen that over the last few days. we've had former president bill clinton here, so he's really been focusing and getting the base really enthusiastic about it. >> a little earlier today at an event in detroit, hillary clinton talked about the voting rights act and she said the supreme court is on the ballot. as i've been out and about, i have to say that when i ask voters what's important to them, i often hear from the republican side, particularly ted cruz supporters, that the supreme court is something that's a motivating factor for them.

but i'm wondering if you hear voters talking about it and how much the fight over the future of the supreme court might play in mississippi. >> you know mississippi is typically always going to be looked at as a state where the supreme court in a decision that's made is going to impact things in the state. right now we're fighting things, particularly around a state flag that still has a confederate emblem. we're still fighting to see voting rights restored. so the things that happen at the supreme court really affect what's happening at the ground level. hillary clinton has been at the forefront of doing those kind of things as it relates to justice, making sure that social justice is being seen and that's the reason why we're behind her here in mississippi, why we're behind her in the city of jackson. >> if hillary clinton is the nominee, who would you like to

see her run against on the republican side? >> you know, quite frankly, i think that if we had an opportunity to see secretary against donald trump, i'm banking on the republican establishment staying home and not supporting trump and the democrats coming out in big numbers on behalf of secretary clinton. >> mayor tony yarbrough in jackson, mississippi, looking forward to coming to mississippi and seeing some of your residents there. good to talk to you. >> good to talk to you. thank you. very busy day on the campaign trail for marco rubio. from the cpac conference to a speech in his home state of florida, a rally in puerto rico later tonight, he's literally all over the map. but is it enough to emerge as an alternative to donald trump? at this hour the republican races in kansas and kentucky are too early to call. the next state we're waiting for results is maine. those preliminary numbers due out in 90 minutes.

we'll have much more and continue to follow all of these results. stay with us.

conservatism is not an attitude. conservatism is not how loud can you be, how offensive can you be, how many bad words can you say, how many ridiculous things can you say on television. that is not conservatism. conservatism is adhering to the constitution of the united states. >> marco rubio before a crowd at jacksonville, florida, a short time ago saying if they want a conservative republican nominee, he is their guy. florida is a must-win with rubio. without the winner-take-all prize he really has no path to the nomination. donald trump held his own rally in florida earlier, railing against rubio, cruz and the republican establishment and skipping cpac. trump and rubio both waiting for results from kansas and kentucky caucuses. those races too early to call. joining me now, the former deputy campaign manager for carly fiorina and former rnc spokesperson. so i want to play you some sound

from that trump rally in orlando. let's take a listen. >> i'm telling you, we have some something. this whole thing that we're doing is so special. we are really -- they're railing against us. they have never seen -- the establishment is a disaster. the republican establishment, they don't know what they're doing. >> so not surprising, the republican establishment has come out, many of them organizing, mitt romney, others, against him. he's saying they're a disaster. what do you make of this? >> well, i mean i think i agree with donald trump that politicians from both parties keep coming to d.c. and doing the same thing, nothing. the difference is that i don't think in anything we just heard that he offered a single solution. in debate after debate, i hear him angry, but i don't hear him actually saying that he's going to fix anything. what i hear is one thing at the debate and he has a statement the next hour taking back what

he just said. >> you sound like what we're hearing from people like mitt romney, but if he becomes the nominee, what happens to the party? what are we seeing here? all of this rhetoric back and forth internally as opposed to going after the democrats? >> i'm watching the same kansas numbers you are, but i find them pretty interesting, which is that when republicans get to vote on their nominee, ted cruz and marco rubio of their choice. when disaffected voters who are understandably very frustrated with the system vote, they're choosing donald trump. my mother is a trump voter. she hasn't voted in a primary in her entire life and i understand why she's so frustrated. but republicans, conservatives are taking marco rubio and ted cruz. you know, the cpac straw poll just finished and once again, marco rubio and ted cruz. ted cruz won, marco rubio behind him. and donald trump a distant third place. so i think republicans are being pretty clear about who their

choice is. and now it's a question of can either cruz or rubio lock this up or take it to a contested convention but i don't think donald trump is going to be our nomin nominee. >> let's talk about the potential for a brokered convention. already his incompetent opponents have blundered by using the pe joer afternoon brokered convention rather than the favorable open convention and by framing their movement as stop trump rather than some sort of affirmation. what could you make of that? >> it sounds like consult anant talk to me. every convention is run the same way. the delegates to the convention vote. if no one gets half of those votes, then you keep running more and more ballots. this actually isn't that uncommon in either party's history so it's not that voters are being disenfranchised one way or the other.

all this means is that nobody got half of the delegates. when you think about it is a difficult thing to do when you started with 17 people in the race. i won't be hugely surprised if it impose to the convention to go through multiple ballots but i don't think it's this dire end of the republican party type apocalypse that other people are saying it is. >> thanks so much for being with us. i want to bring back in our political panel, e.j. dionne is here, yammish and we are joined by nan hayworth, who like our previous guest was with the carly fiorina campaign as the new york co-chair. thanks to all of you. but you haven't decided on endorsing someone else now that carly fiorina is out of the race. >> no, chris. i think it is important for all of us who are republicans to concentrate on getting through this process with as little collateral damage to all of our

republican colleagues. >> how do you feel about everything so far? >> i think that the acrimony disserves us. i think we should be focusing on the real and valid policy issues that we face. this election is like a primal scream in some ways. you see it on the democratic side in the candidacy of bernie sanders. you see it on the republican side in the candidacy of mr. trump in particular. >> we hear that a lot about drawing that comparison, but they're very different kinds of situations. a perfect example is what just happened with donald trump. watch this. do we have the video of him with his pledge? >> let's do a pledge. everybody here -- who likes me in this room? okay. i've never done this before. can i have a pledge, a swearing.

raise your right hand. i do solemnly swear that i, no matter how i feel, no matter what the conditions, if there's hurricanes or whatever -- that's good enough. will vote on or before the 12th for donald j. trump for president. >> the actual day of the primary is the 15th, as we all know. yammish, as you've been out there talking to voters, this is a candidate who knows his audience. >> he knows his audience and he knows how to -- i would also argue he knows how to get attention. i think that he understood the optics of what this would mean. he understood people would be talking about this and he understands that the people in that audience would willingly raise their hands and make this

pledge because they are fervent supporters of him. he's gone through all these different things that he's said and done. people said this is the end of trump this week, this is the end of trump. he called for the ban on muslims, he's talking about his genitalia, he's doing all these different things and people are not leaving trump. and i think that that is really important. but i have to say this is someone who also covers social justice and race issues, my twitter timeline was blowing up because this really frightened people. the optics of people raising their hand and pledging support is scary to a lot of the people that i cover and really are wondering what this means. now of course donald trump is talking about people voting for him not talking about an obvious comparison to hitler, but people are really scared when they put those hands in the air and it's different than saying this is funny or it's weird to watch people do this. i think people on the timeline and people that i talked to are nervous about what that means. >> one of the story lines is going to be what we heard from

one of the folks in one of the caucus sites is he said people are turning out in record numbers because they're either voting for trump or against trump. we've talked about the size of his crowds and how many people are coming out. we haven't seen on the other side so significantly the anti-trump, though. are we starting to see it potentially in places like kansas, where pretty steadily, even though it's too early to call, ted cruz has been holding at 49% or 50%? >> i think you are beginning to have a coalescing of sentiment anti-trump because people are realizing perhaps too late that if they don't stop him pretty quick, they might not stop him at all. in particular, if either or especially both of those two states, ohio and florida, go to trump, then there may be no stopping him so there's an urgency. but there's also, i think, a fear. you know, let's not put too fine a point on it. a lot of people are comparing trump to the european far right. and for a lot of voters, it's

hard to tell with trump whether these are innocent gestures. no, i'm having them pledge like the boy scouts, or if he knows a lot of people are going to look at that and have these historical memories. what it means to have a huge crowd like that raising the hand. so you've got that. and then you've got the trivialization, the vulgarization of politics that you saw in that debates. it wasn't critics of the republican party who were heartsick, it was republicans who were heartsick over that debate last week. >> i would submit to you that this kind of polarization throughout the country, and again i would say on both sides of the aisle in various ways is a sign of desperation. it is a sign of the fact that there is a fundamental and well based mistrust in the growth and power of government to do things in our lives that unfortunately is formulated currently it's ill equipped to do. so it's very important once again for those on the republican side who care about

the outcome of this election to concentrate not on eviscerating each other, not on exacerbating that sense of hysteria or drama, if you will, but actually on putting forth their clear, distinct and valid policy proposals in as great a detail as possible and counting on republican voters to listen to these things and take them seriously. there's still a lot of time in this primary. >> we're waiting for more results to come in. let's take a live look at idaho, one of the beautiful places in this country, where ted cruz is set to appear soon at a rally for that state's primary coming up on tuesday. right now the campaign is waiting for final results out of today's caucuses in kansas, that race too close to call. as we've been saying, cruz has been holding steady between 49% and 50%, double what we've seen for donald trump but still waiting for key precincts to come in. after the break, the cruz campaign's national spokesperson will join me to talk about a

possible change in the texas senator's strategy to win the gop nomination. we are now able to project a winner in the kansas republican caucus. ted cruz with 40 delegates, what does this say to us? >> it says that ted cruz can brag again that he is still the only guy accumulating an alternative set of delegates against trump. it's going to put pressure on somebody like kasich to say, all right, the contests haven't been in my places. there's one poll i don't know how to read it that shows him up on trump in michigan. he'll be talking about that a lot. >> we've been talking a long time about the importance of florida and ohio for kasich and for rubio, just escalates even further. >> yes, because cruz has a case to make now. even the people who don't particularly like cruz, that he may be the one guy who can beat him at the polls. >> so here we go. ted cruz with 43% reporting in this caucus. and again we are seeing throughout these caucuses, and

again caucus numbers tend to be very low, huge numbers of people have been turning out, triple, quadruple what we have seen in the past. 40 delegates at stake. but people don't look at the delegate count, they look at the headlines. what they're going to see tomorrow and what will be -- and what, frankly, donald trump has complained about is that sometimes people who win one or two tend to get more attention than him, who can sometimes win far more than anybody else. >> that is true that i think most of the headlines will say, look at ted cruz, he can make the case that he can win against donald trump. i think the interesting thing with this race is kind of with marco rubio still trying to go for florida, still trying to go for that winner-takes-all whether he is a mention in tomorrow and whether he does well, because marco rubio is going to say they keep talking about donald trump and ted cruz, but let's wait until florida. as someone from florida, i think that it's interesting to be able

to see how that state votes, so i think it's going to be really interesting after tomorrow but i think donald trump will complain again that of course the headlines aren't about him. >> i want to bring in the cruz campaign's national spokesman and former chairman of the california republican party. first of all, congratulations on that win. ted cruz being the projected winner in kansas. what does this mean for your campaign? >> i think this is a tremendous shot of momentum for senator cruz as this becomes a two-person race. i think that combined with what the numbers are looking like in the state of maine are interesting as well. donald trump had a big huge lead in maine until today and it goes to show that that stellar debate performance on the part of senator cruz really has impacted people. these debates are having an effect. they helped to shift the momentum and this is clearly becoming a two-person race, marco rubio and john kasich in a distant third and fourth in some of the results that we're seeing so far today so we're very, very

encouraged by this big win in kansas. >> let's talk about your strategy and the time that your candidate is planning to spend in florida. is your idea now we have to deny a win to marco rubio in florida, we have to deny a win to john kasich in ohio because without that they can make a rationale for going forward? >> yeah, our strategy is to win. our strategy is not to deny wins to other people. rather, our strategy is to win for us. >> but the political reality is they'll make an argument if they win their home states that there's still reason for them to stay in. >> florida has 99 delegates, that's warraimportant. that's a significant number of delegates up for grabs. that's why we've opened ten offices in the state of florida. we're competing to win those delegates for senator cruz. as the main results today show, the preliminary results where donald trump had a big lead until today and the fact that that race right now with the

initial reports coming in with ted cruz in the lead, even if that's only a close race in maine, it shows just how quickly these numbers can change and that gives us further encouragement to go into fra and win those delegates. >> so let's talk about your strategy going forward short term and long term because donald trump still holds a significant lead in overall delegates. >> well, donald trump holds a lead but only has as of the start of polling today, he only had a little over 300 delegates. you need 1,237 in order to win the nomination so there are many, many delegates up for grabs. in my own state of california, we vote last on june the 7th. we have the largest delegation of any state with 169 delegates. and it may go that far. that's why from the very beginning our strategy has been to build a 50-state campaign organization. states like new jersey, states like california and the like. so going into florida, partly that's a result of the fact that

marco rubio is so weak in his own state. if you take a look at senator cruz winning his state of texas by 17 points versus the last poll that we have in florida with marco rubio losing by 16 there, that's a 33-point differential between the two candidates in their respective home states. that creates an opportunity for senator cruz and we're going to take full advantage of that. >> e.j. dionne would like to ask you a question. >> you bet. >> i have been looking at your -- first of all, congratulations. but i've been looking at your strategy in florida and it seems to me that ted cruz has decided a couple of things. one is that a brokered or open or contested convention is no better for him than it is for donald trump and that you really do want to be the last person left standing so you're not necessarily even playing in florida to carry florida, but you wouldn't mind if you damaged marco rubio down there. could you respond to that? i'm very curious what the underlying strategy is. >> sure. a couple of things. one is that we're competing

there in order to win. that's very clear. we're competing in order to win. secondly in terms of a brokered convention, senator cruz has made very, very clear in the clearest possible terms that he is in favor of having this election determined by the voters. and that means getting to 1237 delegates at the polling places. we win this thing at the polling places in the respective states before the convention, not at the convention but before the convention and that means expanding the number of states where we're actively competing whenever possible, taking advantage of the change in climate that we see. i think that the results so far in maine represent that. and we're in idaho right now. we're expanding the battlefield in florida. so we're going to do everything possible to make sure we have 1237 delegates before the convention begins rather than after the voting begins at the convention. >> this is yammish. >> hi. my question really is talk to me a little about your ground game and what your message is going to be and how you're going to convince voters that are very familiar with marco rubio and

who see him in some ways as not the same person as ted cruz but similar to him, what's your message to florida voters and what's your ground game going to look like? is it paid advertising? is it door to door, what is it? >> you'll forgive me if i don't publish the campaign plan in every detail on msnbc. maybe we'll do that at some point after the results come in from florida. but seriously, in florida we have a state where everyone is familiar with marco rubio. where marco rubio has won the republican nomination for the u.s. senate before and where they're not supporting him. donald trump has been in the lead in marco rubio's home state. this shows a very, very different political dynamic than we saw in the state of texas where senator cruz won a 17-point victory among the voters that know him best. that creates an opening, that creates an opportunity. the majority of republicans in

florida do not want trump to be the nominee. marco rubio does not have a path to the nomination and we're the alternative to donald trump and we're going in aggressively. >> and i know you won't mind me saying thank you, ron, because your candidate is now in coeur d'alene, idaho. this is his watch party and he has just started to address the crowd there, so let's listen in. >> let's do it. >> and thank you to the patriots who are gathered here from the great state of idaho. and while we're at it, let me say god bless kansas. and god bless maine. now, it's a little bit early. we don't know final election results yet. the votes are still being counted. but as of today, the networks have called the state of kansas for us.

and right now as they're counting the votes, we have roughly 50% of the votes in the state of kansas. and, you know, maine, it's still early. they're just starting to counting. but right now on the count in maine, we have roughly 50% of the votes in the state of maine. and the scream you hear, the howl that comes from washington, d.c., is utter terror at what we, the people, are doing together. let me say the last couple of weeks have been extraordinary. the journey we've seen, if you think back a year ago, a year ago, we had 17 candidates in this race. it was a terrific, talented,

deep field, young, inspirational, dynamic candidates. and then over the course of the year, the field narrowed and it narrowed and it narrowed. and then we saw on tuesday the super tuesday results that were extraordinary, and then today on super saturday, we seem to be seeing a continuation of that very same pattern. and what we're seeing is conservatives coming together. what we're seeing is republicans coming together. what we're seeing is libertarians coming together. what we're seeing is men and women who love freedom and love the constitution coming and uniting and standing as one behind this campaign. every one of us here understands that our country is in crisis. that we're bankrupting our kids

and grandkids. that our constitutional rights are under assault each and every day and that america has receded from leadership in the world and it's made the world a much more dangerous place. [ inaudible ] that is exactly right. and i am here today with a word of hope and encouragement. all across idaho, all across this country, people are waking up. i believe this election will center on three key issues. jobs, freedom and security. let's start with jobs. i want to take a minute to speak to all the single moms here who are working two or three part-time jobs, 28, 29 hours a week because you've had your

hours forcibly reduced because obamacare kicks in at 30 hours a week. i want to talk to all the truck drivers and plumbers and mechanics and electricians, all the men and women with calluses on your who see wages stagnate year after year after year. cost of living keeps going up but the wage does not keep pace with the cost of living. i want to talk to all the young people. coming out of school with student loans up to your eyeballs. scared am i going to get a job? what kind of future is there? what am i going to be able to provide for my family? you know, the media tells us this is as good as it gets. this is the new normal. well, let me tell you that is an other lie. the greatest engine for

prosperity the world has ever known is the american free enterprise system. and you know you can talk about making america great, again. you can even print that on a baseball cap. but the real question is, do you understand the principles and values that made america great in the first place? the heart of our economy is not washington, d.c. it's not new york city. the heart of our economy is small businesses all over this country. if you want to kill the economy, do what we've done for the last seven years, hammer small businesses over and over and over again. if you want to unleash incredible economic growth, then lift the boot of the federal government off the backs of the necks of small businesses.

if i'm elected president, we will repeal every word of obama care. we'll pass common sense health care reform that makes health insurance personal and portable and affordable and keeps government from getting in between us and our doctors. and we will pass a simple flat tax. where every american can fill out our taxes on a postcard. when we do that, we should abolish the irs.

and when it comes to immigrat n immigration, we are going to stop amnesty. we're going to secure the borders and we're going to end sanctuary cities. the american people are tired of the washington dealmakers that go to washington and cut deals with the democrats, support amnesty or fund the gang of eight while talking a good game on immigration. their checkbook talks a very different game. we need leaders who do something very, very simple who do what they actually said they would do. and let me tell you, when we do this together, when we repeal obama care and we abolish the irs and when we pull back the federal regulators and the epa and all the other regulators that are killing farmers and ranchers and small businesses and we stop amnesty, we are

going to see incredible booming economic growth. millions of new jobs, wages rising for every one. young people coming out of school with two, three, four, five job opportunities. >> so, ted cruz who is in idaho with the watch party. that, obviously, primary on tuesday. but this has been a very good day for ted cruz. let's put up on the republican side the results that we have seen so far. and nbc news able to call the winner in the kansas caucus as ted cruz with 54% of the vote in. he has more than half of it. and we have assigned ten delegates tahim so far. he also won the straw poll at cpac which donald trump decided not to go to. we had the head on who said he didn't want to answer questions from a reporter and a lot of discontent at that gathering

because of donald trump not showing up. and we have a lot more coming up throughout the evening as we continue to follow the results from many other places. maine, louisiana. that wraps up this hour, though, of our special live super saturday coverage. i'm chris jansing in new york. mark halprin will pick up our coverage next. you're watching the place for politics, msnbc.

i'm mark halprin and i'm john and three for the democrats. kansas and nebraska. >> nbc news is predicting that ted cruz is the winner of the republican caucus. the state totals hovering around 50%. on the democratic side in kansas msnbc has the race as too early to call and the same is true in kentucky and the republican caucus there. for the republicans 150 delegates are up for grabs today. assigned ten delegates to cruz

so far tonight based on how he did in kansas. the final sites are closing at the top of the next hour. polls close in louisiana and their primary at 9:00 eastern time. on the democratic side, 126 delegates at stake tonight with voting in kansas, nebraska and louisiana. maine democrat caucus tomorrow. >> candidates prom both parties are looking ahead to upcoming contests. john kasich are in michigan, which hold its primary on tuesday. ted cruz has the day in idaho, which has republican caucus on tuesday. marco rubio has been stumping in florida after speaking at the annual conservative political action conference just outside of washington in maryland. donald trump, of course, decided yesterday to skip cpac and rubio earned the standing ovation today after delivering an attack on the absent republican fro frontrunner. >> they won't have a chance if the conservative movement is hijacked by someone who is not a conservative.