Cruz takes delegates in Wyoming; Rubio wins in D.C.

Sen. Ted Cruz won the most delegates awarded in the Wyoming Republican conventions Saturday, while Sen. Marco Rubio narrowly beat Gov. John Kasich in Washington, D.C., on the last day of voting before Tuesday’s make-or-break primaries in five large states.

Hillary Clinton was the winner in the Northern Mariana Islands, the only Democratic contest of the day. In Guam, Republicans chose nine delegates for the party’s July convention, but the delegates were officially unpledged to any candidate.

Compared with the primaries coming in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio – in what is shaping up to be a second “Super Tuesday” – these contests made for a minor Saturday, with Cruz trimming a bit from Donald Trump’s delegate lead.

In Washington, Saturday amounted to what might have been the establishment’s last chance to roar back at the angry anti-Washington masses who have dominated the electorate so far.

Long lines of voters snaked through the one voting site, the Loews Madison Hotel downtown. They passed people handing out fliers for Rubio, infants in strollers wearing “All-American Baby” onesies, and the “Stop Trump” desk, where newspaper editorials opposing Trump were on offer.

They also passed Vinnie Roma, 22, a Trump volunteer from Toms River, N.J., who wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and stars-and-stripes pants. (“They roll their eyes,” he said with a shrug.)

Nicholas Rodman, 29, a staff member of the House of Representatives, wore a Reagan-Bush ’84 ball cap and voted for Rubio of Florida.

“He’s strong on national security, and he’s pro free-trade,” he said, echoing long-standing party orthodoxy.

J.J. Burke, 33, a consultant who works on the websites of Fortune 500 companies, said he preferred Kasich of Ohio.

“I relate to him more, and he has legislative experience,” said Burke, who joked that he was one of downtown’s “few young Republicans.”

Registered Democrats living in Washington outnumber Republicans more than 10 to 1, but Patrick Mara, the executive director of the D.C. Republican Party, noted the national party had granted it 19 delegates to the convention.

As a result, Mara said he was surprised candidates did not campaign here, although he acknowledged, “It’s hard to run here in a public way when you are spending your whole campaign running away from Washington.”

Wyoming represented the day’s other prize. Three of the state’s 29 delegates were unpledged state party officials, and only 12 delegates were contested Saturday, with Cruz of Texas winning nine of them. The remaining 14 will be pledged at a state convention on April 16. Officials in Wyoming have begun studying whether to abandon their complicated voting system, which involves three separate elections, and move to a primary.

“We don’t see a lot of attention,” explained Tom Wiblemo, executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party.

But the Wyoming party’s chairman, Matt Micheli, pointed out that Cruz had visited in August, hosting a couple of large rallies on opposite ends of the state, and that the Cruz campaign had remained engaged throughout the primary season. Trump never made it to the state, Kasich visited last year, and Rubio surrogates held several events.

Saturday’s elections actually began Friday evening in Guam, about 8,000 miles from Washington and on the other side of the international date line. About 300 Republicans met in a hotel ballroom there to vote to send nine delegates to the party’s convention in Cleveland.

The delegates are not yet officially pledged to any candidate, although one of them, the territory’s governor, Eddie Calvo, has endorsed Cruz. Cruz’s campaign had dispatched a surrogate on a five-week tour of the U.S. territories to win over their delegates.

On Saturday, a letter sent by Cruz to Guam’s Republican Party was read on the caucus floor, and the candidate’s wife, Heidi, called in to the ballroom, according to the Pacific Daily News. So did Kasich and Trump, who told the assembled Guamanians: “I understand the tourism industry better than anyone else who’s ever run for president,” and “I thought it was very, very important to call in. I didn’t want to give it to one of my assistants to do it. It’s very, very important if we can get Guam and the delegates. And I will never forget you people.”

Democrats voted in the Northern Mariana Islands, a territory about 130 miles north of Guam. The island has about 50,000 U.S. citizens. As in Guam, they cannot vote in the general election but can participate in the nominating contests.

Clinton won four of the territory’s delegates awarded Saturday, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont took two.

Although Washington has only a nonvoting delegate in Congress, its residents do get to vote in the general election, as well as during the primary season.

This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 11:37 PM with the headline "Cruz takes delegates in Wyoming; Rubio wins in D.C.."