First Read is a morning briefing from Meet
the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important
political stories and why they matter.
The 2016 primary season heads to the West
The biggest story in America and the world is
the overseas terrorist attack that rocked Brussels, which certainly will
have political aftershocks at home and on the 2016 campaign trail. But
we begin with today's presidential nominating contests. A total of three
western states hold races today -- three on the Democratic side
(Arizona primary, Idaho caucuses, Utah caucuses), and two on the
Republican side (Arizona primary, Utah caucuses). While the public
polling has been sparse, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are favored in
Arizona, while Bernie Sanders has the advantage in Idaho and Utah, and
Ted Cruz is the favorite in the GOP contest in Utah. Three important
points to make about tonight: One, on the Republican side, Arizona is
winner take all (58 delegates), and Utah is proportional (40 delegates)
but winner take all if someone wins by more than 50%. Two, the
Democratic contests in Arizona (75 delegates up for grabs), Idaho (23),
and Utah (33) are proportional as always. And three, much of Arizona has
ALREADY voted before today due to the early voting. "Of the 1.2 million
eligible Maricopa County voters, about 894,000 requested early ballots
for the presidential preference election, as the primary is officially
known. So far, 54 percent or 464,067 have returned their ballots,
according to Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell," the Arizona Republic says.
"Pima County, the state's second-most-populated county, reported it
mailed 224,083 ballots to voters and as of Friday, 61 percent, or
136,946, had been returned."
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