Donald Trump won the Massachusetts Republican primary on Super Tuesday with nearly half the vote. Trump took 49 percent, far ahead of John Kasich, with 18 percent. Marco Rubio came in right behind Kasich, with nearly 18 percent of the vote. Ted Cruz finished fourth, with almost 10 percent, and Ben Carson won 3 percent of the vote.
In all, about 600,000 people voted in the Republican primary.
Kasich was looking for second place in Massachusetts, and he did just edge out Rubio. Kasich won some liberal bastions: Amherst, Cambridge, Brookline and several of the wealthy suburbs of Boston. But Trump swept the rest of the state.
In Abington, for example, it was Trump, Trump, Trump.
Felicia and Emily Fantasia voted for the brash businessman.
“Why? Because I don’t want another politician in office. I want a businessman that is going to take care of us,” said Emily Fantasia.
“He’s going to take back our country. We may not like everything he says, but his ideas are good,” said Felicia Fantasia.
Pauline Quirk said Tuesday was the first time in her life she voted Republican. She, too, voted for Trump.
“I think the country needs a whole new upheaval. I think that we’re headed in the wrong direction, the way we’ve been headed the last 20 years,” said Quirk. “I’d like to see more jobs come and less importing, and I think he’s the man for the job. I think the others are too wrapped up in partisan politics.”
At a party celebrating Trump’s Massachusetts victory in a storefront campaign headquarters in Littleton, Dave Lavita was exhausted. He’d spent the day at the polling stations in his hometown of Tewksbury. It was the first time ever he’d volunteered for a political candidate. Lavita unenrolled from the Democratic Party so he could vote for Trump.
“Just fed up with the whole establishment lies, deceit. We put Republicans in Congress. They didn’t do anything. They stuck it to us on Obamacare,” said Lavita. “They stuck it to us on the illegal immigration bill, stuck it to us on the budget.”
Another Trump supporter nearby, a carpenter worried about whether his 20-year-old son will get a satisfying job when he graduates from college, said all the union carpenters may hold Hillary Clinton signs to conform with their union come fall, but he predicted they’ll vote for Trump.
As volunteers celebrated their victory, New Hampshire co-chair Stephen Stepanek made a bold forecast for the general election.
“I predict that in November, Massachusetts is going to vote Republican,” Stepanek said.
It would be the first time since Ronald Reagan in 1984. In the meantime, campaign volunteers are heading to Ohio and other states coming up in the primary cycle.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed a quote to Felicia Fantasia that was said by Emily Fantasia. We regret the error.
Related:
- Donald Trump Wins Mass. GOP Presidential Primary By Wide Margin
- Maps: County-By-County Mass. Super Tuesday Results
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