Politics & Government

Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders Win: Kansas Republican, Democrat Caucus Live Results (Updated)

Kansas voters received a lot of attention from the presidential candidates this campaign. And lines at the caucus sites were huge.

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The GOP victory in Kansas went to Ted Cruz, who secured 48.2 percent support with all ballots counted. Cruz gave a victory speech from his campaign headquarters in Idaho. Donald Trump followed with 23.8 percent; Marco Rubio trailedwith 16.7 percent and John Kasich follows at 10.7 percent.

For the Democrats, the Bernie Sanders campaign was confident the state would fall in his favor, and that's exactly what happened. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the state Democratic Party told CNN Sanders was the victor.

Kansas voters gathered to caucus Saturday for the Republican and Democratic candidates for president, and long lines marked the occasion as interest in the nomination campaigns nears that of the historic 2008 election. This year, the GOP printed 60,000 ballots (compared to 30,000 in 2012) and had to go to a print shop to make more, CNN reports.

In recent days, Hillary Clinton, Sanders and Rubio each paid a visit to Kansas. The lines at Democratic caucus sites were so long that the venues could not accommodate all the people coming to support a candidate. Voters were forced to "sign in" for their preferred candidate and leave to make room for more people.

On Saturday morning, Trump appeared at a Wichita rally, where he was booed by Cruz supporters, and Cruz appeared at his own rally in the same location just an hour later.

  • Kansas GOP and Dem caucus results will be posted in frequent updates.

“God bless Kansas!” Cruz said from a rally in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. “What we’re seeing is the public coming together, libertarians coming together, men and women who love the Constitution coming together and uniting and standing as one behind this campaign.”

Cruz spoke to reporters after his victory speech.

"I think what we saw in Kansas was a real manifestation of a shift," Cruz said, noting that Kansas, Maine and CPAC are very different groups of voters. "Now is the time for us to come together."

Cruz said the results of Saturday show people fear a Trump nomination, which would be a disaster.

"We have beaten Donald not once, not twice but seven times now," Cruz said, noting that he is adding to his delegate numbers.

Cruz said he will compete "vigorously" in Florida to try to knock Rubio out. To this point, Rubio has only won the state of Minnesota.

"We are running a national campaign. We are competing in all 50 states," Cruz said.

With the nominations still in question, and the Republican Party in particular locked in an existential battle with Trump, Kansas votes matter more than they have in elections past.

On the Republican side in Kansas, voters gathered at 102 caucus sites based on county. Democrats assembled at 47 sites based on state senate districts.

"There's a lot of attention being given to Kansas. Often times in the calendar of primaries and caucuses, the nomination is already done by now. But in both the Republican and Democratic races ... Kansas does matter," Sen. Anthony Hensley told WIBW TV before the caucuses opened.

Registered GOP members cast secret ballots between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Central time. Democrats registered between 1 and 3 p.m., and the turnout for the Democratic caucus events was overwhelming.

Sen. Terry Bruce, co-chair of Marco Rubio's Kansas campaign, predicted a huge turnout and that bore out.

"We're expecting 150 percent what it was 4 years ago," Bruce told WIBW. "This is the first time (the candidates) spent this amount of attention on Kansas."

Trump had been scheduled to visit Washington, D.C., on Saturday, but he diverted to Kansas instead to rally people in the morning. Cruz supporters were there, too, and booed Trump.

“We’re no longer going to be the stupid country,” Trump told his supporters in Wichita.

Trump Met with Boos in Kansas


Kansans are loving the attention they've received as candidates barnstormed through the state in the past week. But the tone and tenor of the GOP campaign, especially, has left many cold.

“It’s the most disgusting campaign I’ve ever seen,” Debra Miner of Overland Park, Kansas, told the Kansas City Star on Saturday. She favors Donald Trump. “I know it can get bad, but this is far beyond that. All of them.”

At stake are 40 Kansas delegates for the Republicans. Some are awarded proportionally based on the vote within congressional districts. Others are awarded based on the statewide vote for candidates who earn at least 10 percent of the vote. And three delegates go to the statewide winner.

Trump, who hasn't done well in caucus states, held a slight lead in the few polls taken in Kansas, according to fivethirtyeight.com, but Cruz won neighboring Oklahoma and Iowa. The evangelical vote is traditionally strong here, and Kansas is full of traditional GOP voters who tend not to favor Trump.

A recent poll cited by RealClearPolitics.com showed Trump polling 35 percent of the GOP vote, Cruz at 29 percent and Rubio at 17 percent. The actual results, however, showed how unpredictable Kansas voters can be.

Clinton and Sanders are close in the Kansas polls; there are 37 delegates up for grabs for them, 33 of which are awarded based on the caucus results: 11 are awarded on the proportional statewide result and 22 are awarded by congressional district.

Going into Saturday nationally for the GOP, Trump led the field with 329 pledged delegates. Cruz had 231, Rubio had 110 and Kasich had 25.

For Democrats, Clinton leads the delegate count with 1,066 of the 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination. Sanders currently trails with 432 delegates.

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Images via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons


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