New polls show Donald Trump in prime position to sweep up the next 2 key states
In Florida, a new CNN/ORC poll showed Trump ahead of Sen. Marco Rubio by 40% to 24%. A Wednesday Quinnipiac poll had Trump ahead of Rubio by 23 points in the senator's home state.
The CNN poll found that Clinton held a 27-point lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Sunshine State, meanwhile.
In Ohio, the CNN poll had Trump leading John Kasich - the state's governor - by six points. Quinnipiac found Trump leading by the same six-point margin.
And on the Democratic side, the CNN poll showed Clinton, the former secretary of state, up on Sanders by a 30-point split.
All polls were conducted before Tuesday night's contests. Trump won three of four states on the GOP side, further paving his path to the nomination. But Sanders pulled off perhaps the biggest stunner of the election cycle, beating Clinton in Michigan.
The surveys displayed the critical nature of the states to Kasich and Rubio, who are both vying to become the prime alternative to Trump. A vast majority of voters in Ohio and Florida said that if their home-state candidates failed to win, they should drop out. The CNN survey showed that 71% of Ohioans believe Kasich should end his campaign if he loses Ohio, while 66% said Rubio needs to give up if he loses Florida.
Rubio has called Florida a "must-win" and said that the winner of the Florida primary will go on to be the GOP nominee. Kasich has promised that he is "going to win Ohio." Both states are crucial for Republicans, as they are both "winner-take-all" delegate contests.
Asked about the positive polling news Wednesday morning - a day after victories in Mississippi, Michigan, and Hawaii - Trump told CNN it's time for the Republican Party to unify around him.
He told CNN's Chris Cuomo:
Well, I would say at that point it's pretty tough for anybody to do anything and I know we have a big lead in Florida. And I hear we have a pretty good lead also in polls in Ohio. You know, again, I'm going to Ohio. I'm going to Florida. I'm in Florida right now, actually. I'm going to North Carolina today. I'm going to be all over the place over the next week. So you know, hopefully it will all work out. I would love to see the party come together and unify.
For Trump, recent polling has proven mostly accurate. He won in Mississippi and Michigan after consistently leading the polls in both states. Polls also accurately predicted almost all of Trump's "Super Tuesday" primary wins.
However, although polling has been spot on in assessing Clinton in the South - including in Mississippi, where she won by a massive margin Tuesday - she suffered an unprecedented loss in Michigan, where the RealClearPolitics average of several polls had her leading by more than 20 points.