Donald Trump’s near sweep of Tennessee counties during yesterday’s Super Tuesday Republican primary comes with a caveat: He won majorities in only 22 of them, an analysis of preliminary return data shows.
In 72 of the remaining 73, Trump drew pluralities ranging from 29.93 percent in Shelby County to just under, but not quite, a 51 percent majority. Williamson County stood alone as the sole Tennessee county in which Trump drew less than a plurality.
Hillary Clinton, by contrast, pulled in majorities in 89 of the state’s 95 counties, pluralities in another 3, and lost to rival Bernie Sanders in the remaining three.
While pluralities are more likely to occur in a three-way race than in a two-way race, the results illustrate that Trump faced tougher opposition from his two closest rivals, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, than Clinton did from her lone remaining opponent, Bernie Sanders. The data came from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s March 1 Unofficial Election Results page.
How Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton fared in the Tennessee 2016 Primary
The top map shows counties in which Trump won a majority (bright red), a plurality (pink), or neither (yellow). The bottom map shows where Clinton won a majority (bright blue), a plurality (light blue), or neither (yellow). Zoom in and click for details about any county. Get the full dataset here.
Statewide, Trump won 38.94 percent of votes in the Republican primary, the unofficial tally showed. Cruz followed with 24.71 percent, and Rubio, with 21.18 percent. A dozen other current and former candidates drew percentages in the single digits. Clinton pulled in 66.08 percent of votes from Democratic primary participants, compared to Sanders’ 32.41 percent. The balance went to former candidate Martin J. O’Malley or were reported as “uncommitted.”