Wisconsin Primary Elections: Live Coverage And Results

Lotta spousal support going on in Cruz’s victory speech — Cruz put his wife Heidi on center stage tonight, hugging her several times, probably because he loves her (duh) but also because Trump said some nasty things about her lately. Cruz took the opportunity to talk about how his wife was a force to be reckoned with (she has a hella high-power job at Goldman Sachs) as well as a doting mother. The woman note was one that Cruz was hitting hard — “Strong women can accomplish anything,” he said — and this is in no small part, one imagines, because Trump has not been winning the hearts and minds of women lately, given his ugly smears about the physical attractiveness of his wife vs. Cruz’s and some remarks to the effect that women who have abortions ought to be punished, a position not widely held by those on the right.

Of the 31 states to hold some type of presidential preference vote — I don’t count Colorado, Wyoming or North Dakota in that group — Trump has yet to receive a majority in any of them. Cruz could win a majority tonight in Wisconsin; he’d also previously done so in Utah. (And in Wyoming, if you want to count county convention results.)

On most primary nights, Cruz has had to wait long into the evening to get his first victory. Tonight, he clearly didn’t, but it’s more than that. His margin over Trump is likely to fall as more votes come in from the northern and western parts of the state. But if you’re looking for momentum (whatever that exactly means), Cruz is getting the results reported in the right order. On the East Coast (where primaries are taking place later this month) viewers are seeing big Cruz margins march across their screens.