Politics Brief: Trump, Clinton win big on Super Tuesday

Trump and Clinton win in Virginia

Donald Trump won the Republican primary in Virginia yesterday with 35 percent of the vote. Sen. Marco Rubio came a close second with 32 percent, carrying concentrated support in the state's population centers.

While not enough to win the state, Rubio won locally in both Richmond city and Henrico County, with 47 percent and 37 percent perspectively.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton won a resounding victory over Sen. Bernie Sanders, securing 64 percent of the votes. In the Richmond area, Clinton won a similar majority, carrying both the city and all surrounding counties.

Clinton, Trump win seven states

Trump and Clinton each won seven states on Tuesday, beating their opponents by a large margin.

In the Republican primaries, though Trump dominated the South, Ted Cruz picked up Alaska, Oklahoma and Texas, and Marco Rubio won Minnesota, his first primary victory. The campaigns now look toward Florida's primary on March 15, as Trump threatens to take Rubio's home state.

As expected, Clinton won the South thanks, in part, to her consistent lead with African-American voters. Bernie Sanders predictably won his home state of Vermont, but also picked up Colorado, Minnesota and Oklahoma. Clinton's delegate count—including her current superdelegate pledges—overshadow Sanders', but the Sanders campaign hopes to make up delegates on March 15, when four more states will hold democratic primaries.

Virginia Senate passes bill that censors books

The Virginia Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would make Virginia the first state in the nation to require K-to-12 teachers to notify parents of classroom materials with sexually explicit content.

The bill centers around 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved,” written by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. A woman in Fairfax was horrified when she learned her son, a high school senior, had been assigned the book, which includes scenes of gang rape and an infant’s murder, according to The Washington Post.

Sen. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) called the bill a step backwards.

“Students taking advanced course make a conscious decision to tackle advanced topics,” McEachin said in a release. “Let’s not deprive our students of knowledge, history and context.”

The bill goes back to the House for a vote, before it would move to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s desk, whose spokesman declined to tell The Washington Post whether the governor would veto it.

Contact editor-in-chief Jack Nicholson at jack.nicholson@richmond.edu