Despite resounding victories on Super Tuesday, there are indications that Donald Trump is still struggling to get strong, united Republican support, which he may need in the presidential election.
Speaking to CNN about the Super Tuesday results, columnist and political commentator Molly Jong-Fast said: "There is a real ‘Never Trump’ contingent, and remember, Trump is a primary candidate. He has only ever tried to appeal to Republican primary voters, and he cannot marshal that group together the way he needs to.
“Part of his trick in 2016 was, he got these low-frequency voters out, these people who almost never voted, which is why the polling was so off, and you’re just not seeing that same type of enthusiasm.”
The 2020 Primary felt like high strategy game. I don’t know much about Américan politics but I do remember seeing Bernie Sanders continue the 2016 momentum only for Biden to pick up in South Carolina. The orchestration they did to keep primary candidates in to weaken Bernie while working for Biden felt to me less a Biden thing and more of Biden as a chess-piece. He was not the force behind it. His familiarity and seemingly calm demeanor appealed to most voters compared to the erratic image of Trump. But deep down there was a feeling of “screw you Bernie”. Luckily for Dems, that is not a fault line Republicans are exploiting.
I don’t know if I’d agree with your interpretation fully on the Bernie vs Biden thing, but I think you’ve made an interesting point. Bernie supporters’ anger at Hilary (don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t happy about it but I did vote for Hillary in the general election), justified or not, was exploited by Russia through the 2016 DNC email leak to try to help Trump win. And it’s interesting that we’re not seeing that angle of grievance being encouraged (by Russian trolls?) on social media right now like we did in 2016.