Republican Donald Trump nearly swept every district in Tucson, losing only to his rival Ted Cruz in a handful of contests and usually only by a few votes. In Pima County, the largest margin Cruz won was by five votes .
For Democrats, front- runner Hillary Clinton did well in most of Tucson but was unable to beat Bernie Sanders in downtown and midtown, where voters favored the Vermont senator. Sanders also defeated Clinton on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
On a first glance, a sea of dark red showing where Trump bested his GOP rivals indicates that the controversial candidate triumphed here.
Actually, Trump received 43 percent of the Pima County Republican votes in last week’s Presidential Preference Election — enough to win easily, but not a majority. Second-place finisher Cruz got 29 percent.
An analysis by the Arizona Daily Star of the Pima County votes found that Trump had at least 50 percent of the ballots cast in only 12 percent of the special voting areas (essentially a combination of political precincts).
While the Arizona ballot contained 13 candidates, all but three had dropped out by primary election day. Each Republican candidate on the ballot received votes in Pima County, although those could have been cast by early voters when the candidates were still in the race.
Additionally, only Republicans, Democrats and members of the Green Party were allowed to vote in the primary, effectively shutting out the state’s largest demographic: independents.
On the Democratic side, the race had six declared candidates but locals largely cast their vote for either Clinton or Sanders.
Sanders won in 17 of the 140 roughly special districts in Pima County, with most of his wins near the University of Arizona.
In the areas just north, west and south of the UA campus, he saw his largest margin over Clinton, where he defeated her by more than 500 votes.
Overall in Pima County, Clinton took 56 percent to Sanders’ 42 percent.
As of Friday night, Pima County was still counting some ballots but officials don’t expect any change in the results.
Trump and Clinton also won their primaries statewide.
