Contest butch otter has made an endorsement in idaho, endorsing john kasich, as did the Idaho Statesman newspaper, which is a dominant outlet in the state. Rubio has an endorsement from the senator, and then Raul Labrador who is influential with conservatives. So, there has been campaigning in idaho. Rubios been there three times. Cruz and kasich have each been there. Trump is the only one who hasnt been there, but its going to be an interesting race with 32 delegates at stake here. Anybody who gets 20 of the vote or more in idaho tonight will qualify for a share of those delegates. And if we pan to the left geographically, if not literally, there is the story were following at this hour. The democratic primary in michigan too close to call, 34,580 with 86 of the vote in. Michigan happens to be where Chris Matthews is tonight. Chris . Well, brian, i think that were seeing tonight, someone just mentioned the parallel voting pattern here, both for Bernie Sanders on the democratic side and donald trump on the republican side. Both running on the antitrade issue in a state that very much feels affected by bad trade laws. The motor industry was the first one really hit, actually, probably second after the textile industry was blown away in south carolina. It went from of course, we all know the history of the trade stories. New england made shoes and textil textiles, they went south because of the labor unions not being down south and then the moving out of the country altogether. I think the Auto Industry was the most important industry in the country for us. What is it . As goes general motors, so goes america, so goes the country. And i think there was a strong feeling that we needed to protect our Auto Industry. And of course, people out there dont feel out here dont feel theyve been protected. Its interesting, though, and rachels mentioned this where does the reagan democrat go . Well, if youre a democrat, its not so hard to vote for a democrat if that person seems to be responding to what youre concerned about, in this case, the loss of industrial jobs, the hollowing out of American Manufacturing in this country, and who do you blame . Youve got to blame policy, not just history. So, on the republican side, trump appeals to the same except he says it differently. He talks about economic nationalism and gives it more of a nationalistic flair, but obviously, both people, both the democrat whos a working guy and the republican voter both feel the same stress out here. And i think, its interesting. Bernie and donald trump would carry the same state. Its just going to send a big message all through next week. Brian . Chris matthews, thank you. Chris matthews in detroit for us tonight. And we are still keeping an eye on the results in from michigan, where it is too close to call. A large proportion of the vote is in, and the margin between clinton and sanders is pretty chunky at this point. Looks like theres about 34,000 votes between them. But chuck todd explaining earlier why it may be that this race is not being called. Steve kornacki has a closer look at what vote weve got and what vote we dont have. Also a detail from the exit poll that might be interesting, given that we have been talking so much about wayne county, detroit in that area. Right now about a 35,000vote lead statewide for Bernie Sanders. Looking at wayne county, about twothirds of the vote in, still 25,000 for Hillary Clinton, the lead there. Now, what weve been saying is that the expectation is that as more vote comes in, this Hillary Clinton lead and this margin is going to expand significantly, and thats why shes still in this fight statewide. There is a detail from the exit poll, however, and take this with a grain of salt, because when you do the exit polls and start breaking down the regions of every state, the numbers can sometimes be all over the place. However, in the exit poll tonight, they surveyed wayne county only, wayne county, which were looking at and saying this thing is coming down to, and they found in the exit poll a margin in wayne county for Hillary Clinton of 56 to 40 . Thats what the exit poll said. And were looking at with twothirds of the vote in in wayne county is Hillary Clinton 57 , Bernie Sanders 41 . So, if that is actually what it is, and thats a big if, because with the exit polls, when you break them down regionally, you can get funny numbers sometimes, but if that is legit, if thats the margin youll see in wayne county, she is not going to get the kind of margin in wayne county with the rest of the votes that are left to overtake Bernie Sanders statewide. Steve kornacki, thank you. Chuck todd, talking about the specific results from wayne county, is that how you understand it, that she has to have a big enough margin there to explain the rest of the state . Thats right. And again, it goes back, maybe theres still some vote in flint that because the flint numbers are not nearly as wide in genesee as the Clinton Campaign expected, so that leads them to believe theres some flint out. But ive been talking to various boiler rooms, the frustration, not just our boiler rooms and the other networks, but the campaigns the way michigan is dumping this vote, its not by precinct, so its very hard. What do you mean for our viewers when i say dumping the vote, its like okay what do you mean like that . Heres just more raw totals out of macomb, or its not telling you where in macomb its coming from. Its not telling you its coming from perhaps this precinct, which is a wealthier precinct, where you can match it up with our exit poll. We have sample precincts. The way our boiler rooms work, we have sample precincts that we want to wait from, but if you get a vote dump and the county just says here you go, weve got 60 of the vote weve counted and its 57 41 clinton, but we cant match it up with our sample precincts that we know is a precinct that we would use to help model it out and project so, you cant say underperforming versus overperforming. Correct. So, we dont have that. Its not just us. Its why the campaigns, none of them are declaring victory or defeat, because they dont know any more than we do. Even with over 80 of the vote in, it doesnt matter if you dont know or 90 . Were now at 90 . I notice a big chunk must have come in for clinton with the margin back under 25. Even Bernie Sanders standing in front of that festive wall did not make remember 08 . Were going to have these nights. I remember in indiana waiting for gary. You know, waiting for gary, indiana, and all this, and we were doing that. I was going to say, whos gary . Lawrence, we keep talking about the excitement gap. You know, even a democratic member of congress tonight talked about the excitement gap between the two parties. This, however, starts feeling like a little bit more excitement on the ground. This is what youd call an exciting turnout for democrats. Yeah. And the fact that, as chucks reporting now, its the first real democratic primary there since 1992. That means its the first one since nafta. And you know, the two democratic good point. Great point. The two Democratic Senators who vote against nafta split on this, one went with Hillary Clinton and one went with Bernie Sanders. There may be states, like i think california coming up, and others where the most important vote in the candidates past is the iraq war vote. In michigan, don regal, the former senator, insisted to me last night that nafta remains the most important vote that you can have on your record going into that state. Hillary clinton didnt vote on it. And to tell you the truth, she didnt lift a finger to get nafta passed as first lady, not a finger. But she owns it with her name. In fact, all she cared about, quite understandably, is get that thing out of the way of my health care bill, because that goes through the same committees. But she carries the burden of nafta, as does bill clinton in michigan, which is why bill clinton couldnt be used in michigan the way he could by the way, look at places where it looks like the michigan electorate, the ocohio democrat electorate. Wisconsin is a state where weve seen polling that thats very close already. And thats a primary where its stand alone. Thats right. No one else is voting the night wisconsin is voting. At a minimum, we know the clinton spin, theyre going to win in delegates tonight because thats a fact, theres no doubt about it. But we are seeing her weaknesses are where donald trump will have strengths, okay . Exactly, yeah. With this same group of voters that Bernie Sanders is appealing to. Those folks i mean, this is why she ought to when she goes into the general election, she will be thankful Bernie Sanders is still there, because learning how to win over a sanders supporter is going to help her face off trump, and i think its going to mean she is going to have to worry about it for her running mate. I put Sherrod Brown now front of the list, front of the line as a potential running mate for her, because shes going to need somebody that appeals to the Sanders Warren wing of the party. Again, on behalf of our viewers, explain who Sherrod Brown is. Sherrod brown, you talked about senators against nafta. He was a member of congress back then, but hes an ohio now democratic senator i believe now a senior democratic and heres a guy who you would look at his voting record on paper, say hes too liberal to win in ohio, but he is a connector. He just knows how to connect to folks. Hes got that gravelly voice, you know. Republicans looked at him on paper, thought he was super vulnerable, threw everything they had at him and he skated. Hes a very effective guy. Very good campaigner. By the way, she has not been as an effective a campaigner on the stump. Shes going to need somebody who also is going to be tough against trump, and hes got a you know, theres a gruff toughness to him that speaks, that is why hes done well with voters who may think hes a little too liberal, but hes my my kind of guy. He looks like us from ohio, he drinks she may need that kind of guy, because if shes going to be weak in the rust belt, thats very, very bad drk. Somebody described him as a younger version of joe biden who might make a few fewer campaign mistakes. I dont think she needs a guy. I think the best person she can possibly choose is Elizabeth Warren, who remains the most exciting, non president ial candidate in that party. When you see Elizabeth Warren take a stage with a democratic audience, theres nothing quite like it, and Elizabeth Warren has all of Bernie Sanders credentials. You have a complete transfer of Bernie Sanders allegiance to Elizabeth Warren on minute one, if thats the way this turns out. I think the secret divining rod not divining rod the secret dividing line between the two arguments leans towards Sherrod Brown, because browns wife, Connie Schultz, is as effective a campaigner and political persona as anybody else in the Democratic Party and has never been an elected official. Shes a pulitzer prizewinning columnist. We know theyre always great. But she is an absolute equal in terms of a public persona to her husband, to Sherrod Brown. And if she didnt want to pick a woman for her running mate, i think the Connie Schultz factor in Sherrod Brown actually would make a big deal, and theyre both going to hate me for saying that. I was just going to say it, hate mail from the brown household. Yes. I have an email from connie, im sure, right now. Saying tell rachel to shut up. Thats how bad that was, yeah. While that comes in, well take a break. Well be back right after this with more on michigan. Billions are spent to confuse and, dare i say it, flummox the american public. Save 16 on car insurance. Switch now. Well at compare. Com, we say enoughs enough. So weve created this mind boggling facility. Where were constantly scrutinizing millions of rates. Answering the question who has the lowest. Go to compare. Com, plug in some simple info and get up to 50 free quotes. Choose the lowest, and hit purchase. Its fast and easy. Compare. Com saving humanity from high insurance rates. Well, you never know going into these election nights whats going to be the story, which states going to be the barnburner on these multiplestate tuesdays, and this is it for tonight, so far. Who knows, hawaii could be a cliffhanger. Too close to call in michigan. Sanders over clinton. 92 of the known, raw vote in, 26,000 separating them. Steve kornacki is crunching the other known numbers. Lets take a look here, what is still left to come. You look at these numbers, where are the votes still outstanding . Basically, we said half the vote is in these three counties, macomb county, home of the reagan democrats, white working class. Its basically all in right now. Oakland county, suburban, higherincome, collegeeducated, that is basically all in right now. So, this is the main outstanding one, wayne county. Weve been talking about it all night. Thats a Hillary Clinton county. The question is how much . Also, genesee. Thats where flint is, still about half out right there. And from Bernie Sanders standpoint, where grand rapids is, theres still a lot of vote to come there. Sanders is doing very well there. And we can just show you very quickly, where does the counting stand right now in wayne county . A 34,000vote lead for Hillary Clinton, 75 of the vote is in. If you extrapolate that thats a big if, but if you extrapolate that and she wins the rest of the county at the same rate shes winning it now, she will net an additional 7,000 votes out of wayne county. She is losing statewide right now by just under 30,000 votes, so thats if you netted if you keep going at the current rate. So, he needs probably a bigger margin as that vote comes in. Steve kornacki, thank you. The michigan race right now, again, 92 of the vote in, 50 48 with Bernie Sanders in the lead. This is still considered too close to call. In michigan for us tonight, the great Chris Matthews. Chris . Thank you, rachel. Im bringing in Rhonda Romney mcdaniel, the republican chair of the whole state of michigan. Your uncles very much involved in this stop trump movement, right . Yes. Is that fair to say that thats what he wants to do . Yeah, i think thats fair to say after the speech he gave last week. Do you think he wants to be president . No, i dont think thats it. I think he is concerned for our country. I think, like he said, he just felt like he couldnt live with himself if he didnt come out and try to do something. For years, the Republican Party of michigan has been ad moderate party, George Romney back in the 60s. Its always been sort of a establishment Republican Party. Today donald trump won out here. What happened . Well, ive seen donald trump in the state for the past year. The crowds have been enormous. I will not say that its always a traditional republican crowd. Ive seen him in birch run with 3,000 people there. There were a lot of macomb reagan democrats there. And i think thats something weve seen across the state. In grand rapids, he had big crowds. I am not surprised to see him do well in michigan, based on the enthusiasm ive seen for him around the state. If he gets to the Republican Convention in cleveland as a party chair out here, will you support him . Im going to support who the voters choose. Will you support trump . Yeah, if hes our nominee, im going to support trump. The voters choose. Thats the beauty of democracy. The topic we talk about all the time on our program is can any Political Party after 60 years of letting the voters nominate decide at convention to give somebody else who didnt win first . . Its happened in the past. When . Well, weve had brokered conventioned im trying to remember. When is the last time someone went in with most of the delegates and werent nominated . I dont know, but if you dont go in with a 1,237, the rules are can you imagine nominating somebody who comes in second in the primaries . Getting the nomination . Its up to the delegates at that point. There is a threshold. The candidates all knew that going in. They all knew the 1,237. That was in place before they even were on the map. So, when we go to cleveland, if someone hasnt reached that threshold, then it becomes a nominating convention. I think it will take a lot of work. They will have to unite the party, it will be difficult, but thats the progression, those are the rules. Were not going to change the rules. Do you believe donald trump will continue to be a republican if he doesnt get the nomination having won most of the primary delegates . Yeah, i think he will. Hes committed to that. After the convention . Well, hes committed to staying with the party. Really . Yeah, i do. Im an optimist. Were you surprised the other day that Michael Bloomberg announced he wasnt going to run third party . Because everyone thought that was going to help the republicans. Yeah, im not surprised. It seems as though Hillary Clinton although tonights changing the story but it seemed at that point that Hillary Clinton was on he