On trumps heels with 305. Leaving gop establishment favorite marco rubio lacking well behind. And trump has even more reason for optimism this morning, according to a brandnew nbc wall street journal marist poll, trump has a commanding 19point lead in the michigan primary. Michigan is one of four states where republicans will be choosing a nominee on tuesday. That follows puerto ricos republican primary, which takes place today. Senator rubios hoping to pick up a few more delegates in that contest. Now, he made a stop late last night in puerto rico where he addressed an audience of supporters in spanish. And today hes headed to idaho before the states republican primary on tuesday. Over in the democratic race, saturday was a good night for Bernie Sanders. He won the democratic caucuses in kansas and nebraska. But it was a slightly better night for Hillary Clinton in terms of delegates, at least. She prevailed in yesterdays only democratic primary in louisiana. Ending the night with 59 delegates to sanders 48. Democratic voters head to the polls again today, for a primary in maine. But tuesday will be the next really big day for democrats with primaries in mississippi, and here in michigan. A state with 147 democratic delegates on the line. Thats exactly where the attentions of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have been focused this week. Both candidates have spend the last few days defining their differences to michigan voters. Hillary clinton is currently leading by a 17point margin among likely voters in this state, and tonight, Bernie Sanders will have his best shot at closing that game when the two candidates go head to head in a debate in flint. Then of course weve got all the election news covered for you here at the place for politics. Lets begin with nbc news kristen welker, whos in flint right now with the latest. All right, kristen, what do we expect to hear from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in that debate tonight . Hey, joy, good morning to you. Well, of course, first and foremost, the key topic tonight is going to be the water crisis right here in flint, michigan. Both secretary clinton and senator sanders addressed this issue last night when they attended a party dinner. Secretary clinton calling it a disgrace. Senator sanders saying it appears to be something that would happen in a third world country. But residents here are going to want to hear more than that. Theyre going to want to hear specifics from both of these candidates. What would they do to address this crisis . What would they do to prevent it from ever happening again . Secretary clinton will likely tout the fact that she was the first candidate to visit flint. She has had very critical words for the governor here in michigan. As has senator sanders, and the question is, how will residents and voters here respond to their answers . This is an issue that has resonated with africanamericans here throughout michigan. But also throughout the country, and just voters more broadly throughout the country. So thats going to be one of the tee topics, joy. And then of course there will be a whole host of other issues. Senator sanders has been signaling in recent days that he is going to go after secretary clinton on the issue of trade. Hes been very critical, of her for supporting past trade deals like nafta a lot of voters here in michigan didnt like the nafta trade deal. Secretary clinton signaling that she is going to continue to try to paint herself as the candidate who has the most realistic policies. Now senator sanders did pick up some momentum after last nights wins in nebraska, and kansas but as you pointed out secretary clinton still has the delegate lead and she got more delegates last night. Senator sanders still trying to play catchup. His top aides, though, say even though shes leading in the polls they think they can close that gap before tuesday and that could very much start at tonights debate. Joy . Thank you very much. Nbc new kristen welker. Lets turn to the fight for florida. Early voting is already under way in advance of floridas march 15th primary. Gabe gutierrez has been following the race from jacksonville. Marco rubio had not so good of a night last night. What is he doing to try to turn things around . Clearly he needs to win his home state. Clearly, joy. Good morning. Marco rubios campaign knows that florida is make or break. Its on march 15th. Its his home state. And the campaign is planning more stops here over the next couple of days. Tomorrow they plan to be in tampa and the orlando area, and conservative solutions, the Marco Rubio Super pac is already spending millions of dollars here to try on ads to try to make a dent on Donald Trumps lead, according to the latest quinnipiac poll, donald trump up 16 points. The Rubio Campaign discounting that. Theres another poll that has him down seven. But still, its not a great position to be in. This is not where the Rubio Campaign wanted to be at this stage of the game. Now today rubio is going to ohio to campaign in the afternoon. Puerto rico has its primary today. Hes hoping to pick up delegates there. Now the question will be how much of a play ted cruz makes in florida. Hes upping his ground game here hoping to really squeeze out rubio, and he knows that he cant win here most likely. But if he can make it a twoman race with donald trump that will be the key. Cruz picking up those key victories yesterday, those two key victories in kansas and maine. Partly due to the fact that they were closed caucuses and there were not independent voters and outside voters that typically favor donald trump. The argument against cruz Going Forward is that he has peaked. That he has won texas and oklahoma, as well, and that these Going Forward, its mostly primaries. But for donald trump, he is calling on marco rubio to get out of the race, which is somewhat surprising in that a divided field would benefit donald trump. The question you have to ask, joy, is how did the debate last beak, and how did the insults playing back and forth between marco rubio and donald trump, did it hurt both men . Of course, donald trump had a decent night last night. He had two victories. But ted cruz really tried to stay above the fray. And he obviously had a very good night last night. So Going Forward, key thing to watch will be florida. It will be make or break for marco rubios campaign. Its hard to see how he can even continue in this race if he loses his home state. His Campaign Says they will win here no matter what. She shall see. Joy . All right, gabe, as the great tim russert used to say, florida, florida, florida. Thank you very much. You bet it. Now, i want to get my guests in on this primary action. So joining me in memphis is elise jordan, nbc news msnbc political analyst and former Senior Adviser for policy for senator rand pauls campaign. And in washington, d. C. , is karen jean pierre, democratic strategist, former Deputy Campaign manager for the Martin Omalley campaign and former obama 2012 battleground deputy state director. Good morning. Elise, im going to start with you. Lets talk about florida and marco rubio. Not a good night for him. There were states in which he didnt even meet the threshold to take any delegates out. What is the rational Going Forward that it the Rubio Campaign can put forward, particularly to their donors, as to why he should stay in . Well, i think that they still are banking way too much on florida, and certainly joy, you know Florida Politics better than i do. But rubio is down, and hes down by a lot it looks like. And part of what his whole strategy has been has been on march 15th that hes going to lock up a lot of these winner take all states. Hes going to do well in ohio. That hes going to do well in illinois. And then, of course, hes going to do hes going to win florida and right now, that just isnt looking to be the case. Its interesting, in the aftermath of the thursday debate, because you know, i have become so cynical that anything that donald trump will actually affect him at the polls, and you know, im hopeful a little bit just because of what happened yesterday in louisiana and in kentucky, you know, just you see winning kansas, that you know, perhaps the strategy of attacking trump has started to pay some dividends. And certainly, cruz played it a little bit safer by having more of a diplomatic approach, i guess you could say, than rubio, who basically lowered himself a little bit to trumps level. But its been interesting to watch how its played out at the polls. Yeah, indeed. And lets flip over to the democrats and talk about sort of a similar dynamic. You have Bernie Sanders doing very well last night winning two contests out of three. But still walking away with fewer delegates. What does he need to do Going Forward to try to close that gap . Because it does seem that even when he wins hes still sort of doesnt win. Yeah, yeah, joy. So he needs to really do well in michigan and tonight, tomorrow night or tonight im sorry, tonight for the debate, you know, hell have an opportunity there to really talk to the folks of michigan. And he needs to do well in michigan. But heres the thing, joy, you know, as weve talked about before, Hillary Clinton has a strong relationship with the africanamerican community. Look how well she did in louisiana, while he may have won those two caucus states, which is not surprising, overwhelmingly white demographic, and he outperforms her with the white with the white voters, but she has done so well with africanamericans. As we look towards michigan where you have detroit, and voters are very sophisticated and pragmatic. While his messaging with nafta and trade seems to be working and resonating, but she has a relationship there, and like i said, voters are sew fis kated and trag matic and they want theyre looking at the long game. They want to see who can beat donltd trump and right now it looks like second clinton can do that. And elise, staying with michigan for just a moment, do any of the candidates have an opportunity to close the gap with donald trump . Obviously that blue collar demographic, white Blue Collar Workers that are real open to trumps message around the country, is this a state where cruz or rubio can do better than expected or maybe john kasich . Well, you know, ohio kasich is way ahead. That will be interesting to see if he can keep that lead after all these contests. Today, and especially on tuesday. In michigan, rubio and kasich have been doing better. It will be, i wonder if trump is going to have a tighter race there than weve been expecting, just because it does seem like people are closing in on him. He isnt, you know, his momentum doesnt seem to be the same soaring trajectory that it had seemed coming out of some of the other contests. And karine, one more time with michigan as far as tonights debate, so far the flint crisis has not really inured to either the benefit of Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders particularly. Is there something that one of the two can do tonight to have a breakout on that particular issue . I think they just need to continue talking about the flint crisis and not give up, and just focus, zero in on it, focus on it. This is something that africanamericans, it really, really strikes heavily for them. And i think it will be important, as we talk about detroit and other africanamerican electorate just in michigan alone. So i think they just need to focus on it, zero in, and really make that contrast between democrats and republicans, and how this republican governor has really treated the people of michigan, the people of flint. All right. Elise jordan will be back with the Program Later on. Want to thank Karine Jean Pierre for being with us. Tonight the democrats square off in a debate in flint, michigan. Well have the latest on how the candidates are preparing and well talk with michigan senator debbie stab know right here in downtown detroit. Developed our most revolutionary feature yet. A car that can see trouble and stop itself to avoid it. When the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested front crash prevention nobody beat subaru models with eyesight. Not toyota. Not ford or any other brand. Subaru eyesight. An extra set of eyes, every time you drive. Then your eyes may see it, differently. Ave allergies. Only flonase is approved to relieve both your itchy, watery eyes and congestion. 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Thats huge for my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Thats great. The super tuesday score card is in and Hillary Clinton no has more than 1,000 delegates to Bernie Sanders 477. Shes won a dozen states and sanders has won six. Bernie sanders did pull off two victories yesterday in kansas. He won with nearly 70 of the vote to Hillary Clintons 32 . Meanwhile in nebraska, sanders won with 56 to clintons 44. Hillary clinton did pick up her big victory in louisiana with 71 of the vote. So now sanders and clinton are looking ahead to the seventh democratic president ial debate tonight in flint michigan ahead of this states primary on tuesday. Msnbcs kasie hunt joins us now from flint, and senator sanders racked up some big wins last night in kansas and nebraska, but he still came out with fewer delegates. What does he need to do tonight or what is the campaign saying that they think they can do tonight to try to close the gap . Joy, good morning. I think that you should look for sanders to focus on one set of issues, particularly and thats trade. Were seeing his campaign up on the airwaves here in michigan, with a relatively tough ad on trade calling sanders the only candidate whos opposed policies like nafta, cafta, these trade agreements that were passed largely in the 90s under bill clintons presidency and that sanders did oppose at the time. And of course michigan very hardhit by the recession, so he hasnt really gone negative on Hillary Clinton, especially on the airwaves before the closest we had seen was that wall street speech related ad that never named her that was on the wear in iowa and some of those earlier contests. But its interesting to me that he is up with this spot with something of a negative push on this issue. Its also something hes talked a lot about on the campaign trail in recent days. So thats what i would look for tonight. All right nbcs kasie hunt thank you very much. Really appreciate you. Thanks. All right, thank you. Okay now joining me is the senator, the United States senator from michigan, our friend senator debbie stabenow. Weve established we have a certain amount of favoritism to you. Welcome to detroit. Youre part of this vibrant effort going on. Its great to have you in downtown detroit. And americas coney island. Absolutely. So lets talk about this debate tonight obviously in flint. Hillary clinton last night did lose two contests but she still won the delegate hunt. Right. What do you think is behind, what shes been able to do which is to win in these states which have high africanamerican populations. What is that connection about . First of all, ive known hillary about 30 years, we were both 5 i think when we started this. But her life has been about breaking down barriers and people understand that. And thats why shes winning not only with the africanamerican community, we see, you know, excitement among men and women. We see working people. She has a very Broad Coalition of people. One of the things thats not part of her coalition really are voters under 30. Shes not doing so well state after state with young voters. Why not . Well i think what is coming into focus first of all, and i love Bernie Sanders, hes a friend of mine. Hes a colleague. We work together. I appreciate what he is bringing to this in terms of energy and so on, but what people are going to see moving forward and what is becoming Crystal Clear is that she has the ability, and the plan to actually get things done. We talk about college affordability. Its great to say free for everybody but im not so sure i want Donald Trumps kids or grandkids getting free college. Hillarys saying that middle class families, working families, low income families, of ought to have a fair shot. Nuances are important differences because she can get that done. Well, so the pragmatism i think obviously is helping Hillary Clinton particularly with africanamerican voters. One of the things Bernie Sanders is zeroing in on is trade. Obviously in this state, nafta was devastating to the economy in detroit. Places like flint. Right. How does hillary answer that question . She was obviously first lad