LANSING – Donald Trump delivered on expectations he would win the Michigan Republican presidential primary, putting together a coalition of working class Republicans and doing well enough among wealthier and evangelical voters to take a plurality of 36.5 percent of the vote.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas finished second with 24.9 percent of the vote, and Ohio Governor John Kasich came in third at 24.3 percent. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida ran poorly, receiving just 9.3 percent of the vote and missing the 15 percent minimum to qualify for delegates.

“There’s only one person who did well tonight: Donald Trump,” Trump told cheering supporters in Florida.

The preliminary delegate allocation from the Michigan Republican Party showed Trump receiving 25 delegates to 17 each for Cruz and Kasich. So Trump will pad his delegate lead somewhat from the night’s elections. He won a big victory in Mississippi, but Cruz won Idaho. Early returns from Hawaii’s caucus looked strong for Trump as well.

It was the complete opposite of the Democratic race because the result went according to expectations. Trump won, but did not break 40 percent. Kasich did in fact surge from the upper single digits, capturing undecideds and peeling away soft supporters of Rubio’s. Cruz, who spent little to nothing in Michigan and put little personal time into the state, rode his strong support among evangelicals and arch-conservatives to a strong showing.

Trump won 72 of the state’s 83 counties. Cruz, as expected won the counties in the heart of the state’s evangelical base – Kent, Allegan, Ottawa, Muskegon, Barry, Oceana and Newago.

Kasich won the university counties of Kalamazoo and Washtenaw. He also performed well in Oakland County, finishing a close second to Trump and beating Cruz by more than 27,000 votes there.

But Trump blew away the field in Macomb County, taking almost half the vote and beating Kasich by 33,000 votes. He also performed strongly in Wayne County, taking 40 percent of the vote and beating Kasich by 16,000 votes. He won another key GOP bastion, Livingston County, handily by 6,000 votes with 39 percent of the vote overall.

Trump was especially strong in the Thumb, surpassing 40 percent in most counties. And he absolutely dominated in the northeast Lower Peninsula, taking 50 percent of the vote in some counties.

Trump even beat Kasich in the counties bordering Ohio where Kasich should have had a home field advantage. Those counties receive Toledo television stations and many receive the Toledo Blade newspaper.

One of the closest counties was Ingham. Trump was on course to win it with 29 percent to 28 percent for Kasich and 25.6 percent for Cruz.

Republican political consultant Stu Sandler said Trump scored well in white working class areas.

“Donald Trump showed a pretty sizeable lead the whole way through and he kept it,” he said. “He’s focused on a message for working class voters; he’s focused on that like a laser ever since the beginning of this campaign.”

In terms of the overall race for the nomination, Sandler said it was a big night for Trump, though Cruz and Kasich did not walk away empty-handed.

Cruz’s finish was the product of an efficient national strategy and his strong support with evangelicals. And Kasich’s strong performance in last week’s debate, coupled with a spirited retail effort, enables him to continue on to his home state of Ohio’s primary next week.

As for Rubio, Sandler pointed to a weak debate performance last week.

“He had a really weak debate performance. He locked horns with Donald Trump, and that hasn’t seemed to work well for anyone who’s done that,” he said. “Voters are looking for authenticity. And it seemed very uncharacteristic of Marco Rubio to do what he did at the debate.”

Trump, taking questions from reporters after his Michigan win, put it in his own unique way.

“Hostility works for some people,” he said. “It doesn’t work for everybody.”

This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com