3 questions for voters on Super Tuesday

It’s Super Tuesday.

A dozen states might make or break a candidate’s chances. (While early voting is open in Miami-Dade, Florida gets its chance at the polls in two weeks.)

We have questions. Perhaps the voters have the answers.

Here goes:

How can Rubio look like a winner without actually winning?

So far he hasn’t won anything. Yet his list of establishment backers keeps growing, and senior adviser Todd Harris enjoys describing “the growing anti-Trump movement in the party.” As long as Rubio keeps accumulating delegates, his campaign’s thinking goes, victories are not crucial, and his warnings about the demise of the party could be a strong motivator.

Voters are divided about Rubio’s plunge into the mud with Trump. Jane Dunlap, a small business owner in Katy, Texas, found herself “disgusted with the behavior of our candidates” during Thursday’s debate. “I don’t believe the people I was considering (Rubio and Cruz) are mature enough.”

Can Cruz surprise everyone?

Cruz plans to spend Monday barnstorming Texas, strong evidence that he’s struggling to simply stay viable. At the moment, though, Cruz is behind Trump in polls in six of the stateswhere at least 37 percent of the voters are evangelical.

Are expectations too high for Trump?He now has the burden of being the front-runner, the candidate everyone expects to not only win, but win big.

Trump’s forces say that’s fine with them. But he faces some new controversies. He struggles to explain any sort of comprehensive health care policy. His rivals won’t let him forget that he’s got a long history of being friendly with Democrats. He’s under fire from Mexican officials. And there’s those tax returns.’

—DAVID LIGHTMAN

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 5:56 AM with the headline "3 questions for voters on Super Tuesday."