Trump, Clinton look set for big wins on Super Tuesday

By Steve Holland and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON/AUGUSTA, Ga. (Reuters) - Donald Trump looked poised to strengthen his lead in the Republican presidential race when 11 states vote on Tuesday, an outcome likely to intensify concerns among party leaders who consider him a usurper. In the Democratic race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would go a long way toward cementing her path to the nomination if she scores big victories of her own over democratic socialist Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday. Opinion polls showed Trump leading in nearly all the states that will hold primary contests or caucuses, many of them in the South. The exception appeared to be Texas, the home state of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who enjoyed a narrow lead and was in desperate need of a victory. Super Tuesday is the biggest single day of state-by-state contests to select party nominees for the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama. Voting stretches from eastern states to Texas and Minnesota, with the first polls closing at 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT) in Vermont, Virginia and Georgia and first results expected soon after. Trump has stunned many in the Republican establishment with proposals such as building a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, deporting 11 million illegal immigrants and slapping a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. But while his campaign has confounded many Republican leaders, the New York billionaire cites his high poll numbers as proof he is not dividing the party but expanding its ranks. He preached unity as he looked beyond Tuesday's voting to campaign in Ohio, which votes on March 15. "Our country is so unbelievably divided," Trump told a rally in a Columbus plane hangar. "We're going to bring it together. People don't know that about me - I bring people together." Earlier, he told ABC's "Good Morning America," "We're getting people into the party we've never had before. We're getting Democrats coming in, we're getting independents coming." The former reality TV star, who fires up crowds with withering mockery of his rivals and critics, faced heavy criticism this week over his failure to reject white supremacists' support during a CNN interview on Sunday. Trump later disavowed that support, saying he had not heard the questions properly, but his explanations failed to satisfy many. "If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there must be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry," House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in Washington on Tuesday. He did not mention Trump by name but his target was clear. With a string of victories on Tuesday, Trump would advance his strong lead over Cruz, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Voting with his wife in Houston, Cruz said he hoped Republicans would see a narrower field emerge on Wednesday. "For any candidate that wakes up tomorrow morning who hasn't won any states ... I think it's time to start thinking about coming together and unifying and presenting a clear choice," he said. Kasich and Carson have won scant support in early contests. Rubio saw increased support among Republican voters after a strong debate performance last week during which he took off the gloves against Trump. A Reuters-Ipsos poll showed support for Rubio on 20 percent, up from 14 percent, with Trump still ahead with 42 percent support. REPUBLICAN UNEASE Even as Trump advances, many Republican Party leaders do not support his positions and believe he would be easily defeated in November by Clinton if she becomes the Democratic nominee. The crossfire between Trump and establishment Republicans threatens to rip the party apart at a time when it will need to generate momentum behind a prospective nominee. That worries some Republican strategists looking ahead to the nominating convention in July. "If Trump continues winning, disappointed party elites will need to reconcile with supporting the party nominee," said Tim Albrecht, a Republican strategist in Iowa. Trump has never run for office previously and has based his outsider appeal on the message that his success as an entrepreneur qualifies him for the White House. That has laid him open to close scrutiny of his businesses, including criticism by rivals such as Rubio of his for-profit education program Trump University. In a development that could provide more fuel for such critics, a New York appeals court ruling on Tuesday will allow a fraud claim against Trump University by New York's attorney general to proceed. The Trump Organization's general counsel, Alan Garten, said the ruling would be appealed, and called the case politically motivated. On the Democratic side, polls show Clinton, who has won three of the first four Democratic contests, with a big lead in six Southern states that have large blocs of black voters, who have been slow to warm to Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sanders has been aiming for wins in five other states on Tuesday - Vermont, neighboring Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Colorado. (Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson, Doina Chiacu, Susan Cornwell, Susan Heavey and John Whitesides in Washington; Emily Stephenson in Houston; Writing by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry)