He was favored to win Mississippi partly because he had already done well in Southern states' primaries, including Alabama's, which he won with 43.4% of the vote on Super Tuesday.

[2] A poll of 995 likely Republican Mississippi voters, conducted on February 29, 2016, by Magellan Strategies, gave Trump 41% of the vote, 24% more than second-place Cruz.

[3] Trump's double-digit victory in Mississippi was seen as solidifying his status as the Republican front-runner, shortly after his disappointing performance in the Louisiana primary.

[6] They also showed that Trump got an especially large share of the vote among Mississippi voters looking for a candidate who "tells it like it is".

[8] However, Trump came in second (behind Cruz) among Republican voters who decided whom to vote for in the primary within the previous week.