Donald Trump could take a giant step on Tuesday toward securing the Republican presidential nomination if he wins the Florida and OH primaries, which would intensify pressure for rivals from the party establishment to pull out of the race.
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In announcing he was suspending his campaign after losing his home-state primary to Donald Trump, Rubio told supporters while his campaign may have been on “the right side”, in 2016 it would not be on “the winning side”.
Mr Trump was also expected to win in North Carolina and IL, and Mrs Clinton in North Carolina and Ohio.
By winning the Republican primary in Ohio, John Kasich picked up all 66 of the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention.
According to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research, a significant number of voters from both parties in Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and North Carolina were late in deciding whom to vote for. In short: more chances for Clinton to pad her already big delegate lead, more chances for Sanders to keep his feisty “political revolution” from the left alive and an opportunity for Cruz to further solidify his standing as the only Republican within range of Trump in the delegate count. He later said he regretted his attacks on Trump, but the damage had been done.
On ABC’s “Good Morning America” Tuesday, he said, “I never said I was going to pay for fees”.
“America needs a vibrant conservative movement but one that’s built on principles and on ideas, not on fear, not on anger, not on preying on peoples’ frustrations”, Rubio said.
“You came to OH and you threw everything you had at me”, he said of Trump.
With Trump’s win in Florida, he now has 568 delegates.
Trump’s closest competition so far has come from Texas Sen.
A humiliating loss on home ground in Florida, meanwhile, ended the White House dreams of Marco Rubio, who was once hailed as a Republican Party savior. Overall, Clinton holds 1,235 total delegates, more than half the amount needed to clinch the nomination when the count includes superdelegates, who are elected officials and party leaders free to support the candidate of their choice.
But Cruz’s strong presence in the race, and hopes on Tuesday of picking up substantial numbers of delegates, could continue to help Trump by leaving opposition to him fractured. “He is smart and he has got a great future”.
In another key race, John Kasich has won the primary in his home state, fending off challenges from Trump and Cruz. “If you win by a single vote, if you win by a lot, you get all the delegates, and that’s what a lot of candidates are counting on”. Marco Rubio, who has suspended his campaign.
Now thrust into the center of a campaign that has been bitingly personal, Kasich vowed to cheering supporters in Berea, Ohio, that he would “not take the low road to the highest office in the land”.
“We have a long-term game plan here”, said Sanders senior adviser Tad Devine.
Rubio, who at times went insult-for-insult with Trump, said that he tried to run a campaign that was “optimistic” about the country.
All three of Trump’s opponents pledged to wrap up as many delegates as possible between now and the mid-July convention, if only to block a Trump victory on the first ballot. Establishment Republicans will now likely give Kasich a hard look, since most oppose Trump or Cruz being the nominee.
Trump also won the Northern Mariana Islands, which awarded him 9 delegates.
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Sanders has always said the campaign will shift in his favor starting Wednesday, when the race moves west. A win in any of Tuesday’s states would have been a surprise two weeks ago – but a win in multiple states could give him a critical boost of momentum just as the race moves onto friendlier terrain. Sanders and Clinton were locked in a close contest in IL.
