Almost 250 delegates short of bagging the Republican presidential nomination, party front- runner Donald Trump has exuded confidence that he would be able to defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton very easily in the November general elections. Cruz lost by a landslide in numerous contests against Donald Trump, but the candidate maintained that he could win the GOP nomination. “Lyin’ Ted!” yelled one, using Mr Trump’s pet name for his rival.
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“They’re like hanging by their fingertips”, he said, mimicking Cruz and Kasich: “Don’t let me fall!” The victory was mainly strategic for Cruz since all Arizona delegates are required to vote for Trump on the first national ballot because he won the state’s March 22 primary. Yet a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Trump leads Cruz in IN by 15 points.
Trump has 996 delegates, compared to Cruz’s 565 and Kasich’s 153 delegates. The poll, which was conducted by Survey USA at the end of last month, finds Trump at 54%, Cruz at 20% and Kasich at 16 percent. But in the six primaries since Wisconsin, the Texas senator has earned a whopping two pledged delegates.
“It’s really important that we win because if we win – you know, we want to raise money for the party and we want to raise money for the Senate races and the congressional races and do a lot of things instead of wasting our time with these people”, Trump said.
Trump also dismissed poll numbers that show him struggling with female voters, predicting that Clinton would crater once he’s able to focus all of his attention on her. After a string of recent victories, Trump has declared himself the “presumptive nominee” and predicted that he will have a majority of delegates locked up before Republicans gather in Cleveland in July.
Virginia’s GOP delegates gathered Saturday to choose who they will support at the Republican National Convention.
“Millions of Americans are praying for this state”, Mr Cruz said.
A loss in IN would represent a near-fatal blow to Cruz’s campaign and would significantly increase pressure on him to withdraw from the race. Cruz – as well as Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who trails significantly in the delegate count – must try to block Trump in IN and the handful of other remaining states to push the race toward a contested convention.
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Former President Bill Clinton drew boos and shouts from the crowd as he made a campaign stop in Logan, W.V., on his wife’s behalf, ahead of the state’s May 10 presidential primary. He went on, “Donald’s definitely going to get 1,237; he’s going to get more than 1,237”.
