Trump said it’s “too soon” to announce his pick for vice president, though he does want someone with political experience. But he appeared to lose momentum in the final days of campaigning and let his frustration with Trump boil over Tuesday, calling the billionaire “amoral” and a “braggadocious, arrogant buffoon”.
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Republican presidential candidate, Sen.
On the Democratic side, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains the clear front-runner, but Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is continuing to wage his surprising upstart campaign after winning IN with 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Clinton.
Many supporters cried out for him to continue, and were in tears at the news.
IN was viewed as the last gasp for fiery Texas senator Mr Cruz.
Responding to what he called Cruz’s “ridiculous outburst”, Trump described “Lyin’ Ted” as “a desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign”.
While Trump can’t mathematically clinch the GOP nomination with his victory in IN, his path now becomes easier and he has more room for error in the remaining primary contests. In the past, he has criticized the superdelegate system as undemocratic and his supporters often say these free-floating delegates give Clinton, the establishment-backed candidate, an unfair advantage.
The Indiana win put Trump on a glide path to obtain the needed 1,237 delegates necessary to win the nomination.
“It is a lovely thing to watch, and a handsome thing to behold”, Trump said in his victory speech.
The campaign of Gov. John Kasich, who has won only in his home state of OH, said in a Facebook post: “Tonight’s results are not going to alter Gov. Kasich’s campaign plans”.
“@realDonaldTrump will be presumptive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton”, he tweeted shortly after Cruz announced he was leaving the race.
With Cruz taking aim at Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in his speech dropping out of the race Tuesday night, he struck a unifying tone for the party. Ultimately, he won the most votes or delegates in 11 states and netted more than 7 million votes. Superdelegates are Democratic Party insiders who can support the candidate of their choice, regardless of how their states vote. With 89 percent of the vote counted, Sanders had 52.7 percent and Clinton had 47.3 percent. Six in 10 of those who said they are very liberal supported Sanders, while Clinton was supported by moderates. And they favor Clinton by a almost 18-1 margin.
The exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.
“We’re going after Hillary Clinton”, he said.
Kasich did not compete in IN as a result of a pact with Cruz and has so far only won his home state of Ohio.
With 95% reporting, Trump earned at least 51 of the state’s 57 delegates.
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Despite Cruz’s successes with delegates later in the primary process, Trump’s consistent victories with voters made it increasingly hard to catch up with him in the delegate count. That includes pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates.
