In a remarkable campaign fueled by anger, Trump has been under steady attack – by rival Republicans, by progressives, by super PACs determined to derail his candidacy, and by the president, who has twice taken shots at the GOP front-runner in recent days. Trump did not name any.
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In the Democratic race, Clinton’s victories in Florida and North Carolina were expected, but Sanders, a Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, had hoped to take the industrial states of OH and IL, both of which Clinton won.
She hammered Trump repeatedly during her speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, only a few minutes from Trump’s resort there, saying at one point: “When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning Muslims from entering the United States, when he embraces torture, that doesn’t make him strong, it makes him wrong”.
The good news for Trump is that he won the most delegates on Tuesday, and was able to make up for the 66 delegates he lost in OH by winning IL and likely Missouri, which could bring as many as 95 delegates, depending on how the district allocation shakes out.
Ohio Governor John Kasich’s victory in his home state left him as the last establishment Republican candidate standing after Rubio, a USA senator, pulled out of the race after losing in a Trump landslide in Rubio’s home state of Florida.
Florida is the biggest delegate prize of the night for both parties.
Kasich, Cruz’s team reiterated Tuesday night, can not mathematically win the GOP nomination before a convention. By that comment, businessman Donald Trump is well on his way to becoming the nominee as he easily bested Rubio in the state. Cruz theoretically could hit that number, but he’d have to win about eight out of 10 voters in the rest of the race. A poll just released yesterday shows Hillary Clinton – even being as unpopular as she is – is still beating Donald Trump among voters under 35 by 33 percent.
The bad news for Trump is pretty clear: even with a Missouri win, he would still have won only a little more than 47 percent of the delegates allocated so far. “We’ll see. Who knows?”
But their bid to stop him has come too late as a Republican field that once included Trump and 16 high-profile party figures has dwindled now to only three with Trump, 69, in command ahead of Cruz, 45, and Kasich, 63. He suggested Kasich is well-positioned to amass delegates in the upcoming primary contests to help bolster his position in a contested convention.
Aware of the challenge he faces, Trump talked party unity on Tuesday night from his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida – name-dropping House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The campaign goes on”, Kasich declared at a victory rally, according to the Associated Press.
Rubio’s withdrawal leaves Kasich and Cruz as Trump’s last opponents. The fiery conservative tried to cast the GOP nomination battle as a two-person race between himself and Trump. Sweeping Bernie sanders in at least four of the races.
Tuesday’s results signaled a smoother path for Clinton to become the Democrats’ presidential nominee.
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“We have to bring our party together”, a restrained Mr Trump said in Florida, as the results rolled in. Cruz has 395 delegates, followed by Kasich with 138. “This was a great evening”, he said.
