Republican Marco Rubio is effectively calling it quits, having lost the primary in his home state of Florida to Donald Trump.
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Trump kept his substantial delegate lead by winning at least three Republican contests, including his knockout victory in Florida that pushed rival and Senator from the state Marco Rubio out of the race.
Florida and OH, the first winner-take-all states in the delegate race, are the two big prizes of the night for Republicans.
On the Democratic side, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton won in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina.
Hillary Clinton rolled up primary victories in four states – Florida, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina – and dealt a severe blow Tuesday to Bernie Sanders’ hopes of denying her the Democratic presidential nomination.
On a night yet another rival suspended his run, Ted Cruz urged Republicans to back him because, he said, he is the last chance to stop Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination.
Cruz has repeatedly called for both Rubio and John Kasich to consider coalescing behind him so he can focus on Trump.
Rubio had failed to impress conservative voters because of his perceived weakness on immigration and a series of campaign gaffes. They’re going to leave us a fractured nation. Marco Rubio to end his bid after a devastating home-state loss. While Trump has amassed the most delegates going into Tuesday, he’s won fewer than 50 percent of them.
Trump has vowed to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, impose protectionist trade policies and ban Muslims from entering the US.
The beaten senator, in his hometown, admitted that this year he “will not be on the winning side” as it was “not God’s plan” that he would become the next president. “I chose a different route and I’m proud of it”.
But it’s not over yet for Sanders, who’s running a tight race with Clinton in IL and Missouri.
Tuesday’s muddled results will make it harder for Trump to earn the 1,237 delegates he needs to claim the nomination before the Republican convention in July.
Trump said on Tuesday that his momentum was already drawing in establishment Republicans who had previously balked at his candidacy but now see him as the likely nominee.
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“You just have to get him head-to-head, which is what our campaign’s been about since, I think, the day after Iowa”, Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe told reporters at the senator’s election night party.
