However, the victories on Tuesday would be crucial for Cruz and Sanders to build momentum as the contests now move to NY, the home turf for both Trump and Clinton.
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Cruz’s win was a breakthrough for Republican Party forces battling to block the controversial NY billionaire, and it raised the prospect of a prolonged nominating fight that could last to the July convention. It throws another curveball in Donald Trump’s attempt to win the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination.
“With our victory tonight in Wisconsin, we have now won seven out of eight of the last caucuses and primaries”, Sanders said.
More Wisconsin Democratic voters think Bernie Sanders is trustworthy compared to Hillary Clinton.
After Wisconsin, the next state to vote in the primaries to elect the Republican and Democratic candidates for the November presidential election is NY, where voters will go the polls on April 19.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads Sen.
Despite his win, Cruz still trails Trump significantly.
Much of the debate over the closing days of the Wisconsin race has not been about trade policy or unions, but whether the two candidates will debate one another – in NY.
Cruz’s win in the Badger State is a serious blow to Trump and could alter the trajectory of the Republican race.
Cruz, a conservative US senator from Texas, was aided in Wisconsin by the backing of Republican Governor Scott Walker, who had dropped his own presidential bid in September.
Trump has the support of 39% of Republicans there, according to a new Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday. He was involved in a tiff with Cruz’s wife, an issue that concerned his campaign manager’s altercation with a female reporter, and made unsavory comments about abortion (for which, though, he did provide a clarification later).
The results in Wisconsin make it likely both parties’ primaries will continue deep into the spring, draping front-runners Trump and Clinton in uncertainty and preventing both from fully setting their sights on the general election.
Trump is still the front-runner, but his Wisconsin loss raises the chances that there will be a contested convention, with no candidate arriving in Cleveland for the convention with a majority of committed delegates.
In a statement, Trump’s campaign said that he “withstood the onslaught of the establishment yet again”, noting a flood of spending from anti-Trump SuperPAC spending. He must win 57 per cent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination before the convention.
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A contested convention would allow Republican Party leaders to choose the presidential nominee, instead of voters.
