Democratic contender Sanders also gained momentum in his fight against frontrunner Clinton, trimming her commanding lead in delegates.
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An ultraconservative Texas senator with a complicated relationship with Republican leaders, Cruz cast his Wisconsin victory as a “turning point” in the race and urged the party to rally around his candidacy.
While New York businessman Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both led strongly in initial state polls, they saw their edges decline recently – although for very different reasons.
Republican Ted Cruz easily won the Wisconsin presidential primary on Tuesday, dealing a blow to front-runner Donald Trump.
The 74-year-old senator won the young vote again overwhelmingly, winning the support of 18- to 29-year-old voters by a whopping 82 per cent to 18 per cent, according to exit polls from the Wisconsin voting precincts. In a sign of Clinton’s low expectations in the Midwestern state, she spent Tuesday night at a fundraiser with top donors in New York City.
Ms Clinton, who did not appear in public on last night, tweeted her congratulations to Sanders. “To all the voters and volunteers who poured your hearts into this campaign: Forward! -H”.
“Congrats to @BernieSanders on winning Wisconsin”, Ms Clinton said on Twitter.
With most of Wisconsin’s delegates allotted, Clinton now has 1,274 delegates to Sanders’ 1,025, based on primary and caucus results alone.
Clinton’s campaign has cast her overall lead as almost insurmountable. Yet Sanders’ continued presence in the race has become an irritant for Clinton, keeping her from turning her attention to the general election.
The Wisconsin primary capped a hard week for Trump, who was forced to backtrack after saying women who have abortions should face punishment if the procedure is outlawed, and who voiced support for his campaign manager after he was charged with misdemeanor assault for grabbing a reporter.
The businessman angrily denounced his Republican opponent calling him “Lyin’ Ted Cruz” and attributing his victory to the support of conservative talk radio show hosts and “the entire party apparatus behind him”. “A majority of Republican voters say they’re either concerned or scared of a potential Trump presidency, exit polls show”, reports the Associated Press.
Cruz received 48% of the votes to 34% for Trump. The Texas senator was poised to collect most of Wisconsin’s 42 Republican delegates.
“My campaign is going to earn the 1,237 delegates needed, either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland”.
Trump still has a narrow path to claim the nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7.
The Wisconsin upset for the property developer-turned-reality TV star leaves him facing an uphill battle in the remaining 16 state contests. The Ohio governor’s only victory has come in his home state, but he’s still picking up delegates that would otherwise help Trump inch closer to the nomination or help Cruz catch up. Trump continues to dominate the delegate race, with 740 pledged delegates to 514 for Cruz and 143 for Kasich. The process of selecting those delegates is tedious, and will test the mettle of Trump’s slim campaign operation.
The result in the Badger State raises the prospect of a showdown at the party’s gathering in Cleveland from July 18th to 21st and the first multi-ballot convention to pick a Republican nominee since Thomas Dewey was chosen to face sitting president Harry Truman in the 1948 presidential election. While all 28 go to the national convention as free agents, 10 said in interviews they were committed to Cruz. He would need to nab essentially all of the remaining delegates to do it. Cruz’s odds of blocking Trump from clinching the endorsement have improved extensively, however.
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The GOP race is expected to favor Trump and Kasich as the map turns East and voters are generally more moderate. Moreover, Trump is being seen as the only candidate who can clinch a nomination before the party convention.
