“I am in for the distance, as long as we have a viable path to victory”, Cruz told reporters on Monday during a campaign stop.
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Republican primary voters were about equally likely to say that each of the top two candidates ran the most unfair campaign. And he added that Ted Cruz, who suspended his campaign on Tuesday, was a “helluva competitor”.
When it comes to delegate count among Democratic hopefuls, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads the delegate count at 2,183, compared with Vermont Sen.
Though it’s very unlikely Sanders could shake loose Clinton’s grasp on the Democratic presidential nomination for the general election, the victory may give Sanders’ campaign a second wind and a continued strong push through the primary contests in June into the convention.
The pair and their surrogates have ratcheted up those arguments in recent days as polls show Trump poised to deliver a potentially knockout win in Indiana. Even before the IN results were finalized, some conservative leaders were planning a Wednesday meeting to assess the viability of launching a third party candidacy to compete with Trump IN the fall.
Republican leaders spent months dismissing Trump as little more than an entertainer who would fade once voting started.
Unlike the Republican presidential nomination contests, Democratic races allocate pledged delegates proportionally.
The Vermont senator is far behind the former secretary of state in the delegate count. “It is time to unite our party and defeat Hillary Clinton”, Trump yesterday said in a message to his supporters after winning the in primary, where he got more than 52 per cent of the votes polled.
The close finish in the Hoosier State means a almost even split of the state’s 83 pledged delegates, which leaves Clinton within 200 delegates of clinching the nomination if superdelegates are counted, and Sanders almost 1,000 delegates behind that number – but vowing to fight on. He said he faces “a tough road to climb, but not an impossible road to climb” to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders spent time and about $1.8 million campaigning in IN, while Clinton spent virtually nothing.
Several top Indiana Democrats predict she will eke out a narrow victory, despite the campaign’s decision not to spend money on advertising here.
A majority of self-described Democrats supported Clinton, but 7 in 10 self-described independents supported Sanders.
Clinton’s team has started deploying staff to states that will be crucial in November and is also raising money for the fall campaign. Trump, meanwhile, has been saying his general election race against Clinton has “sort of already started”.
Trump’s first challenge will be uniting a Republican Party that has been roiled by his candidacy.
He also signalled that he intends to continue irrespective of the outcome in IN in an attempt to stop Mr Trump winning the 1,237 delegates required to claim the nomination.
If Cruz does win IN, he has to look ahead to California, where the most delegates IN the Republican race are up for grabs.
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Before Tuesday, the thinking was that if Cruz and Ohio Gov.
