Palm Beach: U.S. Republican front-runner Donald Trump swept three states and drove rival Marco Rubio out of the White House race, but the NY billionaire’s loss in the crucial state of OH wrought more chaos for a party deeply fractured by his candidacy.
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Cruz praised Rubio’s campaign in a speech given in Houston Tuesday night and appealed to Rubio’s supporters, but vowed not to give up his pursuit of the GOP presidential nomination.
He congratulated Senator Rubio on his campaign but did not mention Mr Kasich or Senator Cruz, who are still hopeful hoping to block him from capturing the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
Florida and OH were holding winner-take-all primaries Tuesday, awarding 99 and 66 delegates, respectively.
On the Democratic side, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders invested heavily in Tuesday’s primary states – and as with the Republicans, the bigger spender was the bigger loser.
Rubio continually tried to cast himself as the statesman alternative to the bombastic Trump who could unite a fractured Republican party.
Clinton was more willing than Republican officials to recognize the likelihood of a Trump nomination, warning supporters that the NY real estate mogul has laid out a “really risky path” for the country.
“We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination and winning this election in November”, she said in her victory speech in Florida.
According to Associated Press projections, Trump leads the race for delegates with at 621 following his gains in Tuesday’s contests. Cruz, who had his most disappointing night of the campaign, finished with 396 delegates.
Because Marco Rubio dropped out of the race and virtually ensured that Hillary Clinton will face either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz in the general election. “Forget it. I’m going to be the nominee because we’re going to win OH”, he said before the polls closed.
“Thank you, Florida!” Trump tweeted shortly after the race in the Sunshine State was called.
With Tuesday’s primary win the number of Clinton’s delegates rose to 1,561 (467 of them super delegates), versus Sanders’ 800 (26 of them super delegates).
In mid-July, the Republican Party will announce its presidential candidate at its Cleveland convention, while the Democrats will announce theirs in Philadelphia.
If Sanders were to win Illinois, Missouri and OH, he would greatly narrow the delegate spread and ensure that the Democratic race extend potentially into June.
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There is at least one bright spot on the map for Sanders, however.
