GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump extended his lead Tuesday night, capturing the Arizona Republican Primary according to projections from the Associated Press and networks. A GOP candidate requires 1,237 to clinch the party’s nomination. The totals include support from super-delegates, the party leaders and elected officials who automatically become convention delegates by virtue of their positions.
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The endorsement comes as establishment Republicans scramble to stop front-runner Donald Trump from winning the nomination because of his divisive proposals like a plan to deport 11 million illegal immigrants.
Clinton, 68, said she was “very proud” to have won Arizona and hit Republican candidates who she said were “literally inciting bigotry and violence”.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has won the Idaho Democratic caucuses, according to a CNN projection.
Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and Cruz said he would send police patrols into Muslim neighborhoods in the United States.
The remaining Republican candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, was shut out Tuesday.
Mr. Kasich leads Mrs. Clinton by 8 points, 47 percent to 39 percent, and he leads Mr. Sanders by 1 point, 45 percent to 44 percent.
Trump is trying to beat back efforts to deny him the nomination.
The Texas senator says Trump launches personal attacks when he wants to change the subject, suggesting Trump wanted to divert attention from Utah, where he lost to Cruz on Tuesday night.
But in Arizona, Trump earned all of the state’s 58 delegates. And this is saying something, given that Cruz met his wife while both worked on George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign.
Republicans have been slow to get behind Cruz, even as the field has winnowed, but some former critics, such as Sen.
While losing Arizona, Cruz prevailed in Utah’s caucuses and cleared the 50% threshold of support needed to capture all of the state’s 40 delegates. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, speaks as Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, left, and his husband, Michael Shiosaki, right, look on Tuesday, March 22, 2016, during a campaign rally at Rainier Beach High Schoo…
Trump helped himself in Arizona with a hardline anti-immigration message and tough talk on Islamic militants to easily defeat Cruz, a USA senator from Texas, and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
“Ted is a consistent, principled conservative who has demonstrated the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests”, Bush said in a statement.
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Cruz won the endorsement of Jeb Bush, a long-ago mainstream Republican powerhouse whose own candidacy faded, and the backing of the political arm of the conservative Club for Growth.
