Donald Trump reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president on Thursday, completing an unlikely rise that has upended the political landscape and set the stage for a bitter fall campaign.
The good news for Mr. Trump, reported by The Associated Press after a nationwide survey of unbound delegates, was tempered by continuing problems for his campaign. Those include the abrupt departure of Mr. Trump’s political director and continuing resistance by many Republican leaders to declare their support for his upstart candidacy.
Mr. Trump was put over the top in the AP delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP they would support him at the national convention in July. Among them was Oklahoma GOP chairwoman Pam Pollard.
“I think he has touched a part of our electorate that doesn’t like where our country is,” Ms. Pollard said. “I have no problem supporting Mr. Trump.”
It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination. Mr. Trump has reached 1,238. With 303 delegates at stake in five State primaries on June 7, 2016, Mr. Trump will easily pad his total, avoiding a contested convention in Cleveland.
