Donald Trump scored victories on Tuesday in three states, including the big-prize Florida, but lost Ohio to the state’s Governor, John Kasich, as the billionaire continued to move ahead in his stunning campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton won at least four states, dealing a severe blow to Bernie Sanders’ bid to slow her march toward the Democratic nomination.
Marco Rubio, the Florida Senator who staked his once-promising campaign on winning in his home state, dropped out of the presidential race shortly after the polls closed. That leaves Mr. Kasich as the last true establishment candidate running against Mr. Trump and arch-conservative Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Upending Republican politics
Mr. Trump, the brash and controversial reality TV star, has upended Republican politics by winning most of the state-by-state competitions for delegates who will choose the party’s nominee.
He has seized on Americans’ anger with Washington politicians, discomfort with immigration and fears of terrorism, attracting voters with his blunt talk and simply worded promise to make America great again.
Looking for that sweep
Tuesday’s votes in five states had been viewed as a pivotal moment in the Republican presidential campaign. For the first time, two states -- Ohio and Florida -- had winner-take-all contests. A Trump sweep could have given him an insurmountable lead in the delegate count.
Mr. Trump won the biggest prize all 99 Florida delegates as well as winning North Carolina and Illinois, and was locked in a tight race with Mr. Cruz in Missouri. He told a victory rally in Florida, “This was an amazing night.”
Kasich’s win crucial to stop Trump
But Mr. Kasich’s win, capturing all of Ohio’s 66 delegates, was crucial to keeping alive the hopes of mainstream Republicans trying to stop Mr. Trump.
Both the Republican and Democratic primaries in Missouri were too close to call Wednesday morning.
While Mr. Trump has amassed the most delegates, he’s winning just 46 per cent of the delegates that have been awarded so far. If that pace continues, he would fall short of the majority that he would need to assure him the nomination at the party’s convention in July. The result could be a contested convention, creating an unpredictable outcome.
First triumph for Kasich
This was the first victory for Mr. Kasich, whose upbeat message and long record of government service has had little resonance as his rivals seized on voters’ anxiety and disdain for Washington.
While he could benefit from Mr. Rubio dropping out, he remains an extreme long-shot for the nomination, though he could help keep Mr. Trump below the 50 per cent threshold.
It is between me, Trump: Cruz
Mr. Cruz said at a Houston rally that the battle for the Republican presidential nomination battle was a “two-person race” between himself and Mr. Trump. He did not mention Mr. Kasich by name.
Mr. Trump now has 621 delegates. Mr. Cruz has 396 and Mr. Kasich 138. Mr. Rubio left the race with 168 delegates.
Needed: 1,237 delegates
It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for President. n the Democratic race, Ms. Clinton’s victories in Florida and North Carolina were expected, but Mr. Sanders, a Vermont Senator and self-described democratic socialist, had hoped to take the industrial states of Ohio and Illinois, both of which Ms. Clinton won. He criticised the former Secretary of State for her past support for trade deals.
Mr. Sanders is unlikely to overtake Ms. Clinton in the delegate count, but his victory last week in Michigan underscored the unease that many Democratic voters have about her candidacy.
Commanding position for Hillary
With her wins pn Tuesday, Ms. Clinton put herself in a commanding position to become the first woman in U.S. history to win a major party nomination.
Overall, Ms. Clinton has at least 1,561 total delegates including super-delegates, who are elected officials and party leaders free to support the candidate of their choice. Mr. Sanders has at least 800 delegates when the count includes super-delegates. It takes 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.
Missouri scenario
In Missouri, the margins between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz and between Ms. Clinton and Mr. Sanders, were less than one-half of 1 percentage point, meaning the losing candidate can request a recount. The Associated Press did not call either race.
At a victory rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, Ms. Clinton pivoted quickly to the November election by assailing Mr. Trump’s hardline immigration positions and support for torture. “Our commander-in-chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it,” she declared.
Trump and his acrid tongue
Mr. Trump has alienated many Republicans and Democrats alike with his disparaging remarks about Mexicans, Muslims and women, among others. He entered Tuesday’s primaries embroiled in one of the biggest controversies of his contentious campaign. He has encouraged supporters to confront protesters at his events and is now facing accusations of encouraging violence after skirmishes at a rally last week in Chicago that he ended up cancelling.
“I don’t think I should be toning it down because I’ve had the biggest rallies of anybody probably ever,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We have had very, very little difficultly.”
They will dump Trump
Mr. Rubio and Mr. Kasich have suggested they might not be able to support Trump if he’s the nominee, an extraordinary stance for intraparty rivals. All of the Republican candidates had earlier pledged to support the nominee.
Mr. Rubio implicitly rebuked Mr. Trump throughout a speech in Miami announcing he was dropping out of the race, imploring Americans to “not give in to the fear, do not give in to the frustration.”
Now thrust into the centre of a campaign that has been bitingly personal, Mr. Kasich vowed to cheering supporters in Berea, Ohio, that he would “not take the low road to the highest office in the land.”
Negative advertising
Mr. Trump has been the target of millions of dollars in negative advertising in recent weeks, including one ad campaign that highlights his statements that appear to encourage violence among them, “I’d like to punch him in the face.”
