Donald Trump looked all-but-certain of carrying the Republican Party
colors in the 2016 presidential election after the billionaire political
novice sent his only serious challenger Ted Cruz crashing out of the
race.
Addressing jubilant supporters at Trump Tower in New York
after romping to his seventh straight state-wide victory in the Indiana
primary, the real estate mogul promised them: "We`re going to win in
November, and we`re going to win big, and it`s going to be America
first."
Tuesday`s contest in the midwestern state was seen as a
final firewall by the "stop Trump" movement seeking to prevent him from
locking in the party nomination.
But as the race was called
overwhelmingly in Trump`s favor, Cruz conceded to supporters in
Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forwards.
"We left it all on the field in Indiana," Cruz said. "We gave it everything we`ve got, but the voters chose another path."
"And so with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign."
It
was a stunning denouement for the arch-conservative Texas senator who
had insisted he would press on to the final day of the Republican race.
His
departure leaves the low-polling Ohio Governor John Kasich as Trump`s
only challenger for the nomination -- making it a virtual certainty that
he will go head to head in a general election matchup with the likely
Democratic flagbearer Hillary Clinton.
The top echelon of the
Republican establishment said as much minutes after Cruz capitulated,
with Republican Party chief Reince Priebus declaring Trump the
"presumptive" nominee.
"Donald Trump will be presumptive @GOP
nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton,"
Priebus said, in an extraordinary move to embrace a candidate the party
establishment fought tooth and nail to stop.
Clinton meanwhile
suffered an upset in Indiana as her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders
mounted a come-from-behind victory, denying the former secretary of
state a feather in her cap as she seeks their party`s presidential
nomination.
Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, beat
Clinton by 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with about three quarters of
precincts reporting -- although Clinton remained well ahead in the
overall delegate battle for the nomination.Cruz had been hoping to use
the midwestern state to block Trump from receiving the 1,237 delegates
needed to secure the nomination ahead of the Republican convention in
Cleveland in July.
But the bombastic real estate mogul -- who has
thus far defied all political logic to lead the Republican race --
swept the arch-conservative senator aside.
Trump was leading Cruz by about 53 percent to 37 percent, with Kasich languished at less than eight percent.
"Lyin`
Ted Cruz consistently said that he will, and must, win Indiana. If he
doesn`t he should drop out of the race-stop wasting time & money,"
Trump taunted in a tweet.
With 1,002 delegates to his name, Trump
was already in favorable position to reach the magic number needed to
avoid a contested party convention. With Cruz out of the race, crossing
the threshold is a foregone conclusion for Trump.
Even before the Indiana results, Trump and Clinton had pivoted toward one another.
"I`m really focused on moving into the general election," Clinton said confidently Tuesday in West Virginia.
"That`s
where we have to be because we are going to have a tough campaign
against a candidate who`ll literally say or do anything," she said of
Trump. "We`re going to take him on at every turn."
Cruz`s exit
comes after the primary battle took a nasty turn Tuesday when Trump
cited a tabloid report linking Cruz`s father Rafael to John F. Kennedy
assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
Trump raised the recent National Enquirer story in his interview with Fox News.
"This is just kooky," an irate Cruz shot back while stumping in Evansville, Indiana, branding Trump a "pathological liar."
"The
man is utterly amoral," said Cruz, adding that "we are staring at the
abyss" if Trump wins the White House. Source: http://zeenews.india.com
