Donald Trump’s big win in Indiana as Ted Cruz drops out of Presidential race

Washington: New York billionaire Donald Trump yesterday won the crucial Republican primary held in the mid-western US state of Indiana, while Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz bowed out of the race after his defeat in the GOP’s primary.
Trump’s big win has increased his likelihood of clinching the party’s presidential nomination outright, while Cruz’s defeat delivered a heavy blow to Republicans currently eyeing a contested convention this summer to snatch the party’s nomination from Trump.

If Trump secures the Republican Party’s nomination, he will be the first major-party nominee who has not served in elected office since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. Eisenhower was a five-star general and the commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II.
By 8.00 pm (local time), one hour after the poll closed, partial results showed Trump had won 53 percent of the vote, almost 20 points ahead of Cruz.

The victory in Indiana will make Trump’s total delegate count exceed 1,000 with the likely prospect of reaching the magic number of 1,237 needed to avoid a contested party convention and dashing hopes for the anti-Trump movement to deny the real estate mogul the nomination.

Cruz at a rally in Indiana said, “From the beginning, I’ve said I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory.”

By 8.00 pm (local time), one hour after the poll closed, partial results showed Trump had won 53 percent of the vote, almost 20 points ahead of Cruz.

The victory in Indiana will make Trump’s total delegate count exceed 1,000 with the likely prospect of reaching the magic number of 1,237 needed to avoid a contested party convention and dashing hopes for the anti-Trump movement to deny the real estate mogul the nomination.

Cruz at a rally in Indiana said, “From the beginning, I’ve said I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory.”
“Tonight, I’m sorry to say it appears that the path has been foreclosed,” he added. Though Cruz had already been mathematically eliminated from reaching the 1,237 delegates required to win the nomination on the first ballot at July’s GOP convention before Tuesday’s Indiana primary.