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Trump presumptive nominee after Indiana win, Cruz departure
Donald Trump: Presumptive GOP nominee; Sanders takes Indiana
Story highlights
- Indiana win, Cruz drop out leaves Trump on cusp of GOP nomination
- Clinton seeks to stretch delegate lead over Sanders
(CNN)Donald
Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee following a
decisive victory in the Indiana primary and the decision by Ted Cruz to
drop out of the race.
Though
Trump has not formally secured the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the
nomination -- and likely won't until June -- there is no serious
opposition left to block his path.
His
victory amounts to a stunning takeover of the Republican Party by a
candidate with no political experience. Along the way, he eviscerated
the GOP's most accomplished presidential field in a generation and
captured the Zeitgeist of a party in which grass roots voters harbor
deep ill will toward establishment elites.
"It
is a beautiful thing to watch, and a beautiful thing to behold," Trump
said during a victory speech. "We are going to make America great
again."
Cruz tried everything to
pull off a last-ditch win in Indiana, including the unusual move of
selecting Carly Fiorina as his running mate even though he wasn't the
nominee. He also forged a pact with John Kasich that would allow him to
focus on Indiana while the Ohio governor would devote his time to later
states.
But none of the moves worked.
"We
left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we've got
but the voters chose another path," Cruz said. "So with a heavy heart
but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we
are suspending our campaign."
24 photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career
With
82% of the vote in at 9:50 p.m. ET, Trump was in the lead with 53.1 %
of the vote while Cruz was at 36.6%. Kasich was at 7.6%.
Following
Cruz's speech, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus
tweeted Trump is now the presumptive nominee and encouraged the party to
"unite and focus on defeating" Hillary Clinton.
Trump paid tribute to Cruz in an effort to bring the party together.
"He is one tough competitor," Trump said. "He is a smart tough guy."
Trump
quickly turned his fire on Clinton, saying she would be a "poor
president." He also said she "doesn't understand trade" and lashed out
at the "deep carnage" he said had been wrought by the North American
Free Trade Agreement that was ratified during the presidency of her
husband, Bill Clinton.
Trump's
candidacy has galvanized the GOP, bringing in voters -- especially in
regions like the Rust Belt -- that might not otherwise be attracted to
the party's message. In the process, he's toppled a GOP field that, at
the start, included many well-respected governors and senators.
GOP
elites now face the long-feared reality of Trump as an outsider nominee
who will lead them into the fall campaign after splitting the party,
overturning establishment and conservative power bases and alienating
key general election voters with incendiary rhetoric.
The
anti-Trump movement said it would fight on as Trump was still short of
the delegates needed to secure the nomination. Katie Packer, the chair
of Our Principles PAC, said there is still time for Trump to "continue
to disqualify himself in the eyes of voters."
"We
continue to give voice to the belief of so many Republicans that Trump
is not a conservative, does not represent the values of the Republican
Party, cannot beat Hillary Clinton, and is simply unfit to be President
of the United States," she said in a statement.
For his part, Kasich insisted he would remain in the race.
"Tonight's
results are not going to alter Gov. Kasich's campaign plans," said John
Weaver, Kasich's chief strategist. "Our strategy has been and continues
to be one that involves winning the nomination at an open convention."
By 9:30 p.m. ET, Trump picked up 51 delegates from Indiana, bringing him to 1,053. Cruz had 572.
Sanders wins Indiana
Meanwhile,
Bernie Sanders will win the Indiana Democratic primary, according to a
CNN projection. That victory could help boost his campaign's morale but
is unlikely to cut deeply into Clinton's large delegate lead that has
her on track for the nomination.
By 9.40 p.m., Sanders had 52.9% of the vote, with 75 % of votes counted. Clinton had 47.1%
Trump's dramatic victory caps a day of extraordinary developments in the Republican race.
Cruz,
facing the prospect of an Indiana defeat, snapped after weeks of
personal attacks from Trump that included fresh insinuations that his
father was associated with Lee Harvey Oswald.
"I'm going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump," he told reporters at a morning news conference.
Cruz blasted Trump as a
"pathological liar," "utterly amoral," "a narcissist at a level I don't
think this country's ever seen" and "a serial philanderer."
He unleashed his full arsenal of insults in his attack on Trump.
"He
is proud of being a serial philanderer ... he describes his own battles
with venereal diseases as his own personal Vietnam," Cruz said, citing a
decades-old Trump appearance on "The Howard Stern Show."
"This
man is a pathological liar, he doesn't know the difference between
truth and lies ... in a pattern that is straight out of a psychology
textbook, he accuses everyone of lying," Cruz said as Indiana voters
headed to cast their ballots. "Whatever lie he's telling, at that minute
he believes it ... the man is utterly immoral," Cruz said.
Trump hit back in a statement blasting Cruz as a "desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign."
The
volley reflected the increasingly personal battle between Cruz and
Trump in the final days of the Indiana contest. Earlier Tuesday, Trump
had criticized Rafael Cruz, the senator's father, calling him
"disgraceful" after he urged evangelical voters in Indiana to reject his
son's rival.
Trump also referenced
a report from the tabloid National Enquirer -- without naming the
publication -- which alleged that it had identified Rafael Cruz in a
photo with Lee Harvey Oswald months prior to the JFK assassination. CNN
has not independently confirmed that report -- and there is no evidence
that it is true.
"And (Ted Cruz's)
father, you know, was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's, you
know, being shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous," Trump said in
an interview on "Fox and Friends." "I mean what was he doing with Lee
Harvey Oswald, shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It's
horrible."
Democratic race
By
9:30 p.m. ET, Sanders picked up 39 delegates from Indiana compared to
29 for Clinton. Clinton still holds a commanding delegate lead, with a
total of 2,208 delegates -- including 513 superdelegates. Sanders has a
total of 1,439 delegates -- including 41 superdelegates.
Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.
The
painful state of the race for Sanders means that his only hope of
winning the nomination would be to persuade Democratic superdelegates at
the convention to abandon the former secretary of state -- an unlikely
scenario considering that group is largely made up of party insiders
long aligned with Clinton.
That is
one reason why the Clinton campaign has begun stressing that it is time
to unite the party and concentrate on the race against Republicans in
the fall.
But the Vermont senator
used his public performances in Indiana to highlight what he says are
stark differences on trade. He also rebuked her over her vote in 2002 to
authorize the Iraq war, and demanded a $15 minimum wage.
"Let
Indiana be the 18th state to join the political revolution!" Sanders
said at a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Monday, as he battled to
close a four-point deficit to Clinton revealed in the NBC/Wall Street
Journal/Marist poll.
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