By Robert Allen
By Robert Allen
Rabat – With his landslide victory in Tuesday’s Indiana primary and suspension of Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign, Donald Trump is now effectively the Republican nominee.
According to National Public Radio, Donald Trump is now 87 percent of the way towards the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican Party’s nomination, and only needs 37 percent of the remaining delegates to achieve that goal.
Indiana was a key state for Senator Cruz. In a coordinated effort between the Cruz and Kasich campaigns to deny Trump the nomination, Kasich agreed to stand aside in the Indiana race, freeing up potential voters for Sen. Cruz. Despite these efforts however, the Cruz campaign only received 36.6 percent of the vote.
In a speech late Tuesday evening, Sen. Ted Cruz suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination, effectively clearing the way for Mr. Trump in the remaining primary contests.
Following the news of Cruz’s exit from the race, chairmen of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, tweeted that Trump would be the presumptive nominee, and called for the party to unite behind him.
.@realDonaldTrump will be presumptive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton#NeverClinton
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) May 4, 2016
Idaho Governor Tim Kasich remains in the Republican primary race, but with only 153 delegates and few states remaining before the June nominating convention, it is mathematically impossible for him to secure the required delegate count for the party’s nomination.
