US election 2016: Donald Trump wins Indiana primary

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared the race over, saying on Twitter that Trump would be the party’s presumptive nominee.

“We all need to unite and focus on defeating HillaryClinton,” he wrote.

Clinton and Trump now plunge into a six- month battle for the presidency, with the future of America’s immigration laws, health care system and military posture around the world at stake.

CRUZ BOWS OUT

“F-rom the beginning, I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight, I’m sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed,” Texas senator Ted Cruz told supporters in Indianapolis.

Republican Ted Cruz has d-ropped out of the presidential race. Picture: Denny Simmons/Evansville Courier & Press via APSource:AFP

“We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path,” said Cruz, whose withdrawal leaves the low-polling John Kasich as Trump’s sole challenger

The latest development brings Trump to the brink of outright victory in the presidential nomination race and dashes the hopes of a movement bent on stopping him.

“Ted Cruz - I don’t know if he likes me or he doesn’t like me - but he is one hell of a competitor,” Trump said of his last fierce opponent whom he had dubbed “lyin’ 

Ted Cruz d-rops out and it appears Donald Trump has sealed the nomination. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain pic.twitter.com/K7EHAZu05R

— We Need Trump (@WeNeedTrump) May 4, 2016

I have covered politics for the last 18 years. There is no story more amazing to me than "Donald Trump, Republican nominee."

— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) May 4, 2016

The state offers a bounty of 57 delegates to a single winner and, combined with a string of states to come which Mr Trump is expected to take, will be enough to contest the presidency for the Republicans.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is now the only other Republican left in the race. But Kasich has won just one primary - his home state - and trails Trump by nearly 900 delegates.

Trump is likely to go head-to-head with presumptive Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Vermont Senator. Bernie Sanders eked out a victory over Clinton in Indiana, but the outcome will not slow the former secretary of state’s march to the Democratic nomination. Heading into Tuesday’s voting, Clinton had 92 percent of the delegates she needs.

TRUMP EXULTANT

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in New York following the primary in Indiana. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

“Thank you Indiana!” Trump tweeted as the race was called in his favor and he romped to a seventh straight state-wide victory.

Both Trump and Clinton were betting on Indiana to put them one step closer to locking up the White House nominations.

While Clinton heads into the general election with significant advantages with minority voters and women, Democrats have vowed to not underestimate Trump as his Republican rivals did for too long.

EXPLAINER: The psychology behind Trump’s success

For months, Republican leaders considered him a fringe candidate and banked on voters shifting toward more traditional contenders once the primary contests began.

But Trump proved to be surprisingly durable, tapping into Republicans’ deep anger with party leaders and outlasting more than a dozen experienced political rivals.

TROUBLE ON THE HOME FRONT

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz walks away after announcing the suspension of his campaign. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

Trump’s first challenge will be uniting a Republican Party that has been roiled by his candidacy. While some GOP leaders have warmed to the real estate mogul, others have promised to never vote for him and see him as a threat to their party’s very existence.

Even before the Indiana results were finalized, some conservative leaders were planning a Wednesday meeting to assess the viability of launching a third party candidacy to compete with him in the fall.

One outside group trying to stop Trump suggested it would shift its attention to helping Republicans in other races. Rory Cooper, a senior adviser to the Never Trump super PAC, said the group will help protect “Republican incumbents and down-ballot candidates, by distinguishing their values and principles f-rom that of Trump, and protecting them f-rom a wave election.”

Cruz had been hoping to use the midwestern state as a firewall, blocking Trump f-rom 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.

THINGS GOT PERSONAL

Ivanka Trump arrives for the Costume Institute Benefit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art today. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

With momentum favoring the 69-year-old Trump in the leadup to the primary, things 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, lambasting the frontrunner as “a caricature of a braggadocious, arrogant buffoon who builds giant casinos with giant pictures of him everywhe-re he looks.” “We are staring at the abyss,” Cruz warned.

Mr Cruz chose today’s crucial polling day to launch a massive assault on Mr Trump, calling him a “pathological liar” and a “narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen”.

He also said the front leader was “utterly amoral” and a “serial philanderer”.

“He describes his own battles with venereal diseases as his own personal Vietnam,” Mr Cruz said.

NUMBERS GAME

Voters cast their ballots at a polling place in Fowler, Indiana.Source:AFP

Partial results showed the billionaire real estate mogul securing over 53 percent of the vote, almost 20 points ahead of Cruz. Kasich languished at eight percent.

Should Trump win all 57 delegates at stake in Indiana, he will need just 40 percent of remaining Republican delegates to reach the magic number of 1,237 needed to avoid a contested party convention.

“Very hard to see how Trump doesn’t get to 1,237 now,” tweeted the leading statistician and election analyst Nate Silver of the blog FiveThirtyEight.

“He’d need to lose big in Cali, whe-re he’s up by 20+ points.” The frontrunner has so far amassed 1,002 delegates prior to Indiana, according to CNN’s tally. Cruz is at 572 delegates, while Kasich trails with 156.

The map currently favours Trump, who is polling well ahead in the largest states yet to vote -- California and New Jersey.

Thank you Indiana! #Trump2016#MakeAmericaGreatAgain pic.twitter.com/G4JlShRA6I

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2016

Clinton, 68, is far enough ahead overall that Sanders’ only hope now lies in the unlikely scenario of her failing to win a majority of delegates in the primaries, in which case her nomination could be contested at a Democratic convention in July.

But regardless of the outcome in Indiana, Clinton has already pivoted toward Trump.

“I’m really focused on moving into the general election,” she said confidently Tuesday in West Virginia.

“That’s whe-re 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.”

Clinton needs only 21 percent of remaining Democratic delegates to win her party’s nomination, but she has declined to call on Sanders to d-rop out.

“He has every right to finish out this primary season. I couldn’t argue with that,” Clinton said.

Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist senator representing Vermont, has indicated he will remain in the race through California