Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump won a
crucial nominating contest in Florida on Tuesday, knocking rival Marco Rubio
out of the race, but lost Ohio to John Kasich in a mixed result that set the
stage for a long, bitter fight.
Trump, a businessman who hoped a sweep of five states
would put him on the path to the nomination, now faces a three-way struggle
with Kasich, the Ohio governor, and Ted Cruz, a conservative US senator from
Texas, that could lead to a showdown at the party's nominating convention in
July.
Kasich won all 66 of Ohio's delegates, giving new hope to
establishment Republicans battling to deny Trump the nomination and block him
from capturing the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
On the Democratic side, former secretary of state Hillary
Clinton, 68, won in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, putting more distance
between herself and rival Bernie Sanders, 74, a US senator from Vermont.
The wins for Clinton added to her lead in pledged
delegates over Sanders and gave her an almost insurmountable edge over him,
putting aside the memory of last week's stunning loss in Michigan. The
Democratic races in Illinois and Missouri on Tuesday had yet to be decided.
As she had after other primary wins, Clinton was thinking
about a possible match-up with Trump on Tuesday.
"We can't lose what made America great in the first
place, and this isn't just about Donald Trump," Clinton told supporters in
West Palm Beach, Florida. "We can't just talk about economic inequality,
we have to take on all forms of inequality and discrimination."
Trump's vows to deport 11 million illegal immigrants,
impose protectionist trade policies and temporarily ban Muslims from entering
the country have rattled the party's establishment and left them scrambling to
block him.
Kasich's win in Ohio will make him the prime hope of the
party's mainstream leaders who fear Trump's rowdy campaign will lead the party
to defeat in November, replacing Rubio.
Kasich, who has tried to emphasize a more positive
approach in a Republican campaign dominated by the pugnacious Trump, said his
campaign was "about holding us together, not pulling us apart."
"I will not take the low road to the highest office
in the land," Kasich told supporters in Berea, Ohio. "We are going to
go all the way to Cleveland and secure the Republican nomination."
The loss in his home state of Florida was a brutal blow
for Rubio, 44, who was once a rising star in the party but foundered in the
presidential campaign.
"While we are on the right side this year, we will
not be on the winning side," Rubio, a first-term senator who is not
seeking Senate re-election, told supporters in Miami as he pulled out of the
race.
Rubio said the party's establishment had long looked down
on conservatives and taken their vote for granted.
"People are angry, people are frustrated," he
said, adding it would have been easy to stir up those frustrations and make
people more angry. "I chose a different route and I'm proud of it."
Trump's closest challenger nationally is Cruz, 45, a
favorite of the conservative Tea Party, who is second to Trump in delegates.
By capturing Florida, Trump won all 99 of the state's
delegates, giving him a huge lift in his drive to the nomination. He also won
Illinois, while no winner had emerged as yet in the Republican races in
Missouri and North Carolina.
But Kasich's chief strategist, John Weaver, argued in a
memo released after the Ohio result that no candidate was going to win the
necessary delegates before the convention and Kasich would be the best
Republican candidate against Clinton.
Trump, 69, said early on Tuesday that his momentum was
already drawing in establishment Republicans who had previously balked at his
candidacy but now see him as the likely nominee.
"They're already calling," he told NBC's
"Today" show, without naming names. "The biggest people in the
party are calling."
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