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Rubio ends campaign as Trump and Clinton win Florida – primary day live Clinton wins three states as Trump knocks Rubio out in Florida – live
(35 minutes later)
12.28am GMT 1.04am GMT
00:28 01:04
Only a flesh wound... The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino is in the hall with Clinton:
Rubio confirms his campaign is "suspended" .@HillaryClinton says she will bring her delegate lead to more than 300 by the end of the nigh #supertuesday
After Axelrod's "Goodbye Rubio Tuesday" jibe, is it time for a Monty Python reference? Not dead, merely suspended... https://t.co/Crab7nwYFO .@HillaryClinton compliments @berniesanders on a "vigorous" campaign.
12.28am GMT 1.02am GMT
00:28 01:02
Clinton’s voice is hoarse. She says that more people have voted for her so far this cycle than any other candidate.
Here’s the reception at the Kasich party:
And the whole crowd boos Hillary's Ohio win, so they turn off CNN and turn up Don't Stop Believing... And then turn up the news again.
1.01am GMT
01:01
Clinton: 'We are moving closer to securing the Democratic party nomination'
Clinton addresses supporters and says ‘our delegate lead [was stretched] roughly 300”:
We are moving closer to securing the Democratic party nomination and winning this election in November,” she says.
1.00am GMT
01:00
12.57am GMT
00:57
The Guardian’s Megan Carpentier is at Kasich’s party:
Shouts and cheers as CNN calls it for Kasich. pic.twitter.com/fO4vXQjbRN
12.56am GMT
00:56
Kasich wins Ohio
Ohio governor John Kasich has prevailed in his home state, the AP projects.
It’s Kasich’s first win of the race – it allows him to stay in – and in a fell swoop he more than doubles his delegate total. He had only 63 delegates going into the night. In Ohio he picked up 66.
With Kasich winning Ohio, this is now the song of the night and of the month of July https://t.co/rVOUj0QuhE
12.56am GMT
00:56
Lucia GravesLucia Graves
Polls have just closed in the eastern time zone, and already there are some early indications that John Kasich may actually do well – at least, in his home state of Ohio. Kasich crushed with late deciders, winning 54% of the vote to Donald Trump’s 28%, and polling shows him currently beating Trump by a comfortable margin (45% to 32%). Whatever the verdict in Ohio, we’re unlikely to know it until later in the night. In one of the most consequential moves of the night, Ohio has been called for Hillary Clinton. It’s a huge win for the Clinton camp that could put this race out of reach for Bernie Sanders.
It’s probably a futile victory for Kasich, though – he faces almost impossibly long odds to clinch the nomination. After Sanders grabbed a surprise victory in Michigan last week, Berners were hoping his messaging on trade in particular would help him pull another victory in the slightly whiter but still manufacturing-heavy state of Ohio, where many jobs have been automated or sent overseas.
And it’s a notably a very different tune than the one being sung in Florida just now by Marco Rubio, who had a more viable candidacy than Kasich throughout the primary. Now the verdict is in: no dice.
But now it’s a three-horse race. 12.55am GMT
12.27am GMT 00:55
00:27 Ohio governor John Kasich is talking to CNN on the phone on the strength of the network having called the state for him.
Rubio says all things are in god’s hands and “god is perfect, god makes no mistakes and he has things planned for all of us and we await eagerly to find out what lies ahead.” CNN is ahead of the wave on Ohio, with neither the Associated Press nor other outlets having declared a Kasich win. The Guardian is not yet declaring a Kasich win in Ohio.
Rubio wraps his 2016 campaign with a prayer exalting the lord. “May god strengthen our eventual nominee,” he says. But there’s Kasich, talking on the phone about Pennsylvania tomorrow, and Colorado, and Maryland, and California...
He’s done. Over and out. “This is the little engine that can,” Kasich said. “For those people who like the underdog... it’s pretty cool.”
Cheers from the Clinton party as Rubio announces he is exiting the race. #PrimaryDay Stay tuned.
Warm applause at Cruz party for Rubio speech 12.51am GMT
00:51
Cruz camp sees favorable winds coming
Ben Jacobs
In an interview with reporters before Marco Rubio dropped out, Ted Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe weighed in on the race in an interview with Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs:
Roe thought Cruz would be in good shape if Trump’s delegate lead was kept to around 275 after tonight, with his win in Florida.
The astute operative said Kasich’s continued presence in the race was “a jumpball” as far as they were concerned. On one hand, it meant the Ohio governor had kept Donald Trump from earning 66 delegates in Ohio. On the other, it mean that the anti-Trump vote in the party would continue to be divided.
Roe added that with most of the coming contests being closed primaries, which only allow Republicans to participate, his candidate would be in strong shape in even nominally liberal states on the east coast like Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
12.47am GMT
00:47
Lucia Graves
Marco Rubio is just 44 years old and, if he sounded like he was paving the the way for future ambitions as he eloquently announced the suspension of his presidential campaign, perhaps he was.
Rubio has reportedly been laying the groundwork to end his campaign with grace for some time, increasingly using his time in the spotlight to highlight not his own candidacy but offer to offer a sophisticated critique of America in the age of Trump. And as he announced the suspension of his presidential campaign Tuesday night, that continued.
The country is “in the middle of a real political storm, a real tsunami,” he told supporters. But he wasn’t blaming voters or even the media – rather, it fell almost entirely on the political establishment, which he said “for far too long has taken the votes of political conservatives for granted”. No longer: these are Trumpian times.
12.46am GMT
00:46
Here’s an instant replay of Clinton winning Ohio:
UpdatedUpdated
at 12.27am GMT at 12.48am GMT
12.25am GMT 12.44am GMT
00:25 00:44
Clinton wins North Carolina Sanders: onwards to ... Idaho
Hillary Clinton is projected to win the primary in North Carolina, the AP projects. Dan Roberts
More soon on the margin. With Bernie Sanders getting crushed not just in Florida and North Carolina, but possibly too in Ohio, his ever-upbeat team just issued a press release announcing a new rally in... Idaho, writes Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts:
12.24am GMT The state, which votes on March 22, only has 27 delegates. But it’s a brave display of determination by a campaign that insists it will keep campaigning all the way to the Democratic nomination.
00:24 Tonight, they are in Phoenix, Arizona, another state that votes next week, but if Sanders loses two, or even three of the Midwest battlegrounds he was contesting tonight, it will be hard to keep arguing that the map will eventually turn in their favour.
He left the door open a crack on 2020 there, didn’t he? Rubio’s 44. Instead, the strategy of heading west looks more and more like the behaviour of a political movement than a political campaign.
He’s winding toward a big finish.
12.23am GMT
00:23
Rubio suspends campaign
“While it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended...”
12.22am GMT
00:22
Rubio says 'we will not be on the winning side'
Rubio is delivering what feels very much like a valedictory, describing “the campaign we’ve run.”
He said he campaigned to be a “president that would love all the American people.”
Then he flies even closer to a withdrawal:
“After tonight it is clear that while we are on the right side, this year we will not be on the winning side...
“While this may not have been a year for a hopeful and optimistic message about our future, I still remain optimistic about our party.”
But then he pulls back to tell his parent’s immigrant stories.
UpdatedUpdated
at 12.23am GMT at 12.45am GMT
12.20am GMT 12.42am GMT
00:20 00:42
Hillary Clinton fails to make live TV again – like last week, when the networks carried Trump for an hour. A Kasich strategist tips his hat to the Rubio campaign:
Now with all cameras on Rubio, Clinton begins to address supporters: @marcorubio ran an aspirational, uplifting campaign. America needs his optimism and his voice will be heard again.
.@HillaryClinton thanks her volunteers and the "more than 950,000 Americans who've contributed to this campaign" in a fundraising email 12.40am GMT
12.18am GMT 00:40
00:18 Clinton wins Ohio
Rubio decries 'politics of resentment' Hillary Clinton is the projected winner of Ohio – she’s three for three so far, and the Ohio result is a big one, against concerns that Sanders’ Michigan upset last week would expand south.
Rubio now delivers a criticism of Trump, not by name. He says that stoking people’s fears would have been the “easiest” way to win. But he took the high road:
“From a political standpoint, the easiest thing to have done in this campaign, is to jump on all of those anxieties I just talked about. To make people angrier, to make people more frustrated.
“But that is not what’s best for America. The politics of resentment... are going to leave us a fractured nation... where people literally hate each other.”
12.16am GMT
00:16
Rubio says he has lived the immigrant experience and “I understand all of these frustrations.”
“I decided to run a campaign that was realistic about all of these challenges,” but optimistic, too, Rubio says.
Press at the Kasich event watching Rubio's speech as the first Kasich speaker takes the stage.
12.14am GMT
00:14
Rubio: USA in middle of political 'tsunami'
“America’s in the middle of a real political storm. A real tsunami, and we should have seen this coming.”
He’s interrupted by a protester who may be saying “Go home Marco.”
“Don’t worry,” Rubio says. “He won’t get beat up at our event.” The crowd shouts Marco! Marco!
He continues, telling a story of frustration in the country rooted in the 2008 downturn.
12.14am GMT
00:14
Updated
at 12.15am GMT
12.13am GMT
00:13
“It was a big win,” Rubio says of Trump’s Florida victory.
He thanks his supporters. He says they worked hard. He thank supporters who voted for him across the country.
“We had a great team. We have a great team.”
12.12am GMT
00:12
Rubio takes stage in Florida
Rubio is addressing supporters. He congratulates Trump, to boos.
12.10am GMT
00:10
Who is forcing Donald Trump to watch Fox News? It’s clearly driving him to distraction. We figured he was following the returns on the blog here. But if he prefers TV – can somebody tell him about CNN, and a gentleman called Wolf Blitzer?
Can't watch Crazy Megyn anymore. Talks about me at 43% but never mentions that there are four people in race. With two people, big & over!
Watching other networks and local news. Really good night! Crazy @megynkelly is unwatchable.
Updated
at 12.15am GMT