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Trump nears a Cruz knockout as Clinton battles Sanders – Indiana primary live
Ted Cruz ends campaign for president leaving way clear for Trump – Indiana primary live
(35 minutes later)
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We’re already heard from a top architect of the 2008 John McCain campaign, Steve Schmidt, who says it’s “100%” that Trump will be the nominee.
Trump to address supporters
Now here’s a top architect of the 2012 Mitt Romney campaign:
We’re expecting to hear from the presumptive nominee shortly. Live video feed will come online here:
pic.twitter.com/fAb6nAWeTB
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Trump party erupts in cheers
Trump’s next move: West Virginia. The Mountain State votes, along with Nebraska, in one week. Thirty-four Republican delegates awarded on a proportional basis will be at stake. Trump is polling very well there.
The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington is at Trump Tower:
Trump going to Charleston WV on Thursday
Corey Lewandowski, Trump campaign manager, listening VERY intently to the Ted Cruz speech at Trump Tower
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Big cheer erupts in Trump Tower as Ted Cruz announces the suspension of his campaign.
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Trump Tower prepares to welcome the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican party. The moment soooo many said could never happen
In this fight for the long-term future of America, there is no substitute for victory. There is no substitute for the America that each of us loves with all of our heart…
Steve Schmidt was a George W Bush adviser and lead strategist on the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign.
Thank you to each of you, and god bless you.
He said very early on, when most people were writing Trump off, that Trump could win the Republican nomination.
Cruz is done.
Now he says he was right:
Steve Schmidt on MSNBC: "It's over. 100%. Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee."
Here’s the view, meanwhile, from the Democratic political professional side:
I know I am not the first to say this. I cannot believe the GOP has chosen Donald Trump as their nominee for President of the United States.
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Lucia Graves
Cruz: path to victory 'has been foreclosed'
One unavoidable take-away tonight is that voters really, really don’t like Ted Cruz, notes Lucia Graves
Cruz thanks his mom and dad, and then “Carly Fiorina, who has been an incredible, phenomenal running mate” – for six days now.
Trump has said of Cruz, “everybody hates Ted” when they get to know him. Like many of Trump’s attacks, it’s nasty but there’s truth to it. John Boehner lent further credence to the notion last week when he referred to the senator from Texas as “Lucifer in the flesh” last week.
Cruz:
Now it appears Indiana voters feel the same way as lawmakers: having gotten to know him, they don’t like him too much.
What you have done, the movement that you have started is extraordinary.
No sooner had the polls closed than it became apparent Trump was going to win again and by a landslide. This after Cruz had been polling relatively well in the state until recently. His dip in the polls, tellingly if you ask Trump, coincides with the time when he started campaigning intensively in the state.
From the beginning, I’ve said that I would continue on …
And he did try everything, driving home his conservative bonafides, signing a non-aggression pact with John Kasich, and even declaring a vice presidential pick early to attract attention.
Tonight, I’m sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed.
He spent enough money to ensure the voters heard him loud and clear – they just, like so many others before them, didn’t like what they heard one bit.
“No!” his supporters shout.
Cruz:
We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path …
With a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.
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Sanders continues his speech in Louisville. It’s his straight stump speech so far, declaring that “now is the time for Wall Street to help the middle class of this country”:
As news of his campaign suspension breaks, Cruz continues to speak – he has not actually said it yet.
A great nation is not judged by the number of billionaires and nuclear weapons it has. A great nation is judged by how it treats the most vulnerable and weak among us.
Here it comes:
No inflection so far referring to the tight race in Indiana or what it might mean, as whatever happens, Sanders is expected to chug through to the final contest in Washington DC on 14 June. A live video feed of the Sanders speech is in a block from 15 minutes ago.
Thanks to each of you. Incredible patriots who have fought so hard to save our nation.
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I am so grateful to you. To my amazing wife Heidi. To our precious girls...
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For the good of what party?
To reporters, @realDonaldTrump campaign mgr @CLewandowski_ says @tedcruz and @JohnKasich should drop out for the good of the party
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With 17.3% reporting, it was an even 50-50 race on the Democratic side.
But now Sanders has pulled ahead by a couple of tenths of a percent.
Follow along here:
Related: Indiana primary results: track the votes, county by county
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*low whistle*
Trump leading Hamilton County (wealthy Indy burbs) 47%-31% in early returns. Get out the broom, it's a Trump sweep of all 57 delegates.
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Here’s another sample from conservatives populating the land of #NeverTrump:
To the voters of Indiana. pic.twitter.com/Q4TRCA0VoB
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Our Principles Pac, the conservative anti-Trump force, holds out hope for a contested convention, in a statement issued to reporters:
“While tonight’s Indiana primary results increased Donald Trump’s delegate count, Trump remains short of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination,” said OPP chair Katie Packer.
A substantial number of delegates remain up for grabs in this highly unpredictable year. In addition, there is more than a month before the California primary – more time for Trump to continue to disqualify himself in the eyes of voters, as he did yet again today spreading absurd tabloid lies about Ted Cruz’s father and the JFK assassination. [...]
We will continue to educate voters about Trump until he, or another candidate, wins the support of a majority of delegates to the Convention.
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Sanders addresses supporters
Bernie Sanders is addressing supporters in Louisville, Kentucky. The below live video feed should come online shortly. So far it’s straight stump from Sanders.
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Trump to speak at Trump Tower
Donald Trump is scheduled to discuss tonight’s victory at Trump Tower in Manhattan starting at 9pm ET. Ed Pilkington will be on the ground ...
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Donald Trump has beaten Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary, ending the best hope of blocking a presidential nomination the Texas senator has claimed will plunge America into the political “abyss”, write the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs and Dan Roberts:
Ben Jacobs
Despite a day of dire warnings from Trump’s conservative rival, the New York businessman was declared victor by the Associated Press within seconds of polls closing in the Hoosier state.
Ted Cruz suspended his campaign on Tuesday after a crushing defeat in Indiana’s primary, reports Ben Jacobs:
With the second highest number of delegates left on offer before the Republican party convention, Indiana offered a chance for Cruz to repeat his success in Iowa and Wisconsin by urging midwest voters to reject Trump.
The Texas senator, who rose to fame with his quixotic 17-day attempt to shut down the government, was the last remaining competitor to Donald Trump with a clear shot at the nomination. However, after staking his campaign on a win in Indiana, Cruz suffered an overwhelming loss in the Hoosier State.
“The country is depending on Indiana,” he warned on Tuesday. “If Indiana does not act, this country could well plunge into the abyss … We are not a proud, boastful, self-centered, mean spirited, hateful, bullying nation.”
Cruz leaves the race having won 565 delegates and 11 states, including the first in the nation Iowa caucuses. Despite successfully building a strong base among evangelicals and social conservatives, he was unable to expand his following and to pivot to the unpredictable Trump who repeatedly bashed him as “lyin’ Ted.”
But by winning the 30 delegates awarded to Indiana’s statewide winner, Trump now has an easy path to claiming the 1,237 pledged delegates needed to avoid a contested convention in Cleveland and win outright, and is well-positioned even if Cruz pulls off an upset in delegate-rich California next month.
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Read our full news coverage here:
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Related: Trump beats Cruz in Indiana primary, clearing path to nomination
Cruz suspends campaign
Ted Cruz is suspending his presidential campaign, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has confirmed.
It appears those two Trump tweets from about 90 minutes ago really hit the mark. Happy!
Now John Kasich is 4th place in a 2-man race.
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Cruz is speaking in the broadest possible terms about the challenges facing Republicans, future generations, the “tyranny of political correctness,” founding values – and all the kinds of things you might say if you were announcing the suspension of your presidential campaign.
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Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts:
this is sounding less like a 2016 concession speech from Cruz and more like a 2020 declaration speech
Kasich due to speak to reporters in DC tomorrow morning. What does he say now about the states where he asked his supporters to back Cruz?
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Cruz is talking about how far he’s come, how he’s lived the American dream, how his father was a “teenage immigrant washing dishes.”
“Only in America,” Cruz says.
Which is not the same as, “onward to West Virginia.”
Cruz says people have been talking about a contested convention, and the last one 40 years ago. At the time, he says, Ronald Reagan “spoke of the next 100 years,” looking to the distant not the near horizon.
“Ronald Reagan spoke with a purpose .. that must unite and drive our party now.”
“Americans are deeply frustrated and desperately want to change the path that we’re on,” Cruz says.
