Ted Cruz has won the Wisconsin primary for the Republican presidential nomination.
In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders scored a strong victory over Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin.
Donald Trump is still the frontrunner in the Republican field, but could fall short of the number of delegates needed to secure the party’s nomination.
His rivals have pinned their hopes on a contested convention.
At a contested convention, GOP leaders, not voters, would choose the nominee.
Donald Trump said on April 5 he would prevail despite the loss and took aim at his rival.
Photo Getty Images
“Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet – he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.
GOP leaders are concerned that Donald Trump would be a weak candidate in the general election and could harm other Republicans lawmakers on the ballot.
Polls show that the real estate tycoon is extremely unpopular among key voting blocs including women, Latinos and young people.
On the Democratic side, Wisconsin adds to a recent spate of wins by Bernie Sanders campaign, giving the Vermont senator a boost before key races in New York and Pennsylvania.
Bernie Sanders won nearly every county in the state except Milwaukee, but as delegates are awarded proportionally he will not gain a significant advantage over Hillary Clinton.
Of the 86 Wisconsin delegates, Bernie Sanders is on course for at least 44, but Hillary Clinton will have at least 28.
Addressing supporters in Wyoming, which holds its primary on April 9, Bernie Sanders stressed momentum was on his side and that his outsider candidacy could change the status quo.
“Real change never takes place from the top down; it always takes place from the bottom up,” he told supporters.
Hillary Clinton still holds a sizeable lead and most analysts say she will eventually become the Democratic nominee despite her recent losses.
While Tuesday’s loss was a setback for Donald Trump, his campaign has time to rebound
The campaign now moves to large north-eastern states, where polls show Donald Trump holds significant leads.
Donald Trump’s loss in Wisconsin comes after a rocky week for the campaign, particularly with female voters.
He repeatedly struggled to articulate his position on abortion. At one point, he called for women to be punished for having abortions, then quickly changed his mind.
Meanwhile, outside groups opposed to Donald Trump’s nomination stepped up their efforts in Wisconsin, running negative television adverts.
Popular state leaders such as Governor Scott Walker and influential talk radio program hosts also opposed the Trump campaign and threw their support behind Ted Cruz.
Donald Trump is now saying US abortion laws should remain unchanged, although he believes the procedure amounts to murder.
In an interview with CBS News, the Republican presidential hopeful said: “The laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way.”
Donald Trump’s comments come as the New York property tycoon has struggled this week to articulate his position on abortion.
He withdrew a call for women who have abortions to be punished, only hours after suggesting it.
After an outpouring of criticism from both anti-abortion and abortion rights activists, Donald Trump later said only the people who perform abortions should face punishment.
Photo Getty Images
The comments end a rocky week for Donald Trump on the campaign trail.
According to some polls, Donald Trump is trailing Texas Senator Ted Cruz by 10 percentage points in Wisconsin, which holds its primary on April 5.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump’s Republican rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich repeatedly criticized Trump’s shifting comments on abortion.
Ted Cruz said the remarks showed that Donald Trump “hasn’t seriously thought through the issues”.
John Kasich – the popular governor of Ohio – also questioned whether Donald Trump had the temperament needed for the office of the president.
Donald Trump supports a ban on abortions, with some exceptions.
Only the Supreme Court or a constitutional amendment has the power to overturn Roe v Wade and make abortion illegal.
After the comments were made public, Donald Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks sought to clarify his statement.
Hope Hicks said that Donald Trump would change abortion laws if elected by appointing Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v Wade.
Once a Democrat, Donald Trump has been criticized for supporting abortion rights in the past.
Anti-abortion activists have traditionally avoided placing blame on women who undergo abortions, but have focused on those who perform the procedure.
In recent years, conservatives have sought to tighten restrictions on abortion clinics and doctors rather than seek an outright ban.
Abortion rights advocates say these measures are meant to restrict women’s access to abortion.
The new laws are particularly widespread in conservative southern states.
Republican leaders have expressed concern about Donald Trump’s prospects in the general election because polls show that he is extremely unpopular with female voters.
Donald Trump has come under fire for disparaging women including former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina and TV presenter Megyn Kelly.
Bernie Sanders has won Alaska and Washington in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, as he tries to close the gap on Hillary Clinton.
He was projected to have won 72% of the vote in Washington against 27% for Hillary Clinton.
In Alaska, Bernie Sanders took about 79% of the votes, against 21% for Hillary Clinton.
Results are yet to emerge from Hawaii but initial projections suggest another Bernie Sanders victory.
Washington was the most significant of the three states voting on March 26, with 101 delegates up for grabs. There were 16 delegates on offer in Alaska and 25 in Hawaii.
In spite of his victories, Bernie Sanders faces a struggle to overhaul Hillary Clinton’s overall lead. Going into Saturday’s votes, Hillary Clinton led Bernie Sanders by 1,223 delegates to 920.
When superdelegates who have so far declared their allegiance are included, Hillary Clinton was ahead by 1,692 to 949.
It takes 2,383 delegates to win.
Bernie Sanders tweeted: “Thank you, Alaska! Together we are sending a message that this government belongs to all of us… Washington, thank you for your huge support! It is hard for anybody to deny that our campaign has the momentum.”
The senator earlier told supporters in Wisconsin: “This is what momentum is about. Don’t let anybody tell you we can’t win the nomination or win the general election. We’re going to do both of those things.”
Bernie Sanders had spent the week on the west coast, rallying support among liberals and the left-wing.
He is trying to build on overwhelming victories in last Tuesday’s caucuses in Idaho and Utah.
However, he suffered defeat in Arizona, and although his delegate haul from the three states was 20 higher than Hillary Clinton, he failed to make major inroads into her lead.
Hillary Clinton has pointed out that she has “2.6 million more votes” than Bernie Sanders.
She campaigned less in the three states that voted on March 26, perhaps expecting the defeats, and spent Easter with her family.
This week Hillary Clinton focused on the deadly attacks in Brussels, condemning Republican rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for their “reckless” foreign policies.
Despite March 26 results, the battle will be won and lost in far bigger states still to come. In RealClearPolitics poll averages, Hillary Clinton has the lead over Bernie Sanders by nine percentage points in California, 34 points in New York and 28 in Pennsylvania.
Calculations suggest Bernie Sanders may need to win two-thirds of the remaining delegates – in primaries, caucuses and among so-far uncommitted super-delegates – the unelected officials who can vote for their candidate of choice at the party’s election convention.
There was no voting in the Republican race on March 26.
Donald Trump leads Ted Cruz by 739 delegates to 465, with a total of 1,237 needed to win the Republican nomination, according to AP.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz’s feud is becoming increasingly personal, with the Texas senator accusing “sleazy Donald” of spreading rumors.
Ted Cruz told reporters that Donald Trump was behind a story in the National Enquirer that alleged Cruz has had extramarital affairs.
The Texas senator called the story “garbage, complete and utter lies”.
“It is a tabloid smear and it has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.”
As evidence that Donald Trump planted the story, Ted Cruz pointed out that the only person quoted by name in the Enquirer story was Roger Stone, a former top adviser to the Trump campaign.
Photo AP
Ted Cruz also noted that Donald Trump and National Enquirer CEO David Pecker are close friends.
Asked whether he would still support Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, if he won the nomination, Ted Cruz did not answer directly.
However, he said: “I’m not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and my family.”
Donald Trump said in a statement: “I had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
On March 22, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who had been on good terms earlier in the campaign, began trading insults on Twitter.
Mistakenly believing the Cruz campaign had produced an attack advert about his wife Melania, Donald Trump on Twitter threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi.
Ted Cruz responded saying his campaign did not produce the advert, calling Donald Trump “classless” and a “coward”.
On March 23, Donald Trump continued, posting an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz on Twitter.
Ted Cruz responded, calling Donald Trump a “sniveling coward” and told him to “leave Heidi the hell alone”.
Jeb Bush has decided to endors Texas Senator Ted Cruz for president, calling him a “principled conservative”.
The former governor of Florida dropped out of the Republican race last month after poor showings in state contests.
Jeb Bush said Ted Cruz has shown the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests, like in Utah on March 22.
Republicans must “overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity” Donald Trump has introduced, he said.
If not, the GOP will certainly lose the White House to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush wrote in a Facebook post.
“Republicans can win back the White House and put our nation on a path to security and prosperity if we support a nominee who can unite our party and articulate how conservative policies will help people rise up and reach their full potential,” Jeb Bush wrote, and linked to Ted Cruz’s website.
Ted Cruz, speaking to CNN on March 23, said Jeb Bush’s endorsement proved his candidacy had garnered support among Republicans.
Former 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also recently endorsed Ted Cruz, strongly urging fellow Republicans not to back Donald Trump.
Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, currently has the highest delegate count and has said there may be “riots” if he is denied the Republican nomination come the party’s convention this summer.
Anti-Trump Republicans are hoping for a brokered convention, in which party officials, not delegates, would chose the nominee, but that is only possible if Donald Trump falls short of the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination.
After contests in Utah and Arizona on March 22, Donald Trump has 739 delegates and Ted Cruz has 465.
In 2012, Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president, but now the former Republican candidate calls Trump a “phony” and a “fraud”.
When Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, was still in the race, Donald Trump called him “pathological”. Now Ben Carson has endorsed him.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who attacked Donald Trump on the campaign trail, backs the billionaire now that he is out of the race.
Former Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina and Lindsey Graham have also endorsed Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz has urged Ohio Governor John Kasich to drop out of the race, and said he would probably find a place for him in his administration.
He said John Kasich was a “spoiler” by taking votes that could go to him and help the Republicans defeat Donald Trump.
The nasty battle between the leading Republicans worsened this week when Donald Trump warned Ted Cruz he would “spills the beans on your wife” after an anti-Trump group ran ads in Utah featuring a photo of Trump’s wife Melania from an old GQ magazine spread.
Ted Cruz said in response: “Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought.”
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have continued to win new states, now taking Arizona.
The issue of immigration loomed large in Arizona, the biggest prize in the latest round of contests.
Polls showed that Donald Trump’s anti-immigration message resonated with Arizona’s conservative voters.
With the state’s growing Latino population, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton continued her success by courting minority voters.
Keeping his campaign in the race, rival Democrat Bernie Sanders decisively won caucuses in two smaller states, Idaho and Utah.
The Utah Republican caucuses were won by Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
During a victory speech in Seattle, Hillary Clinton addressed the terrorist attacks in Brussels on March 22, pushing back against the Republican candidates’ response to the bombings.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump reiterated his plan to ban Muslims from travelling to US and suggested that the US should torture terrorism suspects.
The Republican primary in Arizona was a winner-take-all race, adding 58 delegates to Donald Trump’s sizable lead.
Donald Trump’s win complicates efforts by Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich to stop him from securing a majority of delegates.
If Donald Trump falls short in the delegate count, the party could hold a brokered or contested convention where party leaders, not voters, choose the nominee.
However, that scenario is looking less likely as Donald Trump continues to win states.
Arizona residents’ preference for early voting, with many mailing in their ballots, may have affected the race.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who left the race on March 15, has secured more than 70,000 votes thus far.
As the final voters headed to the polls on March 22, the Republican race took another nasty turn.
Mistakenly believing the Cruz campaign had produced an attack advert about his wife Melania, DonaldTrump on Twitter threatened to “spill the beans” on Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi.
Ted Cruz responded saying his campaign did not produce the advert, calling Donald Trump “classless” and a “coward”.
Donald Trump has revealed the first members of his foreign policy team.
The advisers include academics and former military officers with expertise on the Middle East and energy issues.
The Republican frontrunner told the Washington Post that he would name more advisers in the coming days.
Several of Donald Trump’s advisers have served as experts for other Republican presidential candidates such as Mitt Romney and Ben Carson.
On March 21, Donald Trump named retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares and retired Gen. Joseph Schmitz.
The team is led by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama who has helped shape Donald Trump’s policies, most notably on immigration.
Donald Trump has come under criticism in recent days over his policy credentials. When cable news network MSNBC asked him who was advising him on policy, Donald Trump named himself.
While some members of his team are not well known in Republican academic circles, others are seen as controversial figures.
Gen. Joseph Schmitz resigned from the military in 2005 amid accusations of misconduct. However, Joseph Schmitz was never charged with wrongdoing.
Another adviser, Walid Phares, was criticized when he was named as part of Mitt Romney’s foreign policy team in 2011.
Muslim advocacy groups took issue with Walid Phares’s close ties to right-wing Christian militia groups during the Lebanese civil war.
He is an outspoken critic of Sharia, or Islamic religious law, and has appeared on Fox News and other conservative media outlets as an expert on the Middle East.
George Papadopoulos recently served as an adviser to Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race in February. George Papadopoulos has worked as a consultant for energy companies in the Middle East.
Donald Trump also said the US should spend less money on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“We are paying disproportionately,” he told CNN.
“It’s too much and frankly it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea.”
In a TV debate held in Miami, Republican Marco Rubio has attacked rival Donald Trump for saying that Islam hates America.
Marco Rubio, who faces a do-or-die contest in Florida on March 15, said Islam had a problem with radicalization but said that many Muslims were proud Americans.
“Presidents can’t just say whatever they want. It has consequences,” he said, to cheers from the audience.
The four Republicans heeded pleas from party leaders to have a civil debate.
Unlike in the last TV event, which was littered with personal insults, this one was more substantive with a focus on policy.
Photo Reuters
“So far, I cannot believe how civil it’s been up here,” Donald Trump observed at one point.
However, on the issue of Islam, there was clear distance between Donald Trump and the others. The billionaire stood by comments he made earlier in the day when he said “Islam hates us, there’s a tremendous hatred”, and railed against political correctness.
Marco Rubio said: “I’m not interested in being politically correct. I’m interested in being correct.”
All three of Donald Trump’s rivals distanced themselves from Trump’s statement in December that in the fight against terrorist “you have to take out their families”.
“We’ve never targeted innocent civilians and we’re not going to start now” Ted Cruz said.
When Donald Trump was challenged on the legality of targeting civilians, he said that America had to be able to fight on “an equal footing”.
“We have to obey the laws, but we have to expand those laws,” he said.
On March 15, five large states will vote for presidential candidate in each party, with Ohio Governor John Kasich and Marco Rubio, a Florida senator, under pressure to win their home states.
Donald Trump picked up a key endorsement of Ben Carson, who last week dropped out of the race before the debate.
The candidates also clashed over President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba next week.
Marco Rubio, whose parents were Cuban immigrants, said he was opposed to efforts to restore relations until Cuba improved its human rights record.
However, Donald Trump said he was not opposed to a US-Cuba deal, but it should be on better terms for the US.
The other Cuban-American candidate on the stage, Ted Cruz, accused Donald Trump of supporting the Obama-Clinton policy on Cuba.
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has won three more states – Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii – in his bid for the White House nomination.
In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders had a surprise victory in Michigan, but Hillary Clinton increased her overall lead with a big Mississippi win.
Republican Ted Cruz won in Idaho.
The states are the latest to choose candidates to compete in November’s presidential election.
Photo AP
It was a terrible night for Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who came in a distant fourth in both Michigan and Mississippi, a week before his must-win contest in his home state.
Donald Trump, a businessman with no experience of elected office, leads the polls in Florida, from where he delivered his victory speech on March 8.
“One of the things I am most happy about is the turnout has been just massive… I think it’s the single biggest story in politics today,” the billionair said at a press conference in Jupiter.
Donald Trump also said he would be more presidential than anybody except Abraham Lincoln and that “no one is more conservative than me”.
The Democratic opponent Donald Trump is most likely to face if he gets the Republican nomination, Hillary Clinton, addressed voters in Ohio after her Mississippi win.
“Running for president shouldn’t be about delivering insults,” said Hillary Clinton, in a thinly veiled dig at the outspoken Donald Trump.
“It should be about delivering results.”
Bernie Sanders’ win in Michigan came as a shock after weeks of polling that suggested Hillary Clinton was well ahead.
“I am grateful to the people of Michigan for defying the pundits and pollsters and giving us their support,” Bernie Sanders said in a statement following his win.
“This is a critically important night. We came from 30 points down in Michigan and we’re seeing the same kind of come-from-behind momentum all across America.”
Analysts say conservative firebrand Ted Cruz appears to be the only candidate capable of stopping Donald Trump, who has been fiercely criticized by the Republican establishment.
The party’s 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, described Donald Trump as a bully and a fraud who would lose a general election because of his extreme positions on immigration and Islamic State.
A central plank of Donald Trump’s campaign is to deport 11 million undocumented migrants and build a wall on the southern border, paid for by Mexico.
The primary and caucus elections determine the number of delegates assigned to each of the candidates.
The delegates then endorse their candidate at the party conventions in July. To secure their party’s nomination, a candidate must win a majority of delegates.
Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto has likened Donald Trump’s rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler.
In an interview with Mexican daily Excelsior, Enrique Pena Nieto called Donald Trump’s rhetoric “strident”.
The Mexican leader added that “that’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in”.
Enrique Pena Nieto also said that Donald Trump had hurt US-Mexico relations.
The Republican presidential hopeful has said that if he is elected he will build a wall along the US-Mexico border to keep immigrants from crossing into the US illegally.
Donald Trump has also insisted that Mexico would pay for the border wall, which President Enrique Pena Nieto dismissed out of hand.
The president said there was “no scenario” under which Mexico would ever pay for such a wall.
Donald Trump, who has made the fight against illegal immigration the main plank of his campaign, outraged Mexicans last June when he called undocumented Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”.
Enrique Pena Nieto said Donald Trump offered “very easy, simple solutions to problems that are obviously not that easy to solve”.
“And there have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity,” he said.
“That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis,” he added.
Enrique Pena Nieto, who had up until now avoided commenting on Donald Trump’s candidacy, insisted he would be “absolutely respectful” of the US political process.
Republican Marco Rubio has won the latest contest in the battle to be the GOP’s presidential candidate, a day after being urged to quit the race.
With more than a quarter of votes counted, Marco Rubio has nearly 75% of the vote in Puerto Rico.
Despite his projected second victory in the state-by-state contest, Marco Rubio still trails Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
On March 5, Donald Trump called for a “one-on-one” battle with Ted Cruz, urging other rivals to quit the race.
Photo marcorubio.com
In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are awaiting the outcome of a nominating contest in Maine, and preparing for a Sunday night debate in Flint, Michigan.
Speaking after wins in the Republican Kentucky caucuses and Louisiana primary election on Saturday, Donald Trump told a news conference: “I would love to take on Ted Cruz one on one.”
“Marco Rubio had a very very bad night and personally I call for him to drop out of the race. I think it’s time now that he dropped out of the race. I really think so.”
Meanwhile, Texas Senator Ted Cruz – who won Republican caucuses in Kansas and Maine – said he believed that “as long as the field remains divided, it gives Donald an advantage”.
While the win in Puerto Rico will boost Marco Rubio’s campaign, it sends just 23 delegates to the Republican convention which nominates a presidential candidate. Republican hopefuls need the votes of 1,237 delegates to get the nod for the presidential race proper.
Republican Donald Trump has called for a “one-on-one” battle with Ted Cruz, urging other rivals to quit the nomination race.
Ted Cruz also suggested it was time for other hopefuls, like Marco Rubio and John Kasich, to step aside.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz won two states each in March 5 voting.
Photo Getty Images
In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders took two states – but Hillary Clinton maintained her front-runner status after a big victory in Louisiana.
Speaking after wins in the Republican Kentucky caucuses and Louisiana primary election, Donald Trump told a news conference: “I would love to take on Ted Cruz one on one.”
“Marco Rubio had a very very bad night and personally I call for him to drop out of the race. I think it’s time now that he dropped out of the race. I really think so.”
Meanwhile, Texas Senator Ted Cruz – who won Republican caucuses in Kansas and Maine – said he believed that “as long as the field remains divided, it gives Donald an advantage”.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich have so far made no public comments on the issue.
Ted Cruz now appears to be the only candidate who can stop Donald Trump, analysts say, after a week in which the Republican establishment did everything it could to attack the New York billionaire.
Observers also point out that Ted Cruz and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders – who beat Hillary Clinton in Kansas and Nebraska – both won in states holding caucuses but lost in the Louisiana primary elections, involving far more voters.
They say that the Louisiana race also appears to have exposed Bernie Sanders’ lack of support among African-American voters.
Hillary Clinton said she was thrilled to add to her delegate count.
The former secretary of state said: “No matter who wins this Democratic nomination, I have not the slightest doubt that on our worst day we will be infinitely better than the Republicans on their best day.”
Ben Carson has officially suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election.
Speaking to conservative activists, Ben Carson, 64, said: “I’m leaving the campaign trail.”
Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, had been a front-runner but his campaign stalled in recent months after he performed badly on foreign affairs and questions about his background story.
He has not said which of the remaining four candidates he plans to endorse in the race for the Republican nomination.
“There are a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington DC.
After receiving a standing ovation from the crowd, Ben Carson said he would still be “heavily involved in trying to save the nation”.
Ben Carson’s announcement was expected after he said earlier this week that he did not see a “political path forward” in his campaign for the nomination.
He had earned only eight delegates before his decision to drop out from the nomination race.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on Saturday.
On March 4, Ben Carson was announced as a new chairman of My Faith Votes – a group set up to encourage Christians to vote in elections.
Ben Carson had a poor upbringing in Detroit but made it to Yale before a brilliant medical career.
Mitt Romney has urged the Republican Party to reject Donald Trump, reportedly calling the front-runner a “phony” and “fraud”.
The former Republican presidential candidate accuses Donald Trump of “playing the American public for suckers”, in a planned speech leaked to the media.
Donald Trump has meanwhile mocked Mitt Romney on Twitter as a “failed candidate” who should not advise on getting elected.
Many senior Republicans are alarmed at the prospect of Donald Trump securing the nomination for November’s election.
In the latest attack from top figures in the party, several members of the Republican national security community wrote an open letter describing Donald Trump’s “vision of American influence and power in the world” as “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle”.
“He swings from isolationism to military adventurism within the space of one sentence,” the letter said.
Donald Trump has sought to present himself as a “unifier”, after his victories in seven states on so-called Super Tuesday consolidated his position at the front of the race for his party’s nomination.
Mitt Romney, who has been a fierce critic of Donald Trump, is expected to warn in his speech on March 3 that his policies are a threat to the Republican Party and to the country as a whole.
“Here’s what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” Mitt Romney says, according to a leaked transcript of his remarks.
“His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University,” he is quoted as saying.
Mitt Romney will also warn that the nomination of Donald Trump would pave the way to the presidency for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump meanwhile accused Mitt Romney of having run “one of the worst races in presidential history” and “working with the establishment” to prevent a Republican win.
Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama.
Several GOP leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, have spoken out against Donald Trump’s controversial policies and positions in recent days.
Donald Trump’s latest controversy centers on his failure to disavow David Duke, a leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, who endorsed him. He later said he had on several occasions in the past disavowed David Duke.
Paul Ryan said on March 1 that nominees “must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people’s prejudices”.
Donald Trump rival Marco Rubio indicated in his speech on Super Tuesday that the Republican establishment was unlikely to back the former reality TV star.
According to the New York Times, some GOP donors are already trying to raise funds for an anti-Trump effort.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have each won the most states on Super Tuesday.
The count is still on but Donald Trump has so far won seven states, compared with only two taken by his closest rival, Ted Cruz, and one by Marco Rubio.
Speaking in his home state of Texas, Ted Cruz urged other Republicans to quit the race and join him against Donald Trump.
Democrat Bernie Sanders has won in four states.
Super Tuesday saw 11 states voting, from Massachusetts in the east to Alaska in the north-west. A 12th state, Colorado, held a caucus – won by Bernie Sanders – but does not actually select its delegates until April.
Super Tuesday allocates nearly a quarter of Republican delegates, and about a fifth of Democratic delegates, who will elect their respective presidential candidates at party conventions in July. No candidate has yet won enough delegates to secure their party’s nomination.
Democrat Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, and Republican Donald Trump, a property tycoon, entered Super Tuesday as favorites to win the vast majority of states for their respective parties.
In a victory speech, Hillary Clinton appeared to already be looking towards a potential presidential race against Donald Trump, saying: “The stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower.”
Donald Trump insisted that he was a “unifier” who could put internal fighting in the Republican Party behind him.
“Once we get all this finished, I’m going after one person – Hillary Clinton,” he told reporters in Florida, where he has been campaigning ahead of the state’s vote later this month.
Donald Trump insisted he had “expanded the Republican party”, referring to higher turnout from a broad demographic in states that have already voted.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz desperately needed to win in his home state to have any chance of staying in the race.
Pointing to his three primary wins against Donald Trump to date in the season, he told Republicans: “I ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together, united.”
Donald Trump has stunned the Republican establishment to become the party’s front-runner.
He has faced heavy criticism this week over his failure to disavow David Duke, a leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, who endorsed him.
Donald Trump later said he had on several occasions in the past disavowed David Duke.
Hillary Clinton had already secured three wins in the first four early voting states, polling significantly among blocs of black voters.
Bernie Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has put up an unexpectedly strong challenge against her since his sweeping victory in New Hampshire last month.
Addressing cheering supporters at his victory speech in Vermont, Bernie Sanders aimed a jibe at the Republican front-runner saying: “We are not going to let the Donald Trumps of the world divide us.”
The proportion of votes won equates to the number of delegates who will then go on to the Democratic and Republican parties’ national conventions in July to officially choose the nominees for the presidency.
The election itself, on November 8, will see America vote for a successor to Barack Obama.
US presidential candidates face their biggest test yet in the so-called Super Tuesday primaries.
Twelve states cast votes for candidates from either the Republican or Democratic parties or both in a contest seen as make-or-break for the hopefuls.
Contests stretch from Vermont in the east to Texas and Georgia in the south.
After earlier votes in four states, Donald Trump leads the Republican field and Hillary Clinton the Democratic.
The first polls opened in Virginia at 06:00 local time.
Senator Ted Cruz cannot afford to lose to Donald Trump in Texas, his home state, while a reverse for Trump in Massachusetts, with its moderate voters, could break the property tycoon’s nationwide momentum.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is hoping to build on her weekend victory in South Carolina, where she polled heavily among African-Americans, to restore her political fortunes after a bruising defeat in New Hampshire to Bernie Sanders, her self-styled democratic socialist rival.
On November 8, America is due to elect a successor to Barack Obama, a Democratic president standing down after two terms in office which have seen the Republicans take control of both houses of Congress.
Hillary Clinton has won the South Carolina primary, the latest battleground in the race to be Democratic presidential nominee.
Her victory was widely expected but it gives her momentum ahead of the “Super Tuesday” primaries in 11 states next week.
“Tomorrow this campaign goes national,” Hillary Clinton told cheering supporters.
Rival Bernie Sanders has congratulated Hillary Clinton but said the campaign was just beginning.
With almost all the votes counted Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by an almost 50-point margin.
Eight out of 10 black voters backed Hillary Clinton, exit polls suggested, a key section of the Democratic electorate.
It is Hillary Clinton’s third victory in four contests, after wins in Iowa and Nevada. She lost to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire.
Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton lost the South Carolina primary overwhelmingly to then Senator Barack Obama.
It was a different story this time. Soon after polls closed Hillary Clinton told supporters: “You sent a message – in America when we stand together, there is no barrier too big to break.”
On the Republican side, Donald Trump leads a field that has dwindled to five from 12 a month ago.
Donald Trump won the Nevada caucus on February 24 by a wide margin – correspondents say he is beginning to look unstoppable.
In her victory speech, Hillary Clinton aimed a dig at the man tipped to be the Republican presidential candidate.
“Despite what you hear, we don’t need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great,” Hillary Clinton said, referencing Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
Donald Trump’s closest challengers in the Republican field, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, sought to put him under pressure by releasing several years of their tax returns.
The billionaire says he will not release his until an audit has been completed; his rivals accuse him of holding back the information to hide exaggerations about his wealth.
Bernie Sanders, a veteran senator from Vermont, said he was now focusing on the Super Tuesday vote.
“In politics, on a given night, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Tonight we lost,” he told reporters in Minnesota, one of the states taking part.
“I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her very strong victory. Tuesday, over 800 delegates are at stake, and we intend to win many of them.”
There was some welcome news for Bernie Sanders after he was endorsed by Robert Reich, a former official in Bill Clinton’s presidential administration.
Chris Christie has made a surprise announcement saying that he is endorsing Donald Trump for president.
The New Jersey governor and former Republican candidate dropped out of the 2016 presidential race after a lacklustre showing in polls and state races.
During a press conference, Chris Christie said: “I’m happy to be on the Trump team and I look forward to working with him.”
Donald Trump gives Republicans the best chance to win the White House, Chris Christie adds.
The New Jersey governor said junior senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both running for president, were “unprepared” for the job.
There is “no question” that Donald Trump will turn around Washington, Chris Christie continued, and keep Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from winning the White House.
Donald Trump is leading in many state polls and has already won three consecutive state contests in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, despite never having worked in politics.
He shouldered some criticism from Marc Rubio and Ted Cruz at a Republican debate on February 25 but it is not yet clear whether this has hurt his popularity.
“He is rewriting the playbook of American politics because he’s providing strong leadership that is not dependent upon the status quo,” Chris Christie said of Donald Trump.
“I will lend my support between now and November in every way that I can for Donald, to help to make this campaign an even better campaign than it’s already been.”
Florida Senator Marco Rubio continued to assail Donald Trump the morning after the debate.
He told CBS: “A con artist is about to take over the Republican Party and the conservative movement, and we have to put a stop to it.”
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have unleashed a barrage of attacks on front-runner Donald Trump in the last Republican debate before Super Tuesday.
They sought to blunt Donald Trump’s momentum after he won three of the first four contests.
Immigration, healthcare and outreach to Latino voters dominated the debate.
Like previous occasions, the debate quickly disintegrated into long periods of shouting and personal insults.
Donald Trump has been extremely popular despite his controversial comments about deporting millions of undocumented workers and banning Muslims from travelling to the US.
On March 1, known as Super Tuesday, millions of voters in 11 states will cast ballots.
A quarter of the total numbers of delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination will be up for grabs.
Donald Trump is currently leading in 10 out of 11 states holding contests on Super Tuesday.
He has 82 Republican delegates, Ted Cruz has 17 and Marco Rubio has 16. To become the GOP’s nominee, a candidate has to have 1,237 total state delegates.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will compete for 1,004 delegates on Super Tuesday. So far, Hillary Clinton has 505 delegates and Bernie Sanders has 71.
Each party formally announces its presidential candidate at conventions in July, four months before the presidential election.
Donald Trump has easily won Nevada, cementing his lead in the race for GOP nomination.
The Republican presidential hopeful now has three consecutive wins, after victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have been attacking each other this week, are vying for second place.
GOP officials said they were looking into reports of double voting and not enough ballots at one caucus site.
Some volunteers also wore clothing in support of Donald Trump, but officials said this was not against the rules.
Photo AP
In his victory speech, Donald Trump told a roaring crowd of supporters: “We’re winning, winning, winning the country, and soon the country is going to start winning, winning, winning.”
Nevada, typically a swing state with a substantial Latino population, is crucial to the election process. Hillary Clinton won the state on February 20 in the Democratic race.
Some 30 delegates – around 1% of the total – are up for grabs in the Nevada caucuses, the first Republican test in the west of the United States.
Early results show Donald Trump has a 42% lead over the rest of the Republican pack, with his closest rival Marco Rubio getting 25% of the vote.
In the Democrats’ caucus in Nevada last week, Hillary Clinton beat rival Bernie Sanders by five percentage points.
On February 27, both candidates face each other in South Carolina, where they are focusing their campaigns on the black vote.
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has won the South Carolina primary, cementing his status as the man to beat for GOP’s nomination.
In the Democratic contest, Hillary Clinton beat Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in a tight race in Nevada.
Both results will be key ahead of the “Super Tuesday” round on March 1, when a dozen more states make their choice.
Donald Trump’s victory claimed a major scalp when former Florida Governor Jeb Bush dropped out of the race.
Jeb Bush finished a distant fourth, days after his brother, former President George W. Bush, made a rare political appearance to boost his flagging campaign.
Republican senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were locked in a battle for second place in the state.
Photo Getty Images
“There’s nothing easy about running for president,” Donald Trump said at his victory rally in Spartanburg on Saturday evening.
“It’s tough, it’s nasty, it’s mean, it’s vicious. It’s beautiful – when you win it’s beautiful.”
Donald Trump’s supporters erupted at his campaign headquarters when the projected results were announced.
His campaign has been dogged in controversy, with his latest spat with Pope Francis on Christian values hitting the headlines this week.
Thousands of miles west, Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Bernie Sanders, who had beaten her convincingly in New Hampshire in their last contest.
“Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other,” Hillary Clinton told supporters at a victory rally in Las Vegas.
“This is your campaign.”
The battle between them has grown increasingly close in recent weeks, with Hillary Clinton expected to win Nevada in double digits just weeks ago.
However, Ted Cruz, who has successfully galvanized young voters with his calls for free university education, appears to have performed better than expected among Hispanics in Nevada.
According to NBC exit polls, Bernie Sanders won among Hispanics with 53% of the vote but lost among black voters earning just 22% of their vote.
Hillary Clinton’s next test will be in the Democrats’ South Carolina primary on February 27. Republicans will hold their own caucuses in Nevada on February 23.
Once each state has voted in the primaries or caucuses, the delegates won by each party candidate will go on to endorse them at party conventions in July.
Donald Trump will not be president, says President Barack Obama, because it’s a “serious job”.
Speaking at the ASEAN economic summit in California, the president was asked by a reporter about Donald Trump.
“I continue to believe that Mr. Trump will not be president. And the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people,” said Barack Obama.
Donald Trump is the frontrunner in the Republican race to be his party’s choice for the White House.
He has won one state primary already, and leads the polls in South Carolina, where Republicans vote on February 20.
The electorate will not pick him, said Barack Obama, because “they recognize that being president is a serious job”.
“It’s not hosting a talk show or a reality show, it’s not promotion, it’s not marketing, it’s hard. It’s not a matter of pandering and doing whatever will get you in the news on a given day.”
Donald Trump responded by saying it was a compliment to be criticized by a president who had done so much damage to the country.
His antipathy to Barack Obama goes back a number of years – he used to demand that the president produce proof that he was born in the US.
His election campaign has continuously made headlines, for controversial remarks and policies.
Donald Trump said he would deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, build a wall on the southern border paid for by Mexico and that Muslims should be stopped from entering the US.
His chief rival is Texas Senator Ted Cruz, but one of his other rivals, the big-spending former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, will be hoping for a better performance after disappointment in Iowa and New Hampshire.
George W. Bush has started to campaign for his younger brother Jeb’s presidential nomination bid.
The former president met veterans and appeared at a rally in South Carolina on February 15, ahead of the primary election on February 20.
George W. Bush’s legacy has come under fierce attack from Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has spent a lot of campaign cash but failed to make an impact.
Jeb Bush is struggling to catch up with Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who won the New Hampshire and Iowa contests respectively.
His famous family has largely kept out of his presidential nomination battle and he insisted last year that he was running as his own man.
However, last week his mother Barbara Bush, wife of former President George H.W. Bush, spoke out in his support.
During February 13 Republican debate, Jeb Bush defended his brother’s presidency, saying he had built a “security apparatus to keep us safe”.
Donald Trump tore into George W. Bush’s record, accusing him of lying about the reasons for the Iraq War, which he said had destabilized the Middle East.
Experts say that Donald Trump’s tactic of attacking the former president is risky because he still maintains wide appeal among Republicans in South Carolina, from churchgoers to business leaders and retired military personnel.
On February 15, George W. Bush, alongside his wife Laura, met US military veterans at an American Legion Post in Columbia, South Carolina.
Last week, he praised his brother’s abilities in a radio advert, and Jeb Bush will hope his personal appearance will bring dividends on polling day.
Although George W. Bush remains a divisive figure nationally, he and his father both won primary elections in South Carolina.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who quit the presidential race and is now backing Jeb Bush, said: “The Bush name is golden in my state.”
While Republican voters in South Carolina make their choice for president, the Democratic Party is holding its own contest in Nevada on February 20. Republicans in Nevada and Democrats in South Carolina get to express their views in separate contests the following week.
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have won the presidential race in the New Hampshire primary.
Republican Donald Trump is likely to get more than twice the number of votes of the next Republican candidate.
Democrat Bernie Sanders, who beat rival Hillary Clinton by a huge margin, said his victory showed people wanted “real change”.
Both candidates are riding on a wave of discontent with mainstream politics.
Ohio Governor John Kasich came second in the Republican vote, with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio all vying for third place.
New Hampshire is the second state to choose delegates in the long nomination battle following last week’s Iowa caucuses, which were won by Ted Cruz for the Republicans and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats.
The result gives momentum to the winners ahead of the next contests in South Carolina and Nevada.
Donald Trump’s lead in New Hampshire is the first time the New York billionaire – who has never held elected office – has translated his widespread support in opinion polls into a victory at the polls.
In his victory speech, Donald Trump congratulated Democratic winner Bernie Sanders but sideswiped that “he wants to give away our country, folks!”.
Donald Trump, 69, has pledged to deport millions of migrants who are living in the US illegally; build a wall along the border with Mexico; and impose a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the country.
With close to 90% of the votes counted, Senator Bernie Sanders has a lead of more than 20 percentage points over Hilton Clinton in the two-horse race for the Democratic nomination. He had topped polls in New Hampshire in recent months, but it is still a significant victory for the self-described Democratic socialist candidate.
“What the people here have said is that given the enormous crises facing our country, it is just too late for the same old, same old establishment politics and establishment economics,” Bernie Sanders said in speech to his supporters late on February 9.
Bernie Sanders, 74, has vowed to eradicate income inequality, provide free university education and break up big banks.
Hillary Clinton congratulated Bernie Sanders, but said in a speech she would continue to fight for every vote in the campaign. Despite the setback, she still remains the frontrunner for the nomination.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, said in a memo that they expected the race for the Democratic nomination “very likely” to be decided in March.
The former secretary of state acknowledged before the polls that Bernie Sanders had a natural advantage in New Hampshire because he represents the neighboring state of Vermont as senator.
Hillary Clinton, who has more support from the Democratic establishment, narrowly won in Iowa.
Most polls in New Hampshire closed at 19:00 local time, with state officials forecasting a historic turnout in the vote.
They are the first contests in the US presidential race in which states decide who becomes each party’s official candidate.
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