The head of the Republican National Committee is calling Donald Trump the party’s presumptive nominee for president after he won Tuesday’s primary in Indiana.
Trump won 53 percent of the vote, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz in second place with 37 percent and Ohio Governor John Kasich far behind with 7 percent.
After failing to win a state crucial to his effort to stop Trump from getting enough delegates to be the Republican nominee, Cruz dropped out of the race. He told supporters that his “path toward victory has been foreclosed” and voters made a different choice.
Trump called his win in Indiana a “tremendous victory.” He congratulated Cruz, saying that he and the rest of the once huge Republican field were smart and tough competitors. Trump also appealed for unity in the party.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had a similar message late Tuesday, saying Republicans need to come together in order to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November general election.
A spokesman for Kasich said the governor is still aiming for a fight at the Republican convention in July where he hopes to be nominated on a second or third ballot.
That scenario would require Trump to fall short of the majority 1,237 delegates in the Republican race. He earned at least 51 from Indiana, putting him just shy of 1,050 with nine states left to vote. Among them is California, where Trump is far ahead in polls and 172 delegates are at stake next month.
For the Democrats, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders beat Clinton in Indiana with 53 percent of the vote. Even with the win, he trails Clinton by a huge margin in the delegate count and would need massive victories in the remaining states to catch up.
