Donald Trump projected to win 2 big states
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Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump notched two key wins on Tuesday, further paving his path to his party's nomination.
Not longer after polls closed in Mississippi and Michigan on Tuesday evening, multiple news networks projected that the real-estate developer would win both states.
Trump will likely win the majority of the 99 combined delegates from the two states.
Meanwhile, his rivals are left fighting for the remaining delegates and hoping that they win the two remaining, smaller states to weigh in on the race Tuesday: Idaho and Hawaii. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas scored a victory over Trump in Idaho later in the night.
Trump's Tuesday-night victories do not necessarily come as a surprise, but the ease at which he won both states suggests that he has a clear path to the nomination unless his rivals are able to substantially shake up the race in the coming days.
His three primary opponents — Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Cruz of Texas, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — are hoping to get enough delegates to stop Trump from securing the 1,237 delegates that he needs to lock up the nomination and avoid a fight at the convention.
Rubio and Kasich, whose campaigns have lagged in recent contests, are hoping to turn around their campaigns by winning their home states next week. Florida and Ohio are winner-take-all states, giving the winner of either contest a significant bump in the delegate race.
But over the weekend, Cruz won in Maine and Kansas, boosting his argument that he — and not Rubio — is the most legitimate candidate to defeat Trump. Rubio has won only in Minnesota and Puerto Rico, and was near the bottom of the pack in the first two Tuesday-night contests.
After the Michigan and Mississippi races were called, Trump held a press conference to celebrate his wins. During the conference, he suggested that he was ready to face off one-on-one against Cruz.
"Ted is gonna have a hard time when he gets to certain states," Trump said.
"They didn't do well," he added of his GOP foes. "There's only one person who did well tonight: Donald Trump."