Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump won the United States primaries in Florida, North Carolina and Illinois on Tuesday, but lost in Ohio to the state’s governor, John Kasich. In what was the biggest talking point of the day, the real-estate mogul swept all 99 delegates of Florida, forcing Senator Marco Rubio to pull out of the Republican presidential race after the humiliating loss in his home state. This brings the Republican contest down to Trump, Ted Cruz and Kasich. Trump and Cruz are locked in a tight race in the Missouri primary.
On the Democratic front, Hillary Clinton won in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Illinois, strengthening her position to become the first woman in the history of the United States to win her party's nomination. Clinton took Florida with a commanding lead of 65.6%, as against the 30.6% managed by her sole rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, PTI reported. She also won 73.5% of the votes in North Carolina.
The primaries were held in the five states – Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri – in what was dubbed as Super Tuesday 2.0. Trump’s victories on Tuesday brought his delegate count to 619, while Cruz has 394 and Kasich has 136. Rubio dropped out of the race with only 167 delegates. It requires 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination. On the other hand, Clinton has 1,488 delegates, while Sanders has 704. A Democratic candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the party's nomination.
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