TEMPO.CO, Indianapolis-Republican front-runner Donald Trump scored an important victory over rival Ted Cruz in Indiana on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, a win that moves him close to being unstoppable in his march to the party's presidential nomination.
The New York billionaire was quickly projected to be the winner by television networks shortly after polling places closed in the Midwestern state. Trump was on track to take well over 50 percent of the vote, eclipsing Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas. Ohio Governor John Kasich was running a distant third.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton was well ahead over Bernie Sanders as votes continued to be counted.
Cruz had been counting on a win in Tuesday's primary to slow the New York businessman's progress toward the nomination. But polls in recent days showed Trump opening up a substantial lead in the Midwestern state over the senator, whose brand of Christian conservatism had been expected to have wide appeal in the state.
The loss for Cruz was a sour ending to a rough day in which he got entangled in a harsh back-and-forth with Trump.
It began when the billionaire repeated a claim published by the tabloid newspaper the National Enquirer that linked Cruz's father, Cuban emigre Rafael Cruz, with President John F. Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
Trump and Cruz' battle showed more tense. Cruz termed Trump a "serial philanderer" - likely as part of his strategy to try to win the support of evangelical voters. Trump, in response, said Cruz had become "more and more unhinged."REUTERS
