Sanders, Cruz Beat Trump And Clinton In Wisconsin Primaries
KABUL: (MEP) US presidential election underdogs Bernie Sanders and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz won their respective Democratic and Republican primaries in the crucial Wisconsin presidential primary on Tuesday dealing a blow to frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Cruz’s double-digit win over Trump on Tuesday was a breakthrough for Republican Party forces battling to block Trump, and it raised the prospect of a prolonged nomination fight that could last to the July convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Democratic contender Sanders also gained momentum in his fight against frontrunner Clinton, trimming her commanding lead in delegates.
The Vermont Democratic senator secured 53.5 percent of the votes and gained 44 delegates, while his rival, Clinton, 45.9 percent with 28 delegates.
Mr Trump leads the Republican race, but could fall short of the number of delegates needed to secure the party’s nomination.
Mr Trump’s rivals have pinned their hopes on a contested convention.
Trump entered the night with 737 convention delegates to Cruz’s 481, leaving him 500 delegates short of the 1,237 needed to become the party’s nominee in the November 8 election.
Cruz said the result in Wisconsin showed the party was beginning to rally behind him, but he acknowledged the growing possibility that the fight could go all the way to the convention.
“Either before Cleveland, or at the convention in Cleveland, together we will win a majority of the delegates and together we will beat Hillary Clinton in November,” Cruz told cheering supporters in Milwaukee. “We’re winning because we’re uniting the Republican Party.”
Cruz remains widely unpopular however within both the Republican Party and among non-conservative voters. “The problem going forward is that Senator Cruz is hated only a little bit less than Donald Trump by the Republican Party establishment,” Crowther said.
