Indiana Primary: Trump is Presumptive GOP Nominee, Sanders Upsets Clinton

By: Lorin McLain

So much for the possibility of a contested GOP convention… Mere hours after Senator Ted Cruz called his party’s presidential frontrunner a “pathological liar” and “serial philanderer,” the main challenger to Donald Trump called it quits. With Indiana’s primary results overwhelmingly in favor of the billionaire candidate, Ohio Governor John Kasich is also out of the race. That leaves Trump as the presumptive GOP candidate.

Meanwhile, all eyes turn now to the democratic race. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s momentum hit a bump in the road Tuesday with a surprising last minute flip, giving Senator Bernie Sanders a win by 52 over 47 percent. Clinton currently has 1683 pledged delegates of 2,382 needed to win the Democratic nomination. Sanders has 1,362; but with superdelegates factored in, Clinton’s lead jumps to 2205, while Sanders levels out at 1401. With most of the upcoming primaries leaning in Sanders favor, it is almost certain that neither candidate will accumulate enough pledged delegates to win the nomination outright – and that superdelegates will be the ones to make the final decision at the convention.

Cruz’s abrupt throwing in the towel – just a week after announcing former GOP candidate Carly Fiorina as his running mate in an attempt to show strength – comes as a surprise to many Republican leaders, and a nightmare to others who have clearly dreaded a Trump nomination. It was barely two months ago when some Republican leaders including Senator Lindsay Graham called a Trump nomination the “end of the Republican Party.” Polls don’t look favorable for Trump in a general election. A Real Clear Politics poll, which takes a survey average of the top four polls including CNN and USA Today, shows Clinton over Trump 47 to 40 percent.

Polls in traditional red states also show an uphill battle for a Trump candidacy. A public opinion survey taken in Arizona on April 25th shows Clinton besting Trump by 45 to 35 percent, while the same poll showed Cruz and Kasich clearly in front of the Democratic frontrunner. Utah’s conservative voters are definitely anything but Trump supporters. A poll taken last month by Salt Lake City’s Deseret News and KSL showed the state voting for a Democrat for president for the first time in 50 years if the billionaire candidate became the Republican Party’s nominee. Trump trails Clinton in Missouri 42 to 40 percent in a survey taken there last March. These were all states won by Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

Meanwhile, Trump’s win on Tuesday is heating up talk of a third party candidate. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is intensifying his push for the #NeverTrump crowd in running for the Libertarian Party nomination. Johnson on Tuesday night said he’s the only small-government candidate left in the race and that “the table for November’s election is set.” The Libertarian Party is selecting its presidential nominee at its convention in Orlando, Florida later this month.  The theme is “Legalize Freedom.”