Donald J. Trump rolled to victory in the Republican presidential primaries in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina on Tuesday, driving Senator
Marco Rubio from the race and amassing a formidable delegate advantage that will be exceedingly difficult for any rival to overcome.
But with a victory in Ohio, his home state, Gov.
John Kasich
denied Mr. Trump one of the night’s biggest prizes and made it harder
for him to clinch the nomination outright before primary voting ends in
June.
Senator
Ted Cruz
of Texas finished second in Illinois and North Carolina and was locked
in a tight race with Mr. Trump in Missouri, ensuring that he, too, would
earn a share of delegates.
Mr.
Trump has faced mounting criticism from Republicans for the vitriolic
tone of his candidacy, but he struck a defiant note Tuesday night,
describing himself proudly as a candidate of the angry and disaffected.
“There is great anger,” he said. “Believe me, there is great anger.”
Republicans
opposed to Mr. Trump believe that Tuesday’s results may have increased
their chances of denying him the nomination at the party’s convention in
Cleveland. But they are left with a pair of deeply flawed alternatives:
Mr. Cruz, who has the second-most delegates but is reviled by many
party leaders, and Mr. Kasich, who has so far run the equivalent of a
favorite-son campaign, winning only Ohio.
Mr.
Kasich must now strain for a larger role in a Republican contest in
which he has largely competed in obscurity. In his Tuesday night speech,
he did not take on Mr. Trump by name, but said he would carry his own
message of uplift “all the way to Cleveland.”
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