(Reuters) Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, announced on Tuesday (May 3) in Indianapolis, after losing the Indiana primary to his rival Trump that he “will be suspending his campaign.”
“From the beginning I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight I’m sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed,” Cruz said
Republican front-runner Donald Trump swept to a commanding victory in Indiana, putting him on a glide path to the party’s presidential nomination.
The New York billionaire won decisively in a state where Cruz, his nearest rival, had hoped to show he was still a factor in the race for the Republican nomination.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump the party’s presumptive nominee in a tweet and said, “We all need to unite and focus” on defeating Clinton.
As the vote returns flowed in, Cruz announced that he has ended his campaign at an event in Indianapolis, with his wife, Heidi, at his side. Cruz, 45, sounding beaten but defiant, said he no longer sees a viable path to the nomination.
“Together we left it all on the field in Indiana,” said Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas. “We gave it everything we got. But the voters chose another path, and so with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.”
Trump is on track to take over 50 percent of the vote. Ohio Governor John Kasich is running a distant third.
Cruz had been counting on a win in Tuesday’s primary to slow the New York businessman’s progress towards the nomination but Trump rode momentum from wins in five Northeastern states a week ago to wrest Indiana from Cruz, 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.