WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the presidential election (all times local):
10:15 a.m.
Hillary Clinton is closing in on collecting three-quarters of the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.
Bernie Sanders netted more than a dozen delegates after splitting the latest contests with Clinton. But he still trails significantly.
Three states held Democratic contests with a total of 131 delegates at stake.
Sanders picked up at least 67, having won big in Idaho and Utah.
Clinton will gain at least 51 after a victory in Arizona.
Thirteen delegates remain to be allocated from Tuesday, pending final vote tallies.
Still, Clinton continues to sustain a big lead overall.
Based on primaries and caucuses to date, she leads Sanders 1,214 to 911.
Clinton’s lead is even bigger when including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate they wish.
She now has 1,681, or 71 percent of the number needed to clinch the nomination. Sanders has 937.
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10 a.m.
Donald Trump took the top prize in the latest Republican presidential races:
all 58 delegates in Arizona’s primary.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won big in Utah, and he’ll get all 40 of the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention. But he has a very limited path to clinch the nomination before the party’s convention this summer.
The third contender still fighting for the nomination, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, was shut out for the night.
Here’s the latest AP delegate count:
Trump: 739
Cruz: 465
Kasich: 143
Needed to win the nomination: 1,237
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9:45 a.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won the endorsement of the political arm of the Club for Growth. The conservative group has spent millions in television ads to stop Donald Trump.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh says Cruz is the best free-market, limited-government candidate in the presidential race.
McIntosh says there’s a “vast gulf between the two leading Republican candidates on matters of economic liberty.” Cruz would shrink the federal government, McIntosh says, while Trump “would seek to remake government in his desired image.”
Former GOP candidate Jeb Bush also is backing Cruz.
But Trump’s substantial lead in delegates will be hard for the Texas senator to catch in the remaining primaries.
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7:32 a.m.
Ted Cruz is suggesting he’d find a place for Republican rival John Kasich in his future administration if Kasich agrees to drop out of the presidential race and supports him.
Cruz noted that it’s mathematically impossible for Kasich to reach the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination. So the only role Kasich is playing now is that of a “spoiler” by taking votes that could have gone to Cruz. And that is only serving to help front-runner Donald Trump, Cruz says.
In an interview Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day,” Cruz said of Kasich: “I think he’d be a tremendous addition to an administration.”
Cruz also praised his latest endorsement from Jeb Bush, saying it proved his candidacy has drawn broad support among Republicans.
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7:10 a.m.
Jeb Bush says he’s endorsing Ted Cruz for president.
Bush tweeted Wednesday that “Ted is a consistent, principled conservative who has shown he can unite the party.”
He added on his Facebook page that Republicans “must overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena” or risk losing to Hillary Clinton.
