Businessman Donald Trump’s status as frontrunner remained intact Tuesday, winning Arizona’s Republican presidential primary as Texas Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] pulled off a victory in Utah’s GOP caucuses.
By winning in Arizona, Trump won all of the state’s 58 delegates. After earning more than 50 percent of the vote in Utah, Cruz will win all of the state’s 40 available delegates.
Just hours after the race was called in Utah for Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb became the latest member of the so-called Republican establishment to endorse the Texas senator in the hopes of helping him take down Trump.
“Today, I am endorsing Ted Cruz for President,” Bush said in statement. “Ted is a consistent, principled conservative who has demonstrated the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests. Washington is broken, and the only way Republicans can hope to win back the White House and put our nation on a better path is to support a nominee who can articulate how conservative policies will help people rise up and reach their full potential.”
Shortly after midnight, Trump tweeted, “Hopefully the Republican Party can come together.”
Hopefully the Republican Party can come together and have a big WIN in November, paving the way for many great Supreme Court Justices!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2016
The Western states were the only two where Republicans voted for their presidential nominee on Tuesday. The next contest is not until the Wisconsin primary on April 5.
In Arizona, Trump, who has emphasized his opposition to illegal immigration throughout the campaign, had the support of former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
In Utah, Cruz had the backing of Utah Sen. [crscore]Mike Lee[/crscore] and of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who publicly announced he would vote for the Texas senator in Utah in order to try to stop Trump.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the only other Republican still actively campaigning, did not appear to win any delegates Tuesday. But in an election night memo, his campaign argued his presence in the race will continue to stop Trump from getting enough delegates to clinch the nomination before the summer’s convention.
According to the Associated Press tracker, Trump leads the delegate race with 739 delegates, followed by Cruz’s 465 and Kasich’s 143. A candidate needs a minimum 1,237 delegates to win the nomination.
The campaign was rocked Tuesday by the events in Belgium, where radical Islamic terrorists bombed the Brussels airport and a metro train.
The candidates responded with tough language and vows to fight ISIS. “We need to immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence,” Cruz said in a statement. “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”
Trump, interviewed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, called for torturing Salah Abdeslam, the suspected terrorist in last year’s Paris attacks who was recently apprehended. “Well, you know, he may be talking, but he’ll talk a lot faster with the torture,” Trump said.
Kasich said on CNN: “This is an attack on Western civilization…We’re all in this together. You know, when people in Europe bleed and die, a little bit of us bleeds and dies as well.”