PALM BEACH – United States Republican presidential front-runner Donald
Trump has scored a crucial win in the Florida primary, dealing a fatal blow to
rival Marco Rubio’s campaign and moving closer to securing the party’s
nomination as five US states voted.

Trump was aiming to sweep all five states, including Ohio, North
Carolina, Missouri and Illinois, and deal another setback to establishment
Republicans who fear his rowdy campaign will lead the party to defeat in
November.

On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 68,
also captured the Florida primary and won North Carolina as she aimed to put
some distance between herself and rival Bernie Sanders, 74, a US senator from
Vermont, in primaries in the same states.

Trump, the 69-year-old billionaire businessman, was aiming to knock out
his two mainstream rivals, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Rubio, a US senator
from Florida, who both probably needed to win their home states to keep their
campaigns alive.

“While we are on the right side this year, we will not be on the
winning side,” Rubio told supporters in Miami.

Trump’s closest challenger nationally is US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,
45, a favourite of the conservative Tea Party.

A Trump loss in any of the five states would give new hope to
Republicans battling to deny the brash New Yorker the nomination and block him
from capturing the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination at the party’s
July convention.

But victories in all five could put Trump – who has vowed to deport 11
million illegal immigrants, impose protectionist trade policies and temporarily
ban Muslims from entering the country – on a glide path to being his party’s
candidate in November. That seemed inconceivable only last year.

Trump said  his momentum was
already drawing in establishment Republicans who had previously balked at his
candidacy but now see him as the likely nominee.

“They’re already calling,” he told NBC’s “Today”
show, without naming names. “The biggest people in the party are
calling.”

By capturing Florida, Trump will win all 99 of the state’s delegates,
giving him a huge lift in his drive to the nomination.

Rubio’s withdrawal leaves Kasich and Cruz as Trump’s last opponents.
Kasich had a slight lead in early returns in Ohio, but has not won another
state so far. Cruz has struggled to build support beyond his base of
evangelical Christians and Republican Southerners.

– Reuters