US presidential: Trump, Clinton look all set for final battle
Washington: November`s US presidential election is taking shape: Republican billionaire Donald Trump and Democratic power player Hillary Clinton look set for an ugly battle for the White House after a bruising primary season.
Trump knocked out his only serious challenger Ted Cruz on Tuesday in Indiana`s key primary, winning 53 percent of the vote against 37 percent for the Texas senator, who raised the white flag and surprisingly pulled out of the race.
Over the course of the past 10 months, the 69-year-old Trump — a Manhattan real estate mogul with no political experience — has defied the odds, dispatching more than a dozen rivals with more conventional political pedigrees.
A new CNN poll looking ahead to the next phase of the White House race however found Clinton, the former secretary of state hoping to become America`s first female commander-in-chief, leading the billionaire real estate mogul.
The 68-year-old Clinton has 54 percent support to 41 percent for Trump, the poll showed — her largest lead since July. Tuesday`s contest in the midwestern Hoosier State was the final firewall thrown up by Republican heavyweights to keep the brash, name-calling Trump from locking up the party`s nomination.
But as the race was called overwhelmingly in Trump`s favor, Cruz conceded to supporters in Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forward.
It was a stunning denouement for the 45-year-old arch-conservative Texas senator, who had insisted he would press on to the final day of the Republican race.
His departure leaves the low-polling Ohio Governor John Kasich as Trump`s only other challenger for the nomination — making it a virtual certainty that Trump will go head-to-head on November 8 with Clinton.
Having amassed 1,053 delegates, Trump was already in a favorable position to reach the magic number needed to avoid a contested party convention in July. With Cruz out of the race, crossing the threshold is now a foregone conclusion.
The self-declared democratic socialist beat Clinton 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent, providing a shot in the arm to his campaign and further justification for staying in a race that Team Clinton and many pundits have said is all but finished.
But the delegate count tells the tale: Clinton is at 2,217 delegates — just shy of the 2,383 needed to secure the nomination, according to a CNN tally. Sanders is at 1,443. The Democrats hold their party convention in July in Philadelphia.Even before the Indiana results, Trump and Clinton had pivoted toward one another.
Trump meanwhile spoke Wednesday about his potential running mate, saying he wanted someone with “political experience.”
Clinton`s campaign chairman John Podesta said Trump`s propensity to “bully and divide Americans” could backfire with an electorate looking for economic opportunities and to be kept safe.
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Source:zeenews
