Background Former Massachusetts governor
Mitt Romney, the
2012 GOP presidential nominee, lost the 2012 election to incumbent Democratic president
Barack Obama. The Republican National Committee, believing that the long, drawn-out 2012 primary season had politically and personally damaged Romney, drafted plans to condense the 2016 primary season. As part of these plans, the
2016 Republican National Convention was scheduled for the relatively early date of July 18–21, 2016, the earliest date since Republicans nominated
Thomas Dewey in
June 1948. Elements of the Republican establishment, including Senate Minority leader
Mitch McConnell had been grooming then
Kansas governor
Sam Brownback as the party's favorite mostly due to his aggressive 2012 fiscal overhaul of state finances dubbed the "
Kansas experiment." The experiment, engineered primarily by
Koch Industries veteran economist Steve Anderson ultimately caused a financial crisis. The state would see a $687.9 million loss in revenue after predicting its massive tax cuts would grow the economy by $323 million. Brownback would narrowly win in overwhelmingly Republican Kansas during his
2014 re-election bid dashing his national aspirations and further opening the primary. When John Kasich entered the race on July 21, 2015, the field reached 16 candidates, making it the largest presidential field in the history of the Republican Party, surpassing the
1948 primaries. With Jim Gilmore's announcement to enter the race for a second time on July 30, 2015, the field reached 17 candidates, becoming the largest presidential field in American history, surpassing the 16 candidates in the
Democratic Party presidential primaries of
1972 and
1976. In mid-December 2014, Jeb Bush—widely seen as a possible frontrunner for the nomination due to his relatively moderate stances, record as former governor of a crucial swing state, name recognition and access to high-paying donors—was the first candidate to form a
political action committee (PAC) and an
exploratory committee. Many other candidates followed suit. The first candidate to declare his candidacy was Texas Senator
Ted Cruz, who was popular among grassroots conservatives due to his association with the
Tea Party movement, and who also received early backing of several prominent Republican donors including
Robert Mercer. The 2016 candidates were roughly divided into three camps. Grassroots conservatives were represented by Cruz and Carson, the
Christian right was represented by Huckabee and Santorum. Moderates, or the establishment, were represented by Bush and Christie. Several—such as Rubio, Walker, and Kasich—were seen as having political backgrounds that may be appealing to both conservatives and moderates. Not all of these candidates clearly toed the grassroots/establishment divide. For instance, Rubio and Cruz were both elected to the Senate in the early 2010s as members of the Tea Party movement, but by 2015 had been courting the support of prominent party elders, political operatives, and large donors with significant success. Some called the diversity of candidates representing different wings of the party symptomatic of a struggle for the future direction of the party. The field was noted for its diversity, and was even called the most diverse presidential field in American history. It included two
Latinos (Cruz and Rubio), a woman (Fiorina), an
Indian-American (Jindal), and an
African-American (Carson). Five were the children of immigrants: Cruz (
Cuban father), Jindal (
Indian parents), Rubio (Cuban parents), Santorum (
Italian father) and Trump (
Scottish mother).
Overview Widely viewed as a very open contest with no clear front-runner, potential candidates fluctuated in the polls for an extended period from late 2012 to the end of 2015. In the year prior to the election season, a total of 17 major candidates campaigned for the nomination, making it the single largest presidential primary field in American history at the time. Trump's brash attitude and polarizing policy stances generated numerous controversies in the media, and many of the other candidates sought to become the "anti-Trump" candidate by condemning his rhetoric and policies. Senators Cruz and Rubio emphasized their youth in comparison to most other candidates and their possible appeal to Hispanic voters.
Ohio governor
John Kasich, a moderate Republican, remained in the race for an extended period despite being viewed as having little to no chance of winning the nomination. Despite Trump's lead in most national polls, the first-in-the-nation
Iowa caucuses were won by Cruz due to his support among grassroots conservatives. Trump rebounded with strong wins in
New Hampshire,
South Carolina, and
Nevada. On
Super Tuesday, Trump expanded his lead by winning seven of the eleven states, while the Cruz campaign gained new energy with victories in
Alaska,
Oklahoma, and the significant stronghold of Cruz's home state
Texas. Rubio maintained significant momentum with strong finishes in Iowa (third place), South Carolina (second place), and Nevada (second place), before finally claiming victory in
Minnesota on Super Tuesday. Between Super Tuesday and the beginning of the "winner-take-all" primaries, Cruz stayed nearly even with Trump, winning four states to Trump's five. Rubio won several smaller contests such as
Puerto Rico and
Washington, D.C. In the first round of winner-take-all contests on March 15, Trump greatly expanded his lead by winning five of the six contests. After a significant loss to Trump in his home state of Florida, Rubio suspended his campaign that same day. Meanwhile, Kasich finally gained some momentum by winning his home state of Ohio. As the primary season entered the spring, the mostly-consolidated field resulted in a closing of the gap between Trump and Cruz, with Trump sweeping the
South, the
Northeast, and parts of the
Midwest while Cruz performed strongly in the
West and scored a surprise victory in
Maine. Kasich, unable to win any other states besides Ohio, remained far behind in third place. After Cruz's upset win in
Wisconsin, speculation began to arise that the
convention would be a brokered one in which the establishment would choose Kasich or someone else, since both Trump and Cruz were not viewed favorably by the establishment. As April came to a close and Trump won a resounding victory in his home state of
New York, both Cruz and Kasich were mathematically eliminated from winning the nomination without a brokered convention. Both men then formed an alliance to block Trump from winning the nomination, ahead of the "
Acela primaries" of five Northeastern states on April 26. Trump swept all five states and greatly increased his delegate lead. In a final push to block Trump's path to the nomination, Cruz announced that one of the former candidates for the nomination, former
Hewlett-Packard CEO
Carly Fiorina, would be his running mate if he was the nominee. After Trump won the
Indiana primary on May 3, Cruz suspended his campaign, Kasich announced the suspension of his campaign the next day, leaving Trump as the only candidate left in the race. Trump then won all of the remaining primaries, sweeping the remainder of the West, Midwest and the entirety of the West Coast. With his victories in
New Jersey and the remaining final states on June 7, Trump officially surpassed the necessary number of bound delegates, and broke the 2000 record of 12,034,676 popular votes received by the winner of the Republican presidential primaries, with over 14 million votes. Another narrative for the nomination, similar to that which drove Romney's 2012 campaign, was that the nominee needed to be a governor in a traditionally Democratic or
swing state, with a proven record that would stand as proof that such a governor could be president as well. The possible candidates that fit this criterion included Bush, Gilmore, Kasich, Pataki, Walker and Christie, who in particular had been rising in popularity due to his loud and blunt manner of speaking at public events, championed by some as challenging conventional political rhetoric. With his record as governor of
New Jersey, a heavily Democratic state, factored in, Christie overtook Rubio in the polls from mid-2013 up until early 2014, when the
"Bridgegate" scandal was first revealed and started to damage Christie's reputation and poll standing. Although he was later cleared of personal responsibility in the subsequent investigation, Christie never regained frontrunner status. After Christie's fall, the polls fluctuated from January to November 2014. Candidates who often performed well included Rand Paul, who won
CPAC straw polls in 2013, 2014 and 2015,
Wisconsin congressman and 2012 vice presidential nominee
Paul Ryan, the eventual House speaker, and former candidates such as former Arkansas governor
Mike Huckabee and then-governor of Texas
Rick Perry, further reflecting the uncertainty of the upcoming race for the nomination.
April 2014 – January 2015: Jeb Bush leading the polls In April 2014,
Robert Costa and
Philip Rucker of
The Washington Post reported that the period of networking and relationship-building that they dubbed the "credentials caucus" had begun, with prospective candidates "quietly studying up on issues and cultivating ties to pundits and luminaries from previous administrations". Though Bush often polled in the low double digits, he was considered a prominent candidate due to his high fundraising ability, record as governor of Florida, a crucial swing state, and apparent electability. By November 2014, Bush had solidified his lead in the polls. Around this time there were talks of the possibility of Romney making a third run for the presidency. From November 2014 until late January 2015, the speculation fueled Romney's rise in many national polls, challenging Bush. Although Romney admitted he was entertaining the idea after initially declining, he ultimately reaffirmed his decision not to run on January 30, 2015. By the end of February,
Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker rose to match Bush in the polls. He often touted his record as governor in a traditionally Democratic state, particularly noting his victory in
a recall election in 2012, the first governor in American history to do so, combined with his
reelection in 2014. Walker and Bush balanced out in the polls from late February until about mid-June, at which point Trump entered the race. Walker's challenge to Bush allowed other candidates to briefly resurge in some polls from late April up until mid-June, including former top performers Rubio, Paul and Huckabee, in addition to several newcomers to the top tier of polling, including Cruz and Carson. many pundits noted his uniquely outspoken nature, blunt language and
rhetoric, often directly contradicting traditional political candidates. This style was seen as resonating strongly with potential Republican primary voters and Trump began to rise in the polls. After a few weeks of briefly matching Bush, Trump surged into first place in all major national polls by mid-July, which he continued to lead consistently until November. Trump polled well in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, often leading or coming in second in those states. rose in the polls after the second debate. She failed to capitalize on her momentum and faded quickly. She suspended her campaign after New Hampshire. She served as Cruz's running mate from April 27 to May 3, until Cruz suspended his campaign. With the surge of Trump, a man who had never held political office, the general focus began to shift over to other non-politician candidates, commonly known as "outsiders". The other two outsiders in the field quickly rose in the polls as well in the wake of the first two debates: Carson, who rose into second place after a well-received performance in the first debate and Fiorina, who rose into the top three after her performance in the second debate. The rising popularity of non-politician outsiders shocked many political analysts, and fueled a new conversation about how those with no political experience or prior runs for office could appeal more to potential primary voters than career politicians and what it means for the future of the Republican party and American politics in general. Trump used ideas of populism to persuade the average American throughout the election process. In mid-September, the first two major candidates dropped out of the race. Perry suspended
his campaign on September 11, 2015, citing his failure to qualify for the primetime debates, his subsequent failure to raise a significant amount of money and his
indictment as reasons. Ten days later, on September 21, 2015, Walker suspended
his campaign mainly due to his own poll numbers dropping after two lackluster debate performances.
End of 2015: the field stabilizes, six candidates gain traction surprised many political observers when he announced the suspension of his campaign on September 21, 2015, in Wisconsin. By the end of September, most polling averages indicated that the field was stabilizing in terms of public opinion. Six candidates in particular were gaining traction and pulling away from the rest of the field by considerable margins. Polling averages indicated the top six as Trump, Carson, Rubio, Fiorina, Bush and Cruz. Trump and Carson were consistently first and second, respectively. Fiorina was initially in third place before being surpassed by Rubio. Bush and Cruz remained in fifth and sixth place, respectively. The other candidates who had been in the top ten of polling—Christie, Huckabee, Paul and Kasich—all leveled out at roughly 3% or less, while the five remaining candidates outside the top ten—Santorum, Jindal, Pataki, Graham and Gilmore—were consistently polling below 1%. By the third debate in late October, Bush and Fiorina's numbers were beginning to fade, while Cruz was on the rise and began coming in fourth by most poll averages. Throughout this period, both Trump and Carson had pulled well ahead of the rest of the field and with Trump often registering in the low 30s and high 20s and Carson in the low 20s, the two of them combined often made up well over 50% of the electorate in a vast majority of national polls. , which highlighted Carson's perceived inexperience on foreign policy. He suspended his campaign after four last-place finishes on
Super Tuesday and endorsed Trump in response to Fiorina endorsing Cruz. By October, with the polls reflecting a field that seemed to be stabilizing, most commentators began to claim that the field had already established who the final four candidates—those who were in the race for the long-term and had the best chance of actually becoming the nominee—would be. The four were listed as being Trump, Carson, Rubio, and Cruz: Trump and Carson for their appeal as outsiders, as well as their opposite personalities—with Trump's blunt nature and tough foreign policy stances, against Carson's soft-spoken nature and personal favorability—Rubio for his appeal to Hispanics and his stance on such issues as immigration reform, combined with strong debate performances and significant donor backing and Cruz for his appeal to Tea Party and Christian conservative voters, which was seen as possibly having a strong impact in the southern states. On November 17, 2015, Jindal became the third major Republican candidate to drop out. The
November 2015 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people days before Jindal dropped out, were widely seen as having a significant impact on the 2016 presidential race, particularly on the Republican side. The attacks were seen as boosting the campaigns of those with tough stances on immigration like Trump and Cruz, as well as the foreign policy hawks like Rubio. Possibly as a result, Carson—who had previously been perceived as uninformed and relatively inarticulate on foreign policy—began to suffer in the polls, with Trump once again solidifying a double-digit lead over everyone else, while Rubio and Cruz began to steadily rise as Carson's numbers declined. By December, Cruz had overtaken Carson by solidifying a base of support among Christian conservatives and averaged national polling of 18%, second only to Trump. The non-interventionist Paul still failed to make traction at this juncture, while Carson fell down to about 10%, roughly even with Rubio.
January 2016: the road to the early primaries 2016 dawned with the several-month-long truce between Trump and Cruz being broken. Cruz accused Trump of not being a consistent conservative or an ethical businessman, while Trump questioned the
Canadian-born Cruz's constitutional eligibility to be president—candidates have to be
natural-born U.S. citizens to be eligible to be president—while noting Cruz's past calls for immigration reform. This occurred as Trump and Cruz were vying for supremacy at the top of Iowa polls, in addition to both being the top two candidates in all national polls, ahead of the rest of the field by significant margins. In the closing weeks before Iowa, Trump and Cruz ran dueling television commercials, each attacking the other's record. Meanwhile, there was conflict between "establishment" candidates Rubio, Christie, Bush and Kasich, largely due to a media-reinforced belief that only a single establishment candidate could remain in the race past the early primaries. The establishment candidates staked their bids on strong showings in New Hampshire and both Christie and Kasich saw upticks in their polling in the weeks before the primary. Both the Trump-Cruz conflict and the squabbling between establishment candidates was evident at the Republican debate on January 14. The Republican debate of January 28, devoid of Trump due to priorities and conflicts with moderator
Megyn Kelly after the debate in August, was the candidates' last shot at honing their message before the Iowa caucuses. Immigration and foreign policy featured prominently in this debate and many candidates used the opportunity of a "Trump-less debate" to criticize the second-place Cruz, who was also being heavily criticized by prominent Republican leaders in the weeks before Iowa.
February 2016: early primaries , finished second in New Hampshire after holding over 100 town hall meetings. He won his first and only state on March 15 in Ohio. He suspended his campaign on May 4. In the first-in-the-nation
Iowa caucuses, Cruz won a narrow victory over Trump and Rubio. Following poor performances in Iowa, three candidates suspended their campaigns: Huckabee—the winner of the caucuses in 2008—Santorum—the winner of the caucuses in 2012—and Paul, whose father performed very well in the 2008 and 2012 caucuses. This caused the field to narrow to nine. After coming third in the Iowa caucuses, the media quickly painted Rubio as the candidate most likely to pick up the establishment mantle and ride it to the nomination following a strong performance in New Hampshire, much as McCain and Romney had done in 2008 and 2012, respectively. Rubio used this narrative to pick up a number of endorsements in the days following the Iowa caucuses. However, in the New Hampshire debate of February 6, 2016, Rubio repeated a talking point four times almost verbatim during an exchange with Christie, which led to sharp criticism of his performance in the aftermath and the beginning of the end of Rubio's campaign. In the
New Hampshire primary, Trump scored a decisive victory over the rest of the field, winning the primary with 35% of the vote. Kasich, who had held over 100 town halls in the state, finished second in a surprise to many in the media. Cruz coming in third was a shock to many, while Rubio slipped to fifth, behind Trump, Kasich, Cruz and Bush, whose campaign appeared to be revitalized following several months of apparent stagnation. After coming in seventh place in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Fiorina suspended her campaign on February 10, 2016. Later that same day, Christie, whose campaign was staked almost entirely on getting a strong showing in New Hampshire, suspended his campaign after coming in sixth in New Hampshire, failing to reach the minimum 10% vote threshold required to be allocated delegates from the state and qualifying for the next debate on CBS. Later that week, Jim Gilmore, who had failed to gain traction, win delegates or be invited to most of the debates, suspended his campaign, narrowing the field to six. The third contest was in
South Carolina. Prior to the primary, Rubio picked up the key endorsement of Governor
Nikki Haley, a feat seen as renewing his momentum after a disappointing finish in New Hampshire. Exit polling showed that 46% of voters had decided the week before the primary, and that the majority of these votes went to Rubio. When the votes were counted, Trump again won by double digits, garnering 33% of the vote, ahead of Rubio with 22%, who edged out Cruz for second-place by 0.2%. Since Trump carried the vote both statewide and in each congressional district, his result netted him all 50 delegates available in the state. Following disappointing finishes in the first three contests despite outspending his competitors, Bush suspended his campaign on February 20. Three days following the South Carolina primary, Trump won the
Nevada caucuses, winning with 46% of the vote with Rubio in a distant second with 24% and Cruz slightly further behind with 21%.
March 1, 2016: Super Tuesday Super Tuesday voting, after the early voting in February, decided nearly half of the delegate votes needed to achieve the 1,237 votes to win the nomination at the
2016 Republican National Convention—595 delegates at stake, to be exact. Super Tuesday holds the primary voting for 11 states in the primary election process. North Dakota held the last caucus on Super Tuesday, but there was no presidential straw poll and all the delegates elected later at its convention in April were unbound. Wyoming took a straw poll, but it was non-binding and no delegates were allocated on Super Tuesday. Leading up to Super Tuesday, a debate between the remaining five candidates took place in
Houston on February 25, 2016. Political rhetoric and charges heated up with Cruz and Rubio teaming up to attack Trump. Trump won the contests in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia, while Cruz netted a strong victory in his home state of Texas and added victories in Oklahoma and Alaska. Rubio won his first contest in the Minnesota Republican Caucus and finished a strong second in Virginia. Kasich won no contests, but he almost won in Vermont and finished second in Massachusetts. Carson did not win or place in any contest, netted only three delegates and though he initially expressed an intent to stay in the race, began showing signs of withdrawing in the days following Super Tuesday; he ultimately suspended his campaign on March 4, 2016.
Early March 2016: between Super Tuesdays After
Super Tuesday voting, but before winner-take-all voting was to begin, nine states, two territories and Washington, D.C. held their primaries and caucuses. During this period, 377 delegates were at stake. On March 3, 2016, the day before Carson dropped out of the race, Romney criticized Trump in
a heavily publicized speech. Later that day, there was
another GOP debate, which again featured Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich. Carson did not participate in the debate. He announced the suspension of his campaign the next day, narrowing the field to four. He endorsed Trump on March 10, 2016, the day after Fiorina endorsed Cruz. On March 5, Cruz won the Kansas and Maine caucuses by comfortable margins. Trump narrowly won the Kentucky caucus and the Louisiana primary. Rubio and Kasich did not finish first or second on any primaries on "Super Saturday". The following day, the first of the 2016 primaries in a U.S. territory went to Rubio, who won all of
Puerto Rico's 23 delegates. On March 8, Trump won in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, while Cruz took the Idaho Republican Primary, and Rubio missed delegate thresholds in Michigan, Mississippi and Idaho, finishing the night with only a single delegate. Despite some favorable polling in Michigan, Kasich did not win any primaries, but he still picked up 17 delegates. Neither Rubio nor Kasich finished first or second in any primaries held that day. In the Virgin Islands caucuses on March 10, a slate composed wholly of uncommitted delegates was initially elected. The entire slate was later disqualified by the territorial party and was replaced by the elected alternates – two uncommitted, two for Rubio and one each for Cruz and Trump. The dispute later went to court. Also on March 10, there was a debate in Florida between the four surviving candidates, which was conducted in a more civil tone than prior debates. On March 12, the Guam caucuses endorsed eight uncommitted delegates and one unbound Cruz-supporting delegate. Rubio won his final contest in D.C. and 9 delegates went to Cruz in the Wyoming county conventions. Rubio and Trump both earned one delegate and another was elected as uncommitted. • Virgin Islands results do not take account of the later disqualification of delegates. Accounting for the disqualified delegates, the results were as follows: Uncommitted 36%, Cruz 22%, Rubio 18%, Carson 12%, Trump 12%. † Delegate totals are given in Guam as no tally of the popular vote has been released and one delegate was elected by acclamation. ‡Wyoming held county conventions with no statewide popular vote; percentages represent the vote of county delegates.
March 15, 2016: Super Tuesday II saw a steady rise in the polls following the CNBC debate in late October. He began the election cycle with a win in Iowa and dropped out after being defeated by Trump in Indiana. March 15 featured winner-take-all primaries in the delegate-rich states of Florida—Rubio's home state—and Ohio—Kasich's home state. There were also contests in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and the Northern Mariana Islands, totaling 367 delegates. It was widely seen as a very important day in the presidential race because of the large number of winner-take-all delegates at stake. In the days leading up to Florida, the remaining candidates announced prominent endorsements and Trump and Rubio in particular spent millions on television advertisements assailing the other in Florida. The level of protest and violence at Trump rallies meanwhile became an object of criticism by other candidates; one such incident led to
the cancellation of a Trump event in Chicago on March 13, 2016. On March 11, 2016, in an effort to stop Trump, Rubio told his supporters in Ohio to vote for Kasich, while Kasich refused to tell his Florida supporters to help Rubio, with a campaign spokesperson later quoted as saying: "We were going to win Ohio anyway even without his help, just as he's going to lose Florida to Trump without ours." The Northern Mariana Islands caucuses were the first contest to close on March 15, with Trump taking 73% of the vote and collecting all nine delegates. In Florida, Trump netted the biggest prize of the night, handily defeating Rubio in Rubio's home state. Trump added to that wins in North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri. Soon after the announcement of his loss in Florida, Rubio suspended his campaign. Kasich got on the board for the first time, winning his home state of Ohio to stave off elimination. Kasich's victory in Ohio meant that the 2016 Republican primaries were the first
since 1968, and the first in which every state held a contest, in which more than three candidates won at least one state. In
2012, three candidates,
Mitt Romney,
Rick Santorum, and
Newt Gingrich, won states and a fourth,
Ron Paul, won a territory, the
Virgin Islands. Democratic primaries have historically been more divided. Examples are the Democratic primaries
in 1968 (five candidates won states),
1972 (seven),
1976 (six),
1988 (five),
1992 (five), and
2004 (four). The election in Missouri was very close, with Trump beating Cruz by fewer than 2,000 votes (0.21%), a very similar out come to the concurrent
Missouri Democratic presidential primary.
Late March – April 2016: a three-candidate race ,
Arizona. Seven states and one territory voted between March 22 and April 19, 2016, totaling 315 delegates with New York the largest (winner-take-most, 95), followed by Arizona (winner-take-all, 58). The final debate between the candidates, which had been scheduled to take place on March 21, 2016, in
Salt Lake City, was cancelled after Trump and Kasich withdrew from the event. Trump had initially announced that he would be absent as there had been enough debates; Kasich subsequently stated that he would not attend a debate without Trump. On March 22, with concerns about the border, immigration and national security at the fore, Trump won all 58 delegates in Arizona. However, in Utah, Cruz garnered 69% of the vote, triggering the 50% rule to take all 40 delegates, buoyed by anti-Trump sentiment among many
Mormons. All of American Samoa's delegates were uncommitted. After Trump was declared the presumptive nominee, all of the American Samoa delegates committed to him. American Samoa and Utah were the last caucuses of the 2016 Republican primary season. As a Trump nomination became even more likely, the
Club for Growth and other backers of the
Stop Trump movement began adopting increasingly drastic strategies to derail his nomination, including all-out opposition to him in Wisconsin, seen as one opportunity to deny him the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Trump stated that he foresaw the outbreak of riots if he were denied the nomination at the convention. Despite often being viewed as anathema to the establishment, Cruz began picking up endorsements of establishment figures dismayed by the prospect of a Trump nomination, including that of Romney just before the Utah primary, Bush on March 23, 2016, and Walker on March 29, 2016. Toward the end of March, the competition between the three remaining candidates grew even fiercer. The increasingly acrimonious back-and-forth between Cruz and Trump took a new turn after the
National Enquirer accused Cruz of being involved in five extramarital affairs – claims Cruz denied, accusing Trump of planting the claim, but other sources linked it to Rubio's suspended campaign. On March 29, the same day Walker endorsed Cruz, at a GOP town hall event hosted by
CNN, all three remaining Republican candidates distanced themselves from the vow they had taken in September to support their party's eventual nominee. Referring to the pledge, Kasich stated, "all of us shouldn't even have answered that question". April 3 had a North Dakota convention where Cruz gained support of eight delegates and Trump got one. Cruz later got six extra delegates committed to him. After Cruz dropped out, three delegates switched their support to Trump. The 13 uncommitted delegates backed Trump, giving him the support of 17 delegates and a majority. On April 5, buoyed by support from Walker and the state's talk and national radio hosts, Cruz won the statewide contests by a 48–35% margin and six congressional districts at the Wisconsin primary for 36 delegates. Trump won two
congressional districts for six delegates. Following the Wisconsin primary, the three candidates moved on to Trump's home state of
New York for its April 19 primary. Trump and Kasich teamed up to assail Cruz for his earlier criticism of Trump's "New York values", while Cruz reiterated his claim that Trump has an inconsistent conservative record and stated that "the only reason Kasich is attacking me now is because Kasich is afraid of going against Trump if I dropped out." Trump also received the support of former New York mayor and
2008 presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani during the lead-up to the New York primary. On April 9, 2016, Cruz won the
Colorado delegates after taking a solid majority, the state's four uncommitted delegates declaring support for Cruz, bringing his total delegate count in Colorado to 34. On April 16, 2016, Cruz won all 14 at-large delegates in the
Wyoming state convention. He also received the support of RNC Committeewoman Marti Halverson, one of the 3 RNC delegates to the convention. On April 19, Trump won New York with 59% of the vote, taking 89 of its 95 delegates. Kasich was a distant second with 25% of the vote, taking the other six delegates. Cruz was completely shut-out from receiving any New York delegates, coming in third place with only 15% of the vote, as the threshold for obtaining any delegates was 20%. Following the New York primary, Cruz was mathematically eliminated from reaching the majority of 1,237 delegates to earn the nomination on the first ballot, as he needed 678 more while only 674 were available. • The delegate count is given for American Samoa and North Dakota as no tally of the vote has been released. All delegates from American Samoa are unpledged. All delegates from North Dakota are unbound but some have declared support (committed to) for a candidate (they can still change their minds). • The delegate count from Colorado and Wyoming is given because there is no tally for popular vote. These delegates, however, can choose to be bound to a candidate or to be left uncommitted. They indicated this when they filed to run for a delegate spot.
April 26, 2016: Acela primary On April 26, 2016, five Northeastern primaries were contested—Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island—and were collectively termed the "
Amtrak" or "Acela primary" in reference to the
Acela Express, which runs through the area. All five primaries were won by Trump by overwhelming margins between 29% and 41%. Trump received over 54% of the vote in all five. He claimed all the delegates available in Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland, as well as all 17 pledged delegates in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania also elected 54 unpledged delegates and both the Trump campaign and
The Washington Post estimated that Trump would win the support of at least 39 of the Keystone State's 54 unpledged delegates. Only in Rhode Island, where delegates were allocated proportionally, did Kasich (5) or Cruz (2) win any pledged delegates. Trump attained 12 of the 19 there and 111 of the 118 by the end of the night. The night was also notable as Trump cleared 10 million votes, surpassing the vote total attained by McCain and Romney in 2008 and 2012 respectively. The two aforementioned contests were won with the candidate receiving a majority of the popular vote nationwide in both 2008 and 2012. The next day, Trump received the support of 31 unbound delegates from Pennsylvania, while Cruz nabbed four of them, Kasich three, and five remained uncommitted. On April 29, the Trump campaign declared that they had accumulated 1,001 delegates, only 236 from the 1,237 necessary for the nomination.
May 3, 2016: Indiana primary Five primaries were contested in May: Indiana, Nebraska, West Virginia, Oregon and Washington, with Indiana awarding the most, with 57 delegates. By late April, Cruz and Kasich had both been eliminated from getting 1,237 delegates, but they still had a chance to accumulate enough delegates to force a contested convention in Cleveland. Realizing this, Cruz and Kasich attempted to focus their efforts in different states, with Cruz challenging Trump head-to-head in Indiana and Kasich challenging Trump in Oregon and New Mexico. The
Indiana primary, whose delegates were awarded winner-take all statewide and by congressional district, was seen as essential to denying Trump the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Fiorina had served as a Cruz campaign surrogate since endorsing him in March after suspending her own presidential campaign in February and Cruz hoped that Fiorina could help his campaign in Indiana and her home state of California. On April 29, 2016, Governor
Mike Pence of Indiana announced that he would vote for Cruz in the primary election. Although Trump was outspent by a margin of more than 4–1, he handily won Indiana with 53.3% of the vote, winning a plurality in every Congressional District and taking all 57 delegates. Cruz subsequently dropped out of the race, eliminating any hope of a contested convention in July. As a result,
Republican National Committee chairman
Reince Priebus tweeted that Trump was the presumptive nominee in the GOP. The next day, Kasich suspended his campaign, leaving Trump as the only candidate in the race. Many Republican leaders and even former presidential candidates endorsed Trump after the withdrawal of Kasich and Cruz, but other party leaders such as Ryan, Romney and the entire Bush family withheld their support, although Ryan endorsed Trump on June 2, 2016.
May 2016: Trump as presumptive nominee 142 delegates were awarded between the Indiana primary and the final primaries in June. With Trump the only candidate remaining, Washington, Oregon, West Virginia and Nebraska became essentially uncontested, although Cruz and Kasich remained on the ballot. Trump won handily in West Virginia, Nebraska and Oregon, although Kasich received one delegate from West Virginia and five in Oregon, while Cruz took five in Oregon as well. The next week, Trump won decisively in Washington State, taking 76% of the vote and 41 of 44 delegates, with the other three uncommitted. After becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump said regarding the Republican primaries: "You've been hearing me say it's a rigged system, but now I don't say it anymore because I won. It's true. Now I don't care." On May 26, 2016, the
Associated Press announced that Trump had passed the threshold of 1,237 delegates required to guarantee his nomination, thanks to unbound delegates from North Dakota who declared their support for Trump.
June 2016: final primaries The final five primary contests were held on June 7, 2016, in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, with California awarding the most with 172 delegates and New Jersey with 51. Though initially pegged by pundits as being an important primary, the suspension of the Cruz and Kasich campaigns following the Indiana primary made the California primary merely a formality at that point, as Trump shattered the all-time record for votes in the Republican primaries set by
George W. Bush in
2000 of 12,034,676 votes. Following Trump's decisive win in Indiana and the subsequent suspension of the Cruz and Kasich campaigns, as well as Trump reaching the threshold following his decisive win in Washington state, it became clear that there would not be a contested convention in Cleveland. On the first ballot, Trump won the nomination with 1,725 delegates, 488 more than required. ==Campaign finance==