Donald Trump is poised to be the Republican Party’s nominee in the US presidential election in November after the last of his 16 opponents called time on his campaign.
The decision of Republican governor of Ohio John Kasich to end his presidential bid confirms the New York businessman as the presumptive nominee to face the Democratic candidate, likely to be Hillary Clinton, in the race to succeed US president Barack Obama.
An emotional Mr Kasich announced that he was suspending his campaign at a press conference in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday evening.
“As I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith, deeper faith that the Lord will show me the way forward,” he said, after talking about the people he met on the election trail including the young man he hugged in South Carolina in a moment that epitomised his touchy-feely campaign.
A campaign source close to Mr Kasich ruled out the possibility of the Ohio governor serving as the billionaire property tycoon’s running mate.
Mr Kasich’s withdrawal leaves Mr Trump (69) as the last Republican standing in the race, concluding one of the most extraordinary nominating contests in generations.
Frenetic campaign
The businessman confounded critics and upended political convention during a frenetic campaign dominated by contentious proposals, hateful rhetoric, insults against women and immigrants, threats of violence and taunts about appearance and genital size.
His promises to ban Muslims to prevent terrorism and to build a wall along the border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out caused outrage at home and abroad but found favour among millions of disaffected Republicans angry at Washington’s politics as usual. The outsider entered the race, descending a gold elevator in his Trump Tower in New York to the ridicule of the political elite.
Eleven months later, he has come out on top, leading the Republican race with 10.7 million votes, 3.5 million more than his nearest rival and seeing off a packed field of candidates that included long-serving senators and state governors. His path to the nomination was all but assured following his landslide victory in Indiana’s Republican primary on Tuesday – the businessman’s 28th state win and his seventh straight victory – prompting his chief rival, Texas senator Ted Cruz, to drop out.
Change of heart
Mr Kasich (63), the most moderate Republican in the race, could only muster a win in his home state but still believed he could steal the nomination at the party’s national convention in Cleveland owing to his strong performance against Mrs Clinton in the polls. Despite coming a distant third in Indiana on Tuesday, his campaign insisted Mr Kasich would stick with his plan to contest states until the final primary ballot in California on June 7th. He had a change of heart overnight and ended his campaign yesterday.
The clearing of Mr Trump’s path to the nomination in the nine remaining state contests spells the end of the “Never Trump” movement in the Republican Party establishment who feared for his prospects against Mrs Clinton in the election on November 8th.
“Sixteen Republicans tried and failed to stop Trump – now it’s up to us,” Mrs Clinton’s deputy communications director Christina Reynolds said in an email seeking donations.
