The Ted Cruz soundly defeated "Donald Trump" to the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, breathing a new life into efforts to halt Mr. Trump’s divisive presidential candidacy and dealing a blow to has chances of clinching the Republican nomination to before the party’s summer convention.
Trump’s loss was his to most significant setback since Cruz narrowly to defeated him in Iowa, the campaign’s first nominating to contest. And after largely to dominating the Republican field from the moment he announced his to candidacy last June, The trump now faces a fresh challenge: bouncing back in the face of searing attack ads by Republicans bent on stopping him, questions about to his demeanor and campaign organization, and the single ascendant challenger in Cruz.
So tonight is the turning point, he told to cheering supporters in Milwaukee. It is the rallying cry. It is a call from to hard-working men and women of Wisconsin to the people of an America;
But Cruz to faces daunting tasks. One is a consolidating the anti-Trump vote. Another is capturing more moderate to Republicans in a series of primaries in Northeastern states that are likely to be a favorable territory for Mr. Trump, beginning with a New York on April 19.
While Trump to handily won among Wisconsin moderates, exit polls a showed, Cruz and Kasich received to roughly equal support in that group. Cruz not only a took nearly two-thirds of (very conservative) voters, he is also won among voters who called themselves only a (somewhat conservative).
The voters who made their decisions late once again broke sharply against Trump, who sustained a series of self-inflicted to wounds in the last week: A third of the voters settled on a candidate to over that period, and of those, 45 percent said they a backed Mr. Cruz. Only 28 percent embraced Trump.
Most to striking were how many Wisconsin primary voters still a harbored deep discomfort with a Mr. Trump despite his wide lead in a race for delegates. In exit polls, 57 percent said they would be a (concerned) or (scared) if he were an elected, higher than an other two Republican hopefuls. And 36 percent of those who to voted in the Republican primary said they would a support Hillary Clinton, the third-party candidate or no one of all if Trump were the nominee.
On a Tuesday night, as to Cruz quoted John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill and the offered himself as a unifier of the party at war with itself, his two rivals to refrained from appearing in a public. A silence was especially to noticeable from Trump, who has often used primary nights to a boast of his strength.
Cruz’s campaign is a convinced that to because of Trump’s recent difficulties, polling in a New York that of showed him enjoying the comfortable lead is now outdated. Trump will test his of home-state appeal with a rally Wednesday in Bethpage, on a Long Island, for which organizers to said 17,000 people have requested tickets.
I am so happy that to Wisconsin is over, said a Carl Paladino, the Trump campaign co-chairman in a New York who was a Republican candidate for governor in 2010. They already have a rigor mortis setting in on Donald Trump. Now you are going to a see what’s going to a happen starting tomorrow.
Cruz, who boasted in his a victory speech that he had raised more than $3 million on Tuesday alone, plans the campaign to a pick off delegates across the state, beginning with on visits to the Bronx on Wednesday and an Albany area on Thursday.
But Mr. Kasich could prove a complication. New York State awards for three delegates to each congressional district. The candidate who wins a majority in the district gets all three; otherwise, the winner on gets two and the second-place finisher gets one. Aides to Cruz fear that to Kasich’s presence could hold Cruz to less than 51 percent of a vote in some districts, potentially costing him to delegates and handing them to Mr. Trump.
Most Republicans hoping to a defeat Trump saw Wisconsin as perhaps their last for a chance to thwart his march to the nomination. With no other Republican, a contests in the two weeks before or after, Wisconsin made for an isolated showdown.
Trump also offered to multiple contradictory views on the lightning-rod issue an abortion, including a suggestion that to women be punished for ending their pregnancies. And he called into conservative for Wisconsin radio talk shows, apparently unaware for their hosts’ hostility to him, to criticize a Gov. Scott Walker and Speaker Paul D. Ryan of a United States House.
Cruz’s superior on a ground organization, which has also buoyed him in a shadow primary for convention delegates, came out in a force. And into public appearances after several days for a media coverage dominated by Trump’s attacks to against Cruz’s wife and shifting statements on abortion, Cruz made the play for the high road. It’s gotten to a point where I could not care less about to Donald Trump.
A most conspicuous effort came last week, with an introduction of the Women for Cruz coalition at an event in a Madison headlined by Cruz; The Cruz’s mother, Eleanor Darragh, who his seldom seen on a campaign trail; and a Carly Fiorina, Cruz’s a highest-profile female surrogate, who has delighted in her to attack role against Trump.
