Cruz crushes Trump as Sanders beats Clinton in Wisconsin primaries

Cruz’s win comes at a crucial time for the Republican party as Trump has lost his top spot in some polls and faces a difficult path to securing the delegates needed

Ted Cruz raised fresh hope of forcing Donald Trump to a contested party convention on Tuesday, beating the Republican frontrunner in a Wisconsin primary amid signs his brash campaign style may finally be turning off GOP voters.

Cruz was projected by the Associated Press to have won the important midwest showdown just over half an hour after polls closed at 8pm CDT. As the scale of his victory across the state became clearer, the Texas conservative was estimated to have won at least 33 of the 42 delegates on offer, limiting Trump to just a handful.

In his victory speech, Cruz looked ahead to the convention in July and vowed he would win the 1,237 delegates needed “either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland”.

The Texas senator said: “Tonight is a turning point [in the Republican primary]. It is a rallying cry ... We have a choice, a real choice.” And he echoed John F Kennedy in saying “Wisconsin lit a candle guiding the way forward” for Republican voters in future primaries.

Hillary Clinton also stumbled on her path to the White House, losing to Bernie Sanders in a Democratic primary that marked a sixth straight win for the Vermont outsider and shows his continued appeal among voters looking for radical
change.

With 99.8% of the results in, Sanders was winning by more than 13 points, though the Democrats’ proportional system of allocating their 86 pledged delegates will limit the impact of his victory on the national race. Clinton had a commanding lead of 263 delegates at the start of the night.



Sanders’ victory speech came at a rally in Laramie, Wyoming, where the campaign has its eye on the next caucus this Saturday and was in defiant mood despite the difficult mathematical challenge ahead.

“If you ignore what you hear in the corporate media, the facts are pretty clear: we have a path toward victory, a path toward the White House,” said the visibly-energised senator to excited shouts of “Bernie, Bernie”.

“Let me say a word, well perhaps two words, about what momentum is all about,” he added, describing how the media had dismissed him as a fringe candidate who started by 60-70 points behind in polling but had failed to realise what was motivating voters
.
“From coast to coast ... people are saying why is it we have grotesque levels of inequality? ... Why is it the great middle class of this country has been shrinking?”

More at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/05/ted-cruz-crushes-donald-trump-wisconsin-primaries