Rubio Ends Presidential Bid After Losing Florida; Kasich Tops Trump in Ohio
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is projected to be the landslide winner of primaries in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio
Florida Senator Marco Rubio dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday after television networks projected Donald Trump would beat him badly in his home state. Ohio Governor John Kasich defeated Trump in the Republican presidential primary in Kasich's home state. Trump won the Florida Republican primary by a huge margin over second-place finisher Rubio. Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Kasich were far behind. Florida is a winner-take-all state, meaning Trump will get all 99 delegates without having to split them with the runners-up. Ohio also is a winner-take-all state, and Kasich's win over Trump will keep the governor's campaign alive. He said he would be "very competitive" in the upcoming primaries, noting that there were still a thousand delegates to be picked up. Rubio said that he was grateful to everyone who supported him in Florida and elsewhere, and that it was not part of "God's plan" that he become president in 2016, or maybe ever For the Democrats, Clinton beat Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by landslides in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio, taking most delegates in all three states. Primaries also were held Tuesday in Missouri and Illinois. Trump's election day got off to a good start when he captured all nine GOP convention delegates at stake from the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. In recent months, Trump has become known — and some would say infamous — for harsh comments and insulting remarks he's made toward Muslims, Mexicans, women and his political rivals. They include calling Rubio "little Marco" and the socialist Sanders "our communist friend." Name calling, shoving and fistfights between Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters — sometimes encouraged by Trump himself — have critics decrying the overall state of American politics. But a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, voter told VOA on Tuesday that he cast a ballot for Trump because he said the candidate "tells it like it is" and does not follow any kind of so-called political correctness. Another Trump backer called him "the strongest candidate" and someone who has come along at the right time. A Clinton supporter called Trump a "narcissist and a racist" who brings out the worst of Americans, while a Sanders voter called the senator the only candidate addressing what he said was the country's "fundamental problems" of the uneven distribution of wealth.