Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton emerged as the big winners of the Super Tuesday primaries which took place across 12 states last night.
Both the Republican and Democratic frontrunners had notched up seven states on one of the biggest nights of the primary voting which will choose the candidates for president.
Their decisive wins make their nominations for their respective parties appear almost secure. However their challengers still managed to secure enough support to ensure they maintained a foothold in the contest.
Mrs Clinton captured 453 additional delegates last night who will represent her at the national party convention this summer, while Mr Sanders added 284. He is far behind the former secretary of state, who has just over 1,000 delegates.
Mr Trump gained more than 200 delegates, taking his total to 285. His rivals Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio have a total of 161, and 87 delegates respectively.
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A Republican nominee needs 1,237 delegates to capture the nomination, a Democrat 2,383.
Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, emerged on top in his home state and in neighbouring Oklahoma. He also won in Alaska, the last state to report its results. Marco Rubio, the favourite of the Republican establishment, won in Minnesota.
For the Republican old guard, Mr Trump’s appeal for ordinary voters which swept across the dozen geographically and demographically diverse states, will do little to calm the panic that has been growing.
The billionaire tycoon won in the southern “Bible belt” states of Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama, as well as in affluent, business-orientated Massachusetts and Virginia.
However, he missed out on a win in Alaska, where he is supported by Sarah Palin, its former governor. The Democratic vote for the state is taking place later this month.
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On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton prevailed in seven out of 11 states voting, including many in the south with large black constituencies, and in Massachusetts.
Bernie Sanders, her rival, won Vermont, his home state, as well as Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota, states with primarily white voters.
The modest result for Mr Sanders was expected, but the septuagenarian has vowed to fight on.
“At the end of tonight, 15 states will have voted, 35 remain, he said. “Let me assure you that we are going to take our fight for economic justice, for social justice, for environmental sanity, for a world of peace to every one of those states.”
Enthusiasm for his campaign continues: one day ahead of yesterday’s contests it was revealed that it had raised over $40 million in February alone.
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However, according to a poll released ahead of last night’s contests, 70 per cent of voters thought Mrs Clinton was likely to be the Democratic nominee. The same percentage reckoned that Donald Trump would win the Republican ticket.
Mr Trump’s rivals have also declared that they will stay in the contest to prevent the divisive, often uncouth tycoon from becoming the tribune for the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Declaring his intention, Mr Rubio said: “I will go through all 50 states before we stop fighting to save the Republican Party from someone like that.”
For Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton, however, the race to win the nomination of their parties was all but over and both turned their fire on each other.
Speaking in the delegate-rich state of Florida, which votes on March 15, the former secretary of state took aim at Mr Trump’s campaign slogan. “America never stopped being great,” Mrs Clinton said.
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“We have to make America whole. We have to fill in what’s been hollowed out. We have to re-stitch the bond of trust and respect across our country.”
She added: “What we need in America today is more love and kindness. Instead of building walls we’re going to break down barriers and build ladders of opportunity.”
She continued: “The rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower – trying to divide America between us and them is wrong, and we’re not going to let it work.”
For his part Mr Trump called for Mrs Clinton to be disqualified from running for the Oval Office, accusing her of criminal behaviour for using a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Speaking at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago Club, where he held a White House-style press conference instead of a conventional victory speech, he said that “Once we get all of this finished, I am going to go after one person: Hillary Clinton.”
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He brushed aside the turmoil in the Republican ranks sparked by his rise, saying: “We are going to be a unified party. We are going to be a much bigger party – you can see that happening ... I think we’re going to win in November.”
He also promised to make Apple manufacture its products in America, instead of China.
“Our nation is in serious trouble, we’re being killed on trade, absolutely destroyed. We’re being killed by China,” he said.
Mr Rubio had been braced for a poor night, but losing Virginia – one of the states best suited to his campaign – was a blow. He will now have to win in his home state of Florida in two weeks.
