Painstaking organization and in-person campaigning paid off again for Ted Cruz on Saturday as he nailed down all 14 delegates up for grabs at the Republican Party convention in Wyoming. The result leaves Donald Trump facing yet another loss in a string of defeats in Western states.
Saturday's sweep for Cruz follows his victory last month in Wyoming, when he scored 9 of 12 available delegates at county conventions. Trump and Marco Rubio each won one delegate last month in Wyoming while one remained undecided.
"Republicans overwhelmingly elected delegates who will support us at the national convention and nominate us to take on Hillary Clinton," Cruz said in a statement.
"This is how elections are won in America. This is another step in our drive to win a majority of Republicans to be the nominee," he added, taking a clear shot at Trump.
Trump's defeat in Wyoming follows his shutout earlier this month in Colorado, where he failed to pick up a single delegate of the 34 in play. He has urged his supporters to protest the results to state officials in that state.
Campaigning in New York on Saturday, Trump said, "I guess I'm complaining 'cause it's not fair to the people." In Wyoming and Colorado, he said, "the people never got a chance to vote."
Trump still leads the overall delegate race, with a total of 744. Saturday’s win puts Cruz’s total to 559 delegates, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich trails with 144. Republican candidatess need 1,237 delegates to clinch the nomination.
U.S. & World
Bernie Sanders is netting a few extra delegates at Colorado's Democratic state convention — though it's not having a real impact on his chances to win the presidential nomination.
Colorado has a multistep process of allocating delegates. Based on the March 1 caucus, Sanders initially picked up 38 delegates to Hillary Clinton's 28.
Since then, Sanders has won additional support at congressional district conventions and Saturday's state convention, resulting in a few more delegates.
The final delegate allocation for Colorado: 41 for Sanders, 25 for Clinton.
That means, to date, Clinton has 1,289 delegates from primaries and caucuses to Sanders' 1,045.
When including superdelegates, or party officials who can support any candidate, Clinton has 1,758 to Sanders' 1,076.
