By Jim Ellis
May 4, 2016 — There will be no floor fight in Cleveland. With Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) exiting the presidential race last night after Donald Trump’s backdoor winner-take-all victory in Indiana, the nomination battle has effectively ended. Sen. Cruz’s campaign suspension announcement means that only Ohio Gov. John Kasich remains as an active Trump opponent.
Though Kasich has still yet to exit the race, his ability to stop a Trump first-ballot victory is non-existent. Long ago, Kasich was mathematically eliminated from a obtaining his own first-ballot win, and he now trails Trump by 870 delegate votes. To stay on the first ballot track before last night, Trump needed 39 delegates coming from Indiana. He blew away that metric by winning the statewide vote, all nine congressional districts, and 87 of 92 counties, which earned him all 57 delegates in Indiana’s winner-take-all by congressional district apportionment formula. Cruz realized such a margin and the momentum it was generating made denying Trump a pre-convention victory highly unlikely.
Ironically, it is now Sen. Bernie Sanders (I/D-VT), winner of last night’s Indiana Democratic primary popular vote, who says he will wage a floor fight at the national convention in Philadelphia. This will not happen, either.
Despite Sanders’ 52.5 percent win in Indiana, and carrying 74 of the 92 counties, it is still former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who leaves the state with a 46-44 delegate margin thanks to the Super Delegates. Needing only 19.4 percent of the outstanding delegates in the 14 remaining states and territories going into last night, Clinton easily exceeded her delegate quota projection and will clinch the nomination on June 7.
Below are the latest unofficial delegate results:
REPUBLICANS
| CANDIDATE | ESTIMATED DELEGATE COUNT |
| Donald Trump | 1,023 |
| Ted Cruz | 570 |
| Marco Rubio (out) | 173 |
| John Kasich | 153 |
| Others (out) | 16 |
| Uncommitted | 92 |
| Needed to win: 1,237 | Remaining: 445 |
DEMOCRATS
| CANDIDATE | REGULAR DELEGATES | SUPER DELEGATES |
| Hillary Clinton | 1,702 | 527 |
| Bernie Sanders | 1,406 | 39 |
Total Clinton: 2,229
Total Sanders: 1,445
Needed to win: 2,383
Remaining: 1,114
• Delegate Count Source: Unofficial — The Green Papers website (for both parties)
• The Democratic totals include some Super Delegates who have announced their support for a candidate even though their states have not yet voted.