Sanders and Cruz Beat Clinton and Trump in Wisconsin Primaries
Trump: Cruz won Wisconsin using illegal campaign tactics
GOP front-runner Donald Trump says Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the Wisconsin primary using illegal campaign tactics.
The Trump campaign has released a statement saying Cruz "was coordinating with his own Super PACs (which is illegal) who totally control him."
The campaign says, "Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet — he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump."
Trump's campaign says it has "total confidence" he will win the Republican nomination.
"Mr. Trump is the only candidate who can secure the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination and ultimately defeat Hillary Clinton, or whomever is the Democratic nominee, in order to Make America Great Again," the statement says.
Sanders says he has real shot after run of wins
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says his string of recent victories is cutting into Hillary Clinton's lead, giving him a real shot at the nomination.
Sanders is campaigning in Wyoming just after his victory in the Wisconsin primary.
He says, "We have now won seven out of eight of the last caucuses and we have won almost all of them with overwhelming landslide numbers."
Despite those victories, Sanders still trails Clinton in the delegates who determine the party nomination.
Sanders believes he can narrow that gap with a victory in New York on April 19 and some of the five northeastern states that cast ballots a week later. He's expected to win the Wyoming caucuses Saturday.
He's casting himself as the stronger general-election candidate against GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
Clinton congratulates Sanders over Twitter
Hillary Clinton is congratulating rival Bernie Sanders on his win in Wisconsin.
"Congrats to @BernieSanders," she wrote on Twitter. "To all the voters and volunteers who poured your hearts into this campaign: Forward!"
Sanders is campaigning in Wyoming, which holds its caucuses Saturday. Clinton spent the evening fundraising in the Bronx.
Clinton spends primary night at NY fundraiser hosted by former AIPAC VP
Hillary Clinton wasn't greeting voters at a rally, town hall or diner as votes rolled in from Wisconsin. Instead, she was spending her evening with top donors in New York City.
She raised at least $60,000 Tuesday night at a fundraiser hosted by Jack Bendheim, the owner of a company that manufactures veterinary health products and nutritional supplements. Benheim, a former vice president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has deep ties to New York's orthodox Jewish community.
The event underscores how costly the primary race has become for Clinton. Though she holds a significant delegate lead, Bernie Sanders has vowed to take his campaign to the party convention in July. That forces Clinton, who's more reliant on traditional fundraising than Sanders, to criss-cross the country raising funds.
Cruz: Wisconsin win gives path forward to winning nomination
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says his victory in Wisconsin is uniting the Republican Party and gives him a path forward to winning the nomination, either outright or at the convention this summer.
Cruz says: "Tonight, Wisconsin has lit a candle guiding the way forward. Tonight, we have hope for the future."
Cruz is also casting a more bipartisan tone in his victory speech Tuesday, quoting John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill.
Cruz is citing a string of recent victories, and the backing of five former GOP presidential candidates, as evidence that Republicans are getting behind his candidacy. He says his campaign raised $2 million on Tuesday alone.
Cruz says, "I am more and more convinced our campaign is going to earn the 1,237 delegates need to win."
Sanders to pick up at least 44 of 86 delegates at stake
Bernie Sanders' win in Wisconsin will net him a handful of additional delegates, but he still lags Hillary Clinton by a big number.
With 86 delegates at stake, Sanders will pick up at least 44. Clinton will gain at least 28.
He still must win 67 percent of the remaining delegates and uncommitted superdelegates in order to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
Based on primaries and caucuses alone, Clinton now has 1,271 delegates to Sanders' 1,024.
When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton has a wider lead — 1,740 to 1,055.
It takes 2,383 to win.
Cruz's win increases odds of contested convention
Ted Cruz is collecting most of the delegates at stake in the Wisconsin primary, and he has a chance to win even more.
Cruz is winning at least 24 delegates, with 18 left to be allocated. By winning Wisconsin, Cruz is making it more likely the race for the Republican nomination will go all the way to a contested convention this summer.
Donald Trump still has a narrow path to claim the nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7. But by losing Wisconsin, Trump's path gets even narrower.
Sanders wins sixth straight, but barely dents Clinton's delegate lead
Bernie Sanders' Wisconsin victory is his sixth straight win over front-runner Hillary Clinton in recent weeks.
The victory in a large state gives a powerful political boost to Sanders backers. But the results barely dent Clinton's significant delegate lead for the race nomination.
Because Democrats award delegates proportionally, both candidates will add to their tallies. Clinton has the edge both in pledged delegates and the party insiders known as superdelegates.
Sanders is favored to win the next primary caucuses in Wyoming on Saturday.
Both candidates are turning their attention to the April 19 contest in New York. A loss there would be a major political blow for Clinton, who represented the state for eight years in the Senate.
Sanders, Cruz projected to win respective primaries
Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz are projected to win their primaries' respective primaries.
Cruz's win gives critics of Donald Trump hope that they can stop the GOP front-runner's rise to the party nomination. They are trying to deny him the majority of delegates and force a contested convention in July.
The Texas senator is casting his victory as a sign that he is the only candidate who can stop Trump. He's calling on Republicans to unify behind him and pushing Ohio Gov. John Kasich to drop out of the race.
Trump is the favorite in the next primary on April 19 in his home state of New York. He remains the only Republican who can clinch enough delegates to capture the nomination before the party convention.
Sanders, Cruz lead in early Wisconsin returns
Polls have closed in the Midwestern battleground of Wisconsin. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders leads rival Hillary Clinton in early returns.
On the GOP side, Ted Cruz has the edge over front-runner Donald Trump.
Both Cruz and Sanders are hoping for victories that will give them a wave of fresh momentum in their efforts to capture the White House.
Wisconsin voter turnout projected at 40 percent
Wisconsin is projected to have its highest turnout in a presidential primary since 1980, but that hasn't translated into problems at the polls.
The state elections board projects turnout at 40 percent of eligible voters.
Board spokesman Mike Haas says clerks around the state had reported a busy pace but manageable lines throughout the day. The state is holding just its second election since voters were required to show photo identification, and Haas says his office hadn't heard of any major issues.
Neil Albrecht, executive director of Milwaukee's election commission, said wait times in the state's largest city didn't exceed 30 minutes even during peak voting. Albrecht estimated the city would have four to five times the same-day voter registration it had for the primary four years ago.
Trump sparks more excitement, fear, than Republican rivals
A potential Donald Trump presidency inspires more excitement among Wisconsin's GOP primary voters than the other two remaining candidates — but also more fear.
About a quarter say they're excited about Trump, while less than 15 percent say that of either of his rivals. At the same time, nearly 4 in 10 say they're scared about what Trump would do as president, while only about 1 in 10 say that about either Cruz or Kasich, according to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.
In the case of a brokered convention, nearly 6 in 10 Republicans say the party should nominate the candidate with the most support in the primaries, while just 4 in 10 say it should nominate the candidate the delegates think would make the best nominee.
Wisconsin voters cite economy as they head to the polls
Republican and Democratic voters in Wisconsin say the economy is weighing heavily on their minds as they head to the polls Tuesday.
Nearly three quarters of Democratic voters say they are worried about the direction of the country's economy, according to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research. More than a third say the economy and job is the most important issue facing the country and 3 in 10 consider income inequality to be of paramount concern.
The Republicans who came out to vote are even more troubled by the direction of the economy, the early exit polls show. More than 9 in 10 say they are either very or somewhat worried.
Similar to the Democrats, about 30 percent of Republicans consider the economy and jobs the country's top problem, and just about as many consider government spending the most important issue.
Clinton talks womens' issues in New York as Wisconsin votes
Hillary Clinton is stressing her fight for more rights for women, including equal pay, during a New York City campaign stop.
Clinton eschewed going to Wisconsin, which is holding its primary on Tuesday and where she is down in the polls to Bernie Sanders. Instead, she is focusing on the next contest, which is being held in her adopted home state of New York in two weeks.
The ex-secretary of state appeared at Medgar Evans College, a public school named after the slain civil rights activist, in Brooklyn. Clinton pledged to "tirelessly fight" for women's causes, including abortion rights, and praised local officials for their efforts to help working women, especially the recent increase of the state's middle wage.
She also said she "loved" the U.S. national women's soccer team's lawsuit alleging wage discrimination.
RNC chair notes significance of Wisconsin primary for GOP presidential race
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says the outcome of Wisconsin's election is important, not just for the individual who wins the delegates, but to the outcome of the race in general.
Priebus said in an interview Tuesday on WTMJ radio in Milwaukee that the outcome of Wisconsin's primary will play an important role in whether there is a contested GOP convention this summer in Cleveland. A win by Ted Cruz would make it more difficult for front-runner Donald Trump to get the 1,237 delegates needed by the end of the primary season to secure the nomination.
But Priebus says the outcome in Wisconsin is also important "on the narrative side." He says since no other state is voting Tuesday, the focus has been on Wisconsin for two weeks and how the outcome will influence the race going forward.
Trump, Cruz in national dead heat, poll shows
Republican presidential underdog Ted Cruz has pulled into a statistical dead heat with front-runner Donald Trump, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.
The U.S. senator from Texas has 35.2 percent support among Republicans to Trumps 39.5 percent, according to the survey taken from April 1-5, putting the two within the polls credibility interval of 4.8 percentage points. The two were also briefly in a dead heat on March 28.
Trump first jumped to the top of the Reuters/Ipsos national poll in July 2015. The only time a rival came close to Trumps lead in the poll before Cruz was Nov. 7. when neurosurgeon Ben Carson briefly tied him.
Cruz had trailed Trump nearly 20-points a month ago.