Republican Donald Trump and
Democrat Hillary Clinton are each looking to strengthen their frontrunner status as five states vote in caucuses across the
United States.
Mrs Clinton and
Vermont senator
Bernie Sanders do battle Saturday in
Kansas,
Louisiana and
Nebraska, while the
Republicans are contesting
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and
Maine.
As results begin to trickle in,
US television networks have predicted
Senator Ted Cruz to win the conservative state of Kansas for the Republicans.
Projections broadcast by
CNN and
Fox television showed that with 43 per cent of the votes counted, the
Texas senator had 49 per cent of ballots, a big lead over Mr
Trump, who had 24.7 per cent.
"
God bless Kansas!" Mr
Cruz told a campaign rally in
Idaho, upon learning that he was projected the winner.
"What we're seeing is conservatives coming together
... and standing as one behind this campaign."
Polling has been scarce in all four Republican states, which together account for just 155 delegates, and the contests will be open only to registered Republicans.
The exclusion of the independent voters who have helped Mr Trump's surge adds an air of uncertainty to the latest round of state-by-state contests to pick nominees for the
November 8 election to succeed
President Barack Obama.
Since winning seven of 11 contests on
Super Tuesday, the businessman has come under withering fire from a
Republican establishment worried he will lead the party to a resounding defeat in November's elections.
Mitt Romney, the
2012 Republican presidential nominee, called Mr Trump a phony and a fraud who was playing
American voters for suckers, and 2008 nominee
John McCain said the candidate's foreign policy views were uninformed and dangerous.
After
Ben Carson officially ended his
White House bid, the race has been narrowed down to Donald Trump and opponents
Ted Cruz,
Marco Rubio and
John Kasich.
Anti-Trump forces have a short window of about two weeks for stopping the caustic businessman, who has accumulated 319 of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination at July's Republican national convention.
He has far outpaced second-place rival Ted Cruz, a
US senator from Texas, who has 226 delegates.
On the
Democratic side, polls show Mrs Clinton with a big lead in Louisiana, which has a large bloc of the African-American voters who helped her roll up victories across the
South on Super Tuesday.
The caucuses in less diverse Kansas and Nebraska could be more suited to Mr Sanders, but with 432 delegates to the
Clinton campaign's 1,066, he will have a tough time making up the
difference.
The three states have a total of
109 delegates at stake.
All states in the Democratic race award their delegates proportionally, meaning Mrs Clinton can keep piling up delegates even in states where she loses.
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- published: 06 Mar 2016
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