Republican front-runner Donald Trump added five more primary wins Tuesday, sweeping a set of northeastern states to move closer to clinching the party's nomination for president.
Trump won easily in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island with more than 55 percent of the vote in each state.
Speaking late Tuesday to supporters, he declared the race "over" and called himself the presumptive nominee. After Tuesday's voting, he has 950 of the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, a number he is not guaranteed to reach before the Republican convention in July.
His rivals, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich cannot earn the total needed for the nomination with the remaining delegates and are focused on stopping Trump.
Watch video report from VOA's Jim Malone:
At a campaign rally in Indiana, whose presidential primary is next week, Cruz acknowledged he was not expected to win any of the five states voting in primaries on Tuesday. But he told supporters not to write him off because he expects to do well in Indiana and Nebraska, which holds its primary May 10.
Trump calls the "Stop Trump" effort "pathetic" and accuses the Republican Party of treating him unfairly, saying the election system is "rigged."
An NBC News/Survey Monkey poll gives Trump more than 50 percent support among Republican or Republican-leaning voters nationwide for the first time. His national support had been less than 50 percent.
In the Democratic race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rolled toward her own nomination by winning four states Tuesday. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won only in Rhode Island.
She now has 2,141 delegates, including the so-called super delegates made up of party officials who have pledged to support her. That leaves Clinton 242 delegates short of clinching a majority of the Democratic delegates.
She told a crowd of jubilant supporters in Philadelphia that she will unify the Democratic Party to win the presidential election in November and carry on a strong progressive tradition.
