At a news conference afterward,
Trump said he was drawing new
voters to the Republican Party and
the establishment figures who are
resisting his campaign should
save their money and focus on
beating the Democrats in
November.
"I hope Republicans will embrace
it," Trump said of his campaign.
"We have something going that is
so good, we should grab each
other and unify the party."
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The results were a setback for
rival John Kasich, governor of
Ohio, who hoped to pull off a
surprise win in neighbouring
Michigan, and for Ted Cruz , a US
senator from Texas who hoped to
do well in Mississippi with its
large bloc of evangelical voters.
Marco Rubio, a US senator from
Florida who has been the
establishment favorite since other
mainstream candidates dropped
out of the race, lagged badly in
both states and appeared unlikely
to win delegates in either.
Trump said Rubio's recent attacks
on him had backfired.
"Hostility works for some people;
it doesn't work for everyone,"
Trump said.
Rival: Ted Cruz claimed victory in
Idaho
Trump suggested his rivals had
little hope going forward and took
aim at Cruz, who split four
nominating contests on Saturday
with Trump and positioned
himself as the prime alternative to
the brash New York billionaire in
the race to be the party's
candidate in the November 8
election.
"Ted is going to have a hard time,"
Trump said of Cruz. "He rarely
beats me."
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Republican U.S. presidential
candidate Ted Cruz speaks
during a campaign event at
Central Baptist Church in
Kannapolis, North Carolina,
March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Jason
Miczek
The Michigan victory sets Trump
up for a potentially decisive day
of voting a week from Tuesday.
On March 15, Ohio, Florida,
Illinois, Missouri and North
Carolina - like Michigan, states
rich in the delegates who will
select their party's nominee at
July's Republican National
Convention - cast ballots.
The Republican contests in
Florida and Ohio award all the
state's delegates to the winner.
If Trump could sweep those two
states and pile up delegates
elsewhere next week, it could
knock home-state favorites Rubio
and Kasich out of the race and
make it tough for Cruz to catch
him.
Republicans were also voting on
Tuesday in Idaho, where Cruz
claimed a late victory, and Hawaii.
Many mainstream Republicans
have been offended by Trump's
statements on Muslims,
immigrants and women and
alarmed by his threats to
international trade deals.
Trump said on Tuesday he has
not assembled a foreign policy
team, despite having said he
would have one in place by
February, and dismissed criticism
his statements would be harmful
to US interests.
Anti-Trump Super PACS have
spent millions of dollars on
advertisements designed to attack
Trump's character in Florida, a
state Rubio calls home and Trump
calls a second home.
But Trump's relentless anti-free
trade rhetoric and promise to slap
taxes on cars and parts shipped
in from Mexico resonated in
Michigan, which has lost tens of
thousands of manufacturing and
auto industry
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