May 04--REPORTING FROM INDIANAPOLIS -- Donald Trump stormed to victory in the Indiana primary Tuesday, chasing Ted Cruz from the presidential race and virtually locking down the Republican nomination despite the strong misgivings of many in the party who fear a November rout.
For the third week in a row -- following a string of landslide primary wins across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states -- the outcome was never in doubt.
But Trump's powerful showing in Indiana was the most significant of all; the Midwest was a region where the Manhattan real estate magnate had struggled, and the state was viewed by many as the last best chance for Trump opponents to slow his steamrolling campaign.
"It's over," Republican strategist Curt Anderson said even before Cruz officially ended his campaign. "Done. Finished."
Joined onstage by his family at a vintage railway station in downtown Indianapolis, with many of his top campaign aides in the audience, a downcast Cruz announced he was suspending his campaign.
"Nooooo," the audience groaned.
"But hear me now," the Texas senator said, summoning his election theme a final time. "I am not suspending our fight for liberty."
Trump's win was also a major setback for John Kasich, his other remaining GOP rival, and the forces seeking to block Trump's takeover of the party.
The victory was not unexpected. Polls showed a close race turning Trump's direction in the final days of the primary campaign. As Trump sailed closer to the nomination, Cruz made the moves of a candidate who saw his hopes rapidly fading.
He formed a shaky noncompete alliance with Kasich, who stood aside in Tuesday's contest to boost Cruz's chances. He named his prospective vice presidential running mate, former business executive Carly Fiorina, forging ahead on an announcement usually left until the primary fight is over.
On Tuesday morning, as Hoosiers went to the polls, the Texas senator leveled one of his most scathing attacks on Trump, calling the Republican front-runner a "pathological liar," "utterly amoral," "a serial philanderer" and "a narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen."
Hours earlier, in a Fox News interview, Trump had referred to an unsubstantiated National Enquirer report linking Cruz's father, Rafael, to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy.
"I guess I should go ahead and admit -- yes, my dad killed JFK," Cruz sarcastically told reporters. "He is secretly Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard."
Trump flicked him aside.
"Ted Cruz is a desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign," the Manhattan business mogul said. "Today's ridiculous outburst only proves what I have been saying for a long time, that Ted Cruz does not have the temperament to be president of the United States."
Cruz's seeming desperation underscored the high stakes in Tuesday's primary, widely seen as the last chance for Trump's opponents and many critics to stop him short of winning the GOP presidential nomination and leading Republicans -- many openly hostile toward his candidacy -- into the fall campaign.
Indiana will award 57 delegates on a winner-takes-most basis, a small fraction of the 1,237 needed to secure the nomination ahead of the party's national convention in Cleveland this summer. But the state's import went far beyond that number.
Moderately conservative with a stolid Midwest sensibility, Indiana was seen as the last true tossup left on the GOP calendar and, for the anti-Trump movement, a crucial chance to stop his gathering momentum after a half-dozen big wins along the East Coast.
Cruz also enjoyed advantages he lacked in others states, including the endorsement -- albeit lukewarm -- of its governor, Mike Pence, and millions of dollars in advertising from independent groups working against Trump.
Entering the day, Republican front-runner Trump had 996 delegates. Cruz and Kasich trailed far behind, with 565 and 153 delegates, respectively.
A victory, Trump repeatedly told audiences, would close out the long, raucous fight for the GOP nomination. "If we win Indiana, it's over," he told a crowd Sunday in Terre Haute.
There are still five weeks left in the primary season, though, and Trump cannot win all the delegates needed for the nomination until California and four other states vote June 7.
Cruz, along with Ohio Gov. Kasich, has been mathematically eliminated from winning the GOP nomination outright. Their hopes rest on denying Trump the delegates he needs to clinch ahead of the convention, then wresting the nomination away during a floor fight in Cleveland.
That was a part of their calculation in forging their alliance, with Kasich effectively ceding Indiana in return for Cruz vowing to stand aside in Oregon's May 17 primary and New Mexico's June 7 contest. Polls showed their pact drawing a negative response from Republicans.
Dorothy Wolfe was among those displeased.
"I would've preferred Kasich to come out a little stronger," said the 63-year-old retiree, who turned out with her husband to vote at the Hamilton County courthouse outside Indianapolis on a drizzly, gray morning. She liked Kasich's "calm demeanor" but resignedly voted for Cruz -- "kind of a loudmouth" -- because she figured Kasich was "a dead horse."
Her husband stifled a chortle. Jack Wolfe, 62, a former clergyman with the United Methodist Church, had just voted for Trump.
"It's nice to have a politician who says what he thinks rather than what is always politically correct," he said, adding Trump "would not be the first president to be rude and crude."
mark.barabak@latimes.com
melanie.mason@latimes.com
Barabak reported from San Francisco and Mason from Indianapolis
