Marco Rubio suspends campaign as Donald Trump wins in Florida

US Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump scored a crucial win in the Florida primary on Tuesday, prompting rival Marco Rubio to suspend his campaign as the businessman moved closer to securing the party’s nomination as five US states voted.

“While this may not have been the year for a hopeful and optimistic message about our future, I still remain hopeful and optimistic about America,” Rubio told supporters in his home state of Florida following his projected loss there to rival Donald Trump. Despite support from the party’s establishment, he failed to garner in primary states.

The decision also came after poor performances last week in Michigan and Mississippi where he attracted only single-digit support in the polls.

Trump was aiming to sweep all five states on Tuesday, including Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina and Illinois, and deal another setback to establishment Republicans who fear his rowdy campaign will lead the party to defeat in November.

On the Democratic side, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton (68), also captured the Florida primary as she aimed to put some distance between herself and rival Bernie Sanders (74), a US senator from Vermont, in primaries in the same states.

Trump, the 69-year-old billionaire businessman, was aiming to knock out his two mainstream rivals, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Rubio, a US senator from Florida, who probably need to win their home states to keep their campaigns alive. His closest challenger nationally is US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas (45), a Tea Party favorite.

A Trump loss in any of the five states on Tuesday would give new hope to Republicans battling to deny the brash New Yorker the nomination and block him from capturing the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination at the party's July convention. – Reuters