Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton moved closer toward securing their parties’ presidential nominations Tuesday, easily winning a series of crucial votes that further clarified the direction of what has been an unlikely primary election campaign.

By winning the delegate-rich states of Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina, ex-Secretary of State Clinton was able to reverse the momentum of her opponent, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who had come away with a surprise win in Michigan last week.

More importantly, it gives Clinton a commanding, and some say now almost insurmountable, lead in the count of delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

“This inches Clinton even closer to being the certain Democratic nominee,” said Michael D. Martinez, political science professor at the University of Florida. “Is it a knockout blow? Maybe not. But it’s probably an eight-count.”

Trump, the billionaire businessman, won big in Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois, further cementing his status as the Republican frontrunner. However, Trump hit a roadblock in Ohio, where the state’s governor, John Kasich, secured a big win.

If Trump had won both Florida and Ohio, his path to the nomination would have likely been unstoppable, according to many analysts, since those states award all their delegates to the winner, rather than assign them proportionally.

Trump’s loss in the Buckeye State now makes it possible that Trump will not win the nomination outright, forcing a dramatic showdown at the Republican convention in July, according to Paul Beck, professor emeritus at Ohio State University.

“If things play out as one might expect, it probably means [Trump is] not going to have a majority of delegates coming into that Cleveland convention in July. And given that, it could be quite a fight in that convention,” he said in an interview with VOA.

At a victory speech from his luxurious south Florida resort, Trump appeared confident, but also stressed the need for unity in the badly fractured Republican Party.

“We have to bring our party together. We have to bring it together,” said Trump.

The Grand Old Party, or GOP, is split between those who support the New York billionaire and those who are working to stop him at any cost.

One of Trump’s fiercest critics is Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who on Tuesday dropped out of the GOP race following a disappointing performance in his home state.

In a concession speech in Miami, Rubio tried to appear upbeat, even while conceding that “it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever.”

Rubio, who was once seen as a favorite of the Republican establishment, also appealed to the Republican Party to not give in to feelings of fear.

“America needs a vibrant conservative movement, but one that’s built on principles and on ideas, not on fear, not on anger, not on preying on people’s frustrations,” he said.

•Excerpted from a VOA report. Photo shows Senator Clinton and Mr. Trump.

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