Donald Trump has scored an important victory over rival Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary, a win that moves him close to being unstoppable in his march towards the Republican Party's presidential nomination.
Trump was quickly projected to be the winner by television networks shortly after polling places closed in the Midwestern state on Tuesday.
The New York real-estate tycoon was on track to take well over 50 percent of the vote, eclipsing Cruz, Republican senator from Texas.
John Kasich, Ohio governor, was running a distant third.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton was well ahead over Bernie Sanders as votes continued to be counted.
Cruz had been counting on a win in the Indiana primary to slow Trump's progress toward the nomination.
But polls in recent days showed Trump opening up a substantial lead in Indiana over him, whose brand of Christian conservatism had been expected to have wide appeal in the state.
Campaigning in Evansville, in the state's southwest corner, Cruz sounded deeply frustrated by the bombastic Trump, who has attacked Cruz at every turn.
"The man cannot tell the truth but he combines it with being a narcissist," Cruz said, "a narcissist at a level I don't think this country has ever seen."
Cruz was angered when Trump said in a television appearance that the senator's father, Cuban emigre Rafael Cruz, was linked to John F Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Trump was referring to a report by the National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid known for celebrity gossip and alien sightings.
Cruz termed Trump a "serial philanderer" - possibly as part of his strategy to try to win the support of evangelical voters.
Trump, in response, said Cruz had become "more and more unhinged".
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