Nomination hopeful Ted Cruz ends campaign after Trump’s victory in Indiana

Donald Trump has become the Republican presidential nominee in all but name, after his victory in Indiana forced rival Ted Cruz to suspend his campaign.

Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich joined forces to try and curb Trump’s success last week, but Trump now has a clear path to the 1,237 delegates needed to claim his party's crown. Kasich has however vowed to remain in the Republican race, but trails far behind Trump in terms of delegates.

Cruz's advisers had targeted Indiana as the Texas senator's best hope of halting Trump's march to the nomination.

"We gave it everything we've got, but the voters chose another path," he told supporters in Indiana.

Trump is the first nominee since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 to lack any previous experience of elected office.

In his victory speech, Trump praised Cruz as a "tough, smart competitor", which marked a sharp reversal in tone after a day when the two men slung mud at each other from close quarters, the BBC reports.

The verbal attacks reached a new level of intensity when Cruz attacked the billionaire businessman as a "pathological liar" and "serial philanderer", after Trump made a bizarre claim that Cruz's father was linked to one of the most traumatic episodes in US history, the assassination of President John F Kennedy.

Republicans have continued to express reservations about Trump's outspoken remarks, which have offended women and Hispanics.

Meanwhile in the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the same state. Although he trails behind Clinton in the delegate count, but after this victory he said the contest was “still alive.”

"Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They're wrong," he said.