SACRAMENTO - Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in Indiana – and now Ted Cruz’s and John Kasich's withdrawal from the race – has made it all but certain that California voters will NOT play a pivotal role in the GOP presidential primary.

Following Cruz’s announcement, Marty Wilson, a Republican political consultant, said “I think we’d have to say that the effort against Trump is on life support.”

The New York businessman will still need to pick up delegates on the final day of voting in five states that include California to amass the 1,237 delegates necessary to secure the nomination. But with Cruz out of the way, Trump appears to have a clear path to that number.

“The California presidential primary is flat on its back,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and former speechwriter for Gov. Pete Wilson. “Back to irrelevancy.”

Whalen said it would be “very difficult for (Trump) to blow it at this point.”

The result in Indiana soaked hopes for a decisive June 7 primary in California, the first in decades. (Source: Sacramento Bee)

Story Date: May 6, 2016