Cruz's Victory Slows Trump's Path

With a victory in the state of Wisconsin, Texas Senator Ted Cruz slowed Donald Trump's push to capture the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

Cruz called his victory in the Wisconsin Republican primary on Tuesday a "turning point." He asked Republicans to rally around his candidacy to stop Trump.

Edison Research questioned people who voted in the primary for the Associated Press and U.S. television networks. The researchers found that some Wisconsin voters were concerned and frightened about a possible Trump presidency.

The businessman did not make a public appearance Tuesday night but his campaign released a statement attacking Cruz. It read, "Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet -- he is a Trojan horse being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump."

Setbacks for Trump's campaign

The Wisconsin defeat is one of several setbacks for the Trump campaign in the past few days.

Last week, Trump had to explain his position on abortion after saying that "there has to be some form of punishment" for women who had the operation. Doctors use an abortion to end a pregnancy, resulting in the death of the fetus.

Earlier, police in Florida brought charges against Trump's campaign manager after an incident involving a female reporter. The manager was accused of hurting the woman when she tried to question the candidate at a campaign event.

In other well publicized comments, Trump said that European countries are "ripping off the United States" and want to break up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

As world leaders met recently to discuss ways to limit the spread of nuclear arms, Trump said that South Korea and Japan should develop nuclear arms to deal with the threat from North Korea.

When reporters raised questions about the presidential race on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said, "We've got big issues around the world. People expect the President of the United States and the elected officials in this country to treat these problems seriously."

This month, the race for the Republican presidential nomination moves to the northeastern states of New York and Pennsylvania.

A recent poll found that Ted Cruz is now tied with Trump in the national survey. A month ago, the businessman was leading the Texas senator by nearly 20 percentage points.

With the victory in Wisconsin, Cruz added the support of 30 more delegates to the Republican convention this summer. But Trump has 743 delegates compared to 517 for Cruz. A candidate will need 1,237 delegates to win the nomination.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English based on VOA and Associated Press reports. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

rally – v. join together to do something

puppet - n. a person that is controlled by another

Trojan horse - idiom. something that is used to hide what is true or real to trick an enemy

setback - n. a problem that makes progress more difficult

rip off - phrasal verb. give something that is not worth its value