Indiana voters weigh in on Democratic candidates

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on campaign 2016 as voters in Indiana head to the polls for the state primary (all times Eastern):

7:20 p.m.

As Donald Trump celebrates his win in Indiana’s presidential primary, Democratic candidates are awaiting to hear who will walk away with most of the state’s Democratic delegates.

Becky Hollenberg, a 32-year-old attorney with the YWCA in Elkhart where she helps people get protective orders against their abusers, said she voted for front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“I think she has good experience. I think she’s really going to be able to be the good leader for the country that we’re looking for,” Hollenberg said.

Hollenberg also said many of the people she works with through the YWCA need better-paying jobs. She also likes how Clinton promotes women’s rights.

Ben Swisher, 41, of Indianapolis stopped at the Broad Ripple Park Family Center in Indianapolis to vote for Bernie Sanders, saying he likes that the senator from Vermont hasn’t taken a lot of money from big corporations.

“I’ve found that a lot of the decisions the government has made in the last several years … have been based on what would benefit a large corporation and not the American people in general,” he said.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. Eastern but the winner of the Democratic primary is not yet known.

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7:05 p.m.

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is holding an Indiana primary party inside Indianapolis’s ornate Union Station, but only about a third of the available space was occupied with his backers.

The smaller than usual election night crowd Tuesday was subdued as they awaited Cruz, once breaking out into boos and chants of “Never Trump!” when a pro-Trump ad came on TV in the hall.

Donald Trump has won the state primary, clinching at least 45 delegates, putting him on a solid path to the nomination.

Cruz’s campaign switched from showing televised election results on a big screen to an internal TV feed as the race was called for Trump. Country singer Dierks Bentley’s song “I’ll Hold On” played in the hall as his supporters chatted, ate snacks and drank.

Cruz is due to address his supporters shortly.

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7:01 p.m.

Donald Trump will collect at least 45 delegates for his victory in Indiana, putting him on a solid path to clinch the nomination and avoid a contested convention.

There are still 12 delegates left to be allocated.

Trump needs to win just 43 percent of the remaining delegates to capture the nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7.

He has won a majority of the delegates allocated so far.

Trump’s rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, have been mathematically eliminated from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination before the convention. Their only hope is to block Trump and force a contested convention in which no one arrives with a majority of the delegates.

The AP delegate count:

Trump: 1,041.

Cruz: 565.

Kasich: 152.

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7:00 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Indiana, continuing his surge toward clinching the GOP nomination.

The win for Trump is a blow to Ted Cruz, who will fall further behind the billionaire in the race for the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination.

Among his supporters Tuesday was Roger Willett, a 51-year-old Republican who says he has been a Trump supporter since the businessman’s campaign began.

Willett works as a driver escorting oversize truck loads and complained that the economy in rural western Indiana offers few prospects, particularly for people just getting out of school. He says he’s tired of voting for career politicians and called Trump “a working man, for us.”

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