DEVELOPING:
Fox News projects that New York businessman Donald Trump will overwhelmingly beat Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Hoosier state’s Republican presidential primary, with Fox exit polls and early vote tallies giving the businessman a 20-point lead.
The victory significantly improves Trump’s chances of amassing the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the Republican presidential nomination this summer in Cleveland.
With just nine states remaining in the nominating process, the stop-Trump wing of the Republican Party appears to be rapidly ruing out of options.
On the Democratic side, it is too early to project a wier in the contest between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Beie Sanders.
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Indiana late-deciders are breaking for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, while working-class voters in the heavily manufacturing state continue to be a stronghold for Republican front-ruer Donald Trump, according to Fox News exit polls Tuesday.
According to exit polling data, 47 percent of late deciders are pulling for Cruz while only 38 percent have sided with Trump.
Working-class voters have been a stronghold for the New York businessman -- a trend that seems to extend to Indiana.
On the Democratic side, nearly a third of Vermont Sen. Beie Sanders’ supporters say they won’t vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if she is the party’s 2016 candidate.
Some polling precincts for Tuesday’s primary closed at 6 p.m. ET, while the rest closed at 7 p.m. ET.
Trump and Cruz spent most of Tuesday trading nasty jabs.
Trump rehashed claims on Fox News that Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, appeared in a 1963 photograph with John F. Keedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald -- citing a report first published by the National Enquirer.
"His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being, you know, shot," Trump said on Fox & Friends. "Nobody even brings it up; I mean they don't even talk about that."
Responding, Cruz called his father his "hero," and labeled Trump an "amoral" liar. He also described Trump as a “braggadocious, arrogant buffoon.”
Cruz went into the Indiana primary vowing to fight on even if he lost. However, the delegate math isn’t on his side.
Prior to Tuesday’s contest, The Associated Press had Trump leading the delegate count at 996, Cruz in second with 565 delegates and Kasich with 153. To secure the Republican nomination, a candidate must have 1,237 delegates going into the national convention in July.
Though Trump caot clinch the nomination with a big win in Indiana, his path toward securing the delegates he needs gets much easier. A Hoosier State win also gives Team Trump more wiggle room in the campaign’s final contests.
Trump has devoted more time to campaigning in Indiana than he has to most other states, underscoring his eageess to put his Republican rivals away and shift his attention to Democratic front-ruer Hillary Clinton.
Indiana emerged as a must-win state for Cruz and the “Stop Trump” movement to block Trump from locking up the Republican nomination.
In an attempt to stack the odds, Cruz and Kasich recently aounced an alliance to deny the billionaire businessman the delegates he needs to win.
Cruz and Kasich agreed to cede upcoming primary contests to one another. Kasich would stand down in Indiana while Cruz would do the same in Oregon and New Mexico, which hold their primaries May 17 and June 7.
Cracks in communication about the tactical team-up were visible almost immediately. When Kasich was asked about the deal’s message on April 25 and what his Indiana supporters should do he said, “I’ve never told them not to vote for me. They ought to vote for me.”
Cruz also tried to reenergize his campaign by naming former businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his ruing mate. He rounded out the week with an endorsement from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
Like Trump, Cruz knows how critical Indiana is to keeping his hopes alive for the GOP bid – and his campaign has worked hard to recreate his prior Midweste wins.
The Texan travelled across the state on a tour bus and has spent most of his time reaching out to large groups of politically engaged evangelical Christians – a demographic he dominates.
While bastorming Indiana, Cruz also sharpened his opposition to transgender rights for Americans and has publically attacked both Trump and Clinton for supporting North Carolina’s controversial new anti-LGBT law.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Beie Sanders squared off against one another – though the stakes were lower than in the Republican race.
According to the Associated Press delegate count, Clinton went into Tuesday’s contest with a commanding lead over Sanders. Clinton has 2,165 delegates compared to Sanders’ 1,357. A Democratic candidate needs 2,383 delegates to shore up the party’s nomination.
So far, Clinton has secured 91 percent of the delegates she needs to win the nomination. That means, even if she loses every single remaining primary, she can still win the nomination.
Neither Clinton nor Sanders spent Tuesday in Indiana. Sanders made stops in Kentucky while Clinton focused on West Virginia and Ohio, a key general election battleground.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.