Trump closes in on 50 percent support in national poll

In Georgia, the poll shows Trump at 40% which gives him an eleven point advantage over Ted Cruz, who stands at 29%.

You know, elected officials are in - Republicans are getting increasingly nervous and - and some are even calling on you - Representative Franks from Arkansas, from - from Arizona, excuse me - to join forces with Senator Rubio in a joint ticket. "All I know is that white supremacist groups have no place in our society and clearly not in the Republican Party".

Trump was asked Friday by journalists how he felt about Duke's support.

"Ohio is what we think we will win", campaign spokesman Rob Nichols said.

Trump hasn't always claimed ignorance on Duke's history.

The New York Times reported on the staunch backlash to Trump over the weekend, revealing how the party allegedly attempted repeatedly to grow a coalition to shutdown his candidacy months ago. "And I think it's right for Marco to bring those things out and to keep on bringing those out", she said. On the Democratic side, 865 delegates are up for grabs, about a third of the amount needed to clinch the nomination.

An open primary means voters can opt to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary without being a registered member of either party (you can't vote in both, however.) The Republican party allows anyone to vote in its runoffs, whether you voted in the Republican primary or not. She needs 2,383 delegates to lock up the nomination.

It was the former secretary of state's first decisive win of the campaign, after a nail-biter victory in Iowa, a thumping loss to Sanders in New Hampshire and a five-point win in Nevada.

"We got decimated, that's what happened", Sanders said on ABC, though he promised to continue his campaign against what he describes as a political and economic oligarchy.

The contests on Tuesday, across 12 states, herald several weeks of nationwide skirmishes that will be decisive in determining who gets to face off for the White House in the fall. Trump holds commanding leads across the region, with the exception of Cruz's home state of Texas, a dynamic that puts tremendous pressure on Rubio and Cruz as they try to outlast each other and derail Trump.

On the Republican side, the new survey finds Trump's lead is dominant, and his support tops that of his four remaining opponents combined.

Marco Rubio told a campaign rally in Virginia his refusal to condemn the remarks "makes him unelectable". Rubio has repeatedly referred to Trump as "a con artist" on the trail in recent days and Cruz suggested Trump has ties to the Mafia in interviews on Sunday.

Cruz soon responded on Twitter, telling Trump: "You're better than this". "We should all agree, racism is wrong, KKK is abhorrent".

Trump also garnered backlash Sunday for recently retweeting a quote from Benito Mussolini, the 20th century fascist dictator of Italy, which reads: "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep".

"I want to be associated with interesting quotes", he told NBC's "Meet the Press". Trump is the first choice of more primary voters than any other, but he is the second choice of nearly no-one.