23 March 2016•Update: 23 March 2016
By Kasim Ileri
WASHINGTON
Republican and Democratic front-runners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton respectively, won in the Arizona primary Tuesday extending their lead in delegates.
Both however lost Utah to their rivals Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who also claimed Idaho, according to U.S. media.
With about three quarters of precincts reporting in Arizona, Donald Trump was estimated to receive more than 45 percent of the vote, thus claiming all 58 delegates in Arizona, according to winner-take-all rules applied to all Republican primaries after Super Tuesday on March 15.
In the Utah primaries, various U.S. media outlets have projected Texas Senator Ted Cruz the winner, with less than a third of precincts reporting. He has thus won all 40 delegates.
Trump has come in third place behind Ohio Governor John Kasich.
This brings the number of Trump's delegates to 739 while Cruz has 425 delegates, followed by Kasich with 143.
To win the GOP nomination for this November’s presidential election, candidates need to obtain 1,237 delegates.
On the Democratic side, with more than three quarters of precincts reporting in Arizona, Clinton is expected to claim around 40 of the 75 delegates, with about 60 percent of the vote
However, Sanders has claimed a victory in the Idaho caucuses, receiving about 78 percent of the vote. He was the projected winner of the Utah caucuses.
Clinton welcomed her victory in Arizona's presidential primary at a rally in Seattle, Washington.
She pointed at the attacks in Brussels in Belgium saying that they were a sign of "how high the stakes are" in the 2016 election.
She told the audience that the U.S. needs a president who is "strong, smart and above all steady" in dealing with security threats.
Primaries for both parties will continue through July. In mid-July, the Republican Party will announce its presidential candidate at its Cleveland convention, while the Democrats will announce theirs in Philadelphia.
