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Cruz delivers blow to Trump after sweeping Utah delegates

Xinhua, March 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Republican Party presidential contender Ted Cruz scored a big win Wednesday in the Utah caucuses, delivering a blow to front-runner Donald Trump, who sought to avoid a contested GOP convention in July.

Early results in Utah with 85 percent of the caucuses reporting as of 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Wednesday showed Cruz had already won 69 percent.

According to rules in the Utah GOP caucuses, Cruz bagged all 40 delegates up for grabs after hitting the 50 percent level.

While Cruz's big win in Utah did not widen his limited path to clinch the GOP nomination before the party's convention, it made increasingly possible that he could stop Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates to win party nomination.

In another GOP contest on Tuesday night, Trump picked up all 58 delegates in the Arizona primary.

On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in Arizona, the biggest delegate prize of Tuesday contests, while Sanders won smaller caucuses in Utah and Idaho. Endi