candidate will be to her left. >> we'll all standby. it is 8:59. coming up at the top of the hour, 9:00 eastern time, 8:00 p.m. in the central time zone and a politically crucial state has now closed the polls. as we said, 9:00 out east. let's start with the republicans here. here is our official characterization. too early to call. no surprise if you've been following the polling into tonight, we have ted cruz in the lead over second place donald trump. on the democrat side, too early to call is the central determination there. bernie sanders leading hillary clinton. rachel i asked you what we make of this, but there's nothing to make. >> no. this is pretty much what we expected. that said, being able to characterize a lead in this race is not necessarily what i might have picked out of hat as the answer right now.

the polling was strongly for cruz. slightly less strongly for sanders heading into this. think about the consequences here about how big the margin is. whoever wins, it's going to be important on the republican side. it may be less important on the democrat side if it's anywhere near close just because the delegate allocation on the democratic side, it's really hard to get a big margin. i'll give you example. in 2008, in wisconsin, it was a blow out. barack obama won by double digits. he won by 14 or 17 points. he won every congressional district in the state. he won 62 out of 72 counties in the state. he absolutely shallacked hillary clinton in that primary. it's just because the way the democrats allocate these delegate, unless you get not just land slide, but a big land slide, there's tno way to captue most of the delegates that can

give you a big jump on your opponent. that's what bernie sanders is up against. >> chris, you touched on this. what a great political tradition in that state. >> yes, it is. it tends to be a weather vain. i think we'll see that tonight. we might see it tonight if bernie sanders has a big victory. that will signal he's going to challenge hillary clinton in new york. that could be very exciting for our world because two weeks of trying to figure out who will win in new york is one grand slam event. on the republican side the same thing. if trump gets trampled here, i think he'll have to defend himself to the northeast against the notion that the party can't win with him in november. it's not that he can't win the numbers between now and july. it's can he win the numbers in november? by the way, i thought steve had a very important message for us tonight. if both parties, the democratic party as well as the republican

party becomes polarized and we become like the european system where you have a liberal party and democratic party and a touring party, except we don't have the system. if europe they put the cabinet together. it works. the same throughout continental europe. it works if they win. in the american system you would have to have a president elected of one party, 60 senators in one party and 218 house of representatives in the same party to get anything done. this polarization doesn't fit with our constitutions and our tradition in the senate. i keep telling the bernie people, interesting ideas but you need 60 votes to get anything through the senate. real chaos the way our system is headed now. >> people are looking up the

galic dictionaries as we speak. let's go to the campus of marquette university. chris, how's that line? i think the doors have closed behind you. >> doors have closed. the man called the chief inspector who is the person who administers this polling site said here ye, here ye, the polls are closed. these folks are online. they are filling out registration forms. the democratic party spokesperson says they believe, i'm sorry. getting some tutorials on how to fill out the paper work. the democratic spokesperson said they believe this is due to the new voter id law. there were some complaints that the chief inspector wasn't accepting electronic enrollment forms as one of the ids to register. people showing on the phones and he was saying he was not allowing those in contravention

of what the statute said. you have a lot of people registering on same day. i talked to one person who has been trying to register on campus and said there hasn't been a lot of motivation behind that from the university to get people registered. you do have same-day r registrati registration, they've had that since 1976. now the folks are here for same-day registration on this primary. they'll be sitting here or standing here for the next hour or two. probably, at least. you can see this whole big mess back here. it is now capped. we got about 200 people, total, probably, winding around snaking in this line here. luckily there's some wi-fi and some conversations happening. hopefully it won't be too long for any of these folks. >> that's a lot of raw vote in that room. thanks so much. >> it's just striking. i'm glad put that in context of why people might have showed up and tried to register on the

same day. until this year, it was really simple and easy to vote in wisconsin. there's never been, i think in modern time, a documented case of voter impersonation fraud. it's a big change in the civic culture of that state that we're witnessing tonight. steve, we have further data, maybe some important data, predictive data in terms of who is turning out. >> here's the big thing on the republican side. all the comments donald trump has made and with problems with women voters, would there be a gender gap. among men, we're seeing ted cruz with a ten-point advantage over donald trump. 47-37. here's the question? how different is it among women this check this out. it's not different at all.

ted cruz, 48. donald trump, 36. in fact, if you go back and you put together all the numbers from all the previous primaries and caucuses where we had exit poll data, the indication would be this this, donald trump losing both groups here. if he's underperforming anywhere tonight, it's with men more than with women. >> all right. steve at the big board. we're still here with nicole wallace, eugene robinson, chuck todd. you were on the phone. i hesitate to ask you a question i don't know the answer to. what have you learned? >> this is case where we trust the data. we just don't have enough of it. look, we've basically shown you where our exit poll is showing things when you do a male/female spl split. it shows you no difference. >> it's no other. >> you just want to have enough

data. we have a certain set of standards here before we call it on that front. it's a couple of things. number one, we don't have third wave in the exit polls and bernie sanders and donald trump are appealing to people that work till 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 at night. the late voters, in particular with trump, the late voters are somewhat, potentially helpful. you want to be careful on that front. >> nicole, as the only republican women in this area -- >> that we know of. >> do you mean in manhattan? some might say manhattan. >> there's been a lot of reporting for bridge of the new york times had a story about trump's general election challenges. when you talk about women and the republican party and you look at republicans who have been successful, george w. bush in 2004, it's a conversation about shrinking the gender gap among married women. single women are largely unavailable to republicans in

large part, because of their positions on social issues. it is impossible to win as a republican running for national office unless you dramatically shrink the mom vote. in '04, married women with children were focused on security. very focused on 9/11 on who could keep them safe. that's how george w. bush prevailed in 2004. it was that group. you can look at that group in national election and determine whether the republicans have a fighting chance. it's not surprising to me at all that self-described republican women are voting the way they are. the conversation about the gender gap is about the fight for women who either describe themselves as independents or registered as democrats or republicans, but they swing. they're the classic swing voter. >> of all the wisconsin press i read this week, i thought the most illuminating sentence is when the milwaukee journal said donald trump's unfavorable ratings appeared to be misprints. he was talking about him having

a 77% unfavorable rating with women. >> which is slightly above national. >> it's stunning. >> that's the question for the general election. if he gets there his unfavorables are absurdly high. they can't be that high, yet they are. the republicans could be looking at some sort of titanic situation. >> i was going to say, there's a poll today in mississippi. trump-clinton, three-point race. utah, clinton ahead. i think it was a four-point race against trump. there's only one explanation. it's republican women. that is what is sitting there. this is -- you can call it whatever you want. this is the issue. it's why, i think, the republican party has the ability to stop him. i think that's why you now see an rnc putting themselves in a

position to do it and decided -- >> they do not have the ability to stop him. >> they do if he does not have the 1237. it's painful. i'm not saying it's easy to do but if they want to do it because they do. you know this, nicole. they fear what a trump -- trump isn't just a four-year problem for them. a trump nomination stains the party for a generation. >> you're saying the power to stop him is at the rules committee. >> they have it. it's whether they want to use it. >> in a state where they don't like donald trump, you saw the number, 56% said give it to the candidate who has the most delegates if nobody gets the majority. >> tonight in wisconsin. >> where they don't even like trump. >> i want to remind people of this. we don't have the recollections of anybody for president. not for the nomination. >> nominated in the convention. >> not for the presidency itself either.

yes, the public -- you're always going to get a public opinion rating on that. 56% isn't a lot. >> can i just say that -- >> it's an automatic person vote. >> the rnc does not have the power to take this from trump. what is possible is at the convention a case can be made nor someone other than trump. it's an important distinction. you talked about pitch forks before. if the rnc's message is we can stop trump, it will fail before it opens the door on the first statement. >> i understand that. >> i talked to republican senator people not involved in any of these campaigns, there's two things being discussed. i know we'll get to all of them. one is the idea they would rather lose with cruz. they would have someone they are proud of. >> a good bumper sticker. >> makes me sweat saying it on live tv. that's one depressive line of thinking. the other is they make case for

somebody else. the uproar from all the people who think they do live in a democracy and in said democracy they have cast votes for trump is unimaginable. >> we have given voters the impression they get to pick the nominee. it may not be true. we have told a lot of people that's the case. >> there's no way they come around. >> that anger, is that any better if they pick cruz than if they pick somebody who is not running? >> i don't think so. i think cruz has more delegates. >> cruz could win either. he would have to be picked by the party. >> i think they think cruz has a set of views on policies that might make some -- >> he's still an anti-democratic choice. >> cruz is picking his voters. that's the thing about this. donald trump is not picking, meaning the delegates. ted cruz is making sure he knows who every one of these people. he's going to turn the republican nominating contest will become another version of the iowa caucuses.

it's about organization. >> we need cameras in the iowa caucuses. >> i think they'll have cameras on themselves. the delegates will periscope this. we know the other two are. >> the issue that nicole is talking about, which is we have given people, as a country and we have come together there's a small d democratic process that's at work. >> we're a republic, not a democracy. >> because of the impression and the worry, there could be a serious harm to the country if it turns out we're going to pick a nominee who did not win the most votes. is it any better, in terms of that potential damage to us as a country, is it any better to pick ted cruz than to pick somebody else outside the process. because ted cruz can't get there. >> look, i'm going to rail against caucuses and i don't

like them. are we really going to say the most people did pick trump? we don't know that. >> in the system that exists -- >> i didn't say that. we have a system. >> we're just going to disregard it? >> it's not being disregarded. it's picking the people that make the ultimate decision. we're voting for people who vote. >> except in louisiana. where voters went out decided who they wanted to pick as the republican nominee. who they wanted was donald trump and there's another process after that. >> that's trump's problem for not understanding how the system works. >> the whole central purpose of his candidacy is running against a rigged system. this feels more rigged than anything happening in washington. is ted cruz better? he's as polarizing as trump. >> in the end. >> not to the whole. >> nicole gets the last word in this segment. glad we decided all of that. we're going to take a break.

we've arranged to talk to the last person in line in one of those polling places.

we're back. that is laramie, wyoming, which is the traveling headquarters of the bernie sanders campaign for reasons we out lined in our last hour. back to wisconsin, the subject of this evening's coverage. tony is not far from the frozen tundra. he's with the last person in line at this polling place. that's right. i've got a couple of characters here that are pretty interesting. this is bob over here. he's a fearsome character. he's guarding the end of the line making sure nobody comes through this door following this

person. this is noelle. she was the last person in line. why didn't you vote sooner? >> well, the line was probably about an eighth of what it is now and i thought it was too long. i was super hungry. i figured it would slow down. w >> who is going to get your vote? >> i think i'm going to go with cruz. >> who is your number two? >> i don't know. it's republican. >> the real question, because you've got about 100 people still in front of you, maybe an hour, maybe an hour and a half left to go. what are you doing to kill the time? >> studying for an exam. >> it's a good usage of time. the other point i want to hammer home is now nice people have been. the exit poll that steve was mentioning not a lot of angry voters when it comes to the long line.

good cheer and good humor throughout. back to you. >> thanks. we have a projection. in the gop primary in wisconsin, ted cruz has been projected as the winner by nbc news. meaning when all the votes are counted, he will have come out on top. you see the raw vote at the bottom. 2% at the top of the screen in. based on exit poll, based on mathematical models and the raw vote we're seeing to far. rachel, we have a projected winner. >> this is a big deal for the ted cruz campaign. this making good on what ted cruz had said about the overall character of this race, which is he said when it came down to a two-man race between him and donald trump that he would start winning. it's not a two-man race yet. john kasich is it in. >> i would only interrupt you for another projected winner.

9:21. we have two within the space of 60 seconds. bernie sanders is the projected winner of wisconsin primary. people in the sanders camp have been saying for weeks, the state was tailor made for bernie sanders. >> there's a lot to say all at once. i'll say this means over the last two weeks, on the democratic side, if my math is right, i think this means that hillary clinton is six. the democratic side. that's pretty evenly matched. the sanders campaign is happy when they win a state that's a primary as opposed to a caucus. sanders and cruz were favored to win in the polls tonight. having the races call this early, we'll see what it produces in terms of overall margins and the allocation of delegates. those will be two happy

non-front running candidates. >> let's get the reaction of a friend of hours. hugh hewitt. this has been a great week of radio. turn on your car radio radio in the state of wisconsin and across the nation. you're part of that. your reaction to the cruz victory in wisconsin and did you hear any of the crazy talk in this room about takeovers at the gop convention. >> i've been listening for the half hour and i'm amused that rule 40b has not been named specifically yet. it's a big night for ted cruz. statewide that gets him 18 delegates from what i've been looking at. donald trump will be lucky to get six delegates. although wisconsin has less than half the delegates of new york, which is in two weeks. it's twice as important because

the 42 delegates reset the narrative. one of the things i did note missing in the commentary, i think ted cruz can beat hillary clinton. i saw him last week this california. he's hitting his stride. i think he matches up well. i think you put an accomplished running mate to him and go out to places you wouldn't expect, i'm a lot more confidence of ted cruz' able to win in a general election. it's a huge night for cruz especially with two weeks now to focus the narrative on new york. by the end of these two weeks all of us will be able to name the 11 likes. >> we need a name for atlantic tuesday. some people are playing with. we'll name all of these things before it's over. this is cable. a friend of yours, nicole wallace has a question. >> i want to know, you spend so much time talk about national

security. has donald trump disqualified himself with his comments about nato and nuclear armed japan. go a little deeper on the electability. republicans you and i both know, lindsey graham said he would rather lose with cruz and maintain the dignity and c principles of conservative movement. >> i think senator graham said that to everybody he passes by in the street. >> he may be saying it out loud. >> he bolts up right in bed and says, i'll lose with cruz. donald trump isn't disqualified. he's on the ballot. he's in the lead. he could get to 1,237. i think chuck todd and i agreed that if donald trump doesn't win on the first ball loot, he's no

going to win. every one knows the rules committee meets will decide whether or not this will be a two-person, multi-ballot contested race. the kpanch example is in minnesn bryan sullivan went head to head with tim pawlenty. all i know is that, tonight, money will pour in to tedcruz.org. organization is going to spread out not just in new york but in pennsylvania and delaware and connecticut. it's a big night for ted cruz. there's an arrow pointing at him as being the alternative blessed by the people of wisconsin, blessed by their fine talk radio hosts who are local. i think blessed by people like lindsey graham who would never, a year ago, seem themselves have supporting ted cruz. >> one quick question.

one comment first. congratulations. you predicted this two weeks ago. you said this would happen the way it happened. you were right. about that resetting the narrative. cruz started like 34 points down to trump. two weeks is a short time to make that up, isn't it? >> this is where donald trump's own rhetoric comes back to haunt him. it was governor kasich's home state. he's lived there. he dominates manhattan. in the part of new york, which is pretty close to my home state, you can drive and ski 40 minutes from north eastern ohio.

these are not place where is he will win by 30 points. the narrative is he should win 50%. if he doesn't, it's a loss. i think we'll leap over new york and go right to those next five primaries especially pennsylvania to make sure that it's a contested convention. i'd be surprised if nicole disagreed with me. i don't see how donald trump gets to 1,237 after tonight. >> speaking of leaping over things, let's fit a quick break in. hugh, stay with us. nicole has no choice. we'll be right back.

9:32 eastern time. 8:32 central. here's what we have so far. notice the raw vote, 6% in. the important part of this graphic is the projected winner on the republican side. ted cruz over donald trump in wisconsin. 60 seconds, no more after the republican call, nbc news projected bernie sanders the victor in the wisconsin primary over hillary clinton. steve had been at his board all evening long crunching the incoming. >> the moment could be the question in the next few months.

could donald trump get to that 1237 number? we've been saying it's going to be tight. the fact he's lost wisconsin will further complicated it. with ted cruz winning wisconsin, cruz is going to get 18 more for winning statewide. we still have to see how the vote breaks down by c congressional district. trump has a chance at three, maybe six. nine delegates coming out of here. let's say he ends up with 760. there's a couple of scattered delegates he's going to pick up from other states that haven't been allocated yet. let's say he's sitting at 760 coming out of tonight. how can he get to 1237 after absorbing this loss? take a look at the map to come. you look at new york. the next state to come. if trump gets the overwhelming victory, he could get 80 of those 95. that would sit him at 840. then you look, the northeast,

include west virginia and maryland in that, but this is an area where trump has been expecting to do well. counting on doing well. if he did as well as he's been expecting to do in northeast, then that 840 coming out of northeast, he could be sitting at about 1,000 delegates. if he got a narrow win in indiana, you could bump it up to 1030. get 30 of those 57. if he did well out here, there are polls showing him ten points ahead in california. in he did well, he could get up to 1200. the problem is these are winner take all which look good for cruz. say he got half of new mexico. that could be generous. he's sitting at 1212. that's sort of 1237. that's using very optimistic math for donald trump. that's what losing wisconsin does. if he had won wisconsin, won big tonight, he would be sitting at

that 1237 number. now we're using some generous projections here. he's coming short. the wild card, there's a lot of numbers on the screen, but the other wild card, you have to keep this in mind, this is a once in a lifetime thing. it's these unbound delegates. there's a few states that have delegates that are free agents. they could make up their mind when they get there. if trump comes up short and he's sitting at 1212 and needs 1237, could he entice enough of the unbound delegates to put him over the top. could they keep him from getting it. we always knew a tight path. losing wisconsin made that path even tighter for donald trump. >> it's impressive. the math may fall short. we have been talking about three manys all nigh-- ms all night.

the math, map and momentum. in case i'm hit by the 104 cross town bus on my way having home, i need the die having asked you this. show us your homework. what about ted cruz, do you think, we're going to hear prominent republicans tonight and into tomorrow say cruz didn't win tonight as much as trump lost in wisconsin. show us your homework. knowing the american electorate, how does ted cruz win over hillary clinton? >> the magic number is eight. that's the number of justices on the supreme court. when you start talking about that nineth seat and the nineth seat changing the contours of the free exercise clause, the tenth amendment and how you protect states. i've heard ted cruz, at length, he's probably the best equipped supreme court litigator to seek, argue about this with passion and certainty. let's look at former secretary of state clinton. he's beginning to play the role

of the black knight. she's not bleeding but there's a lot of limbs missing. ted cruz can exploit the ability gap in terms of persuasion. the ticket would matter a lot. not saying he's going to be the nominee. i think people are rushing lose with cruz. i'm not buying that. hillary clinton has far more of a anchor around her neck with the server than we were talking about. reince priebus we owe him a thank you for moving the convention up to july. that allows an additional month for us to go back to our corners, reset, study, prepare and argue throughout the fall. >> it should be noted from cleveland, ohio. thus the theory that he engineered all of it to end up in cleveland.

thank you as always. >> while this discussion has been happening, nicole i got you a present. >> thank you. >> lose with cruz 2016.com. >> did you buy me the domain? >> i bought you the domain. you want to work with me to come up with something good to do with it. >> i just trot that out. i spoke to republican campaign operatives who are worried about the house and senate. they are looking at an option of crummy and cruddy. their clients are running in vulnerable districts. their options are someone in trump who a lot of people, he wouldn't say it tonight, but i'm sure he has concerns about things that trump has been saying about national security. you can't not. then with cruz, who as a senator, alienates large swaths of the voting public. this is not made up thing. i'm very happy to own the domain

because i might get rich in my lifetime. this is a thing that people running campaigns for the u.s. senate, it's no secret they are worried about hanging on to the house. they are worried about vulnerable senate seats. they believe there might be an argument to make if you have a conservative that hangs on. >> it will change the party. we're waiting ted cruz to be speaking shortly. before ted cruz does speak tonight in wisconsin, i want to bring chris matthews back in the conversation because we've had these two projections in both parties tonight. what's your reaction? >> i think the fact that nbc, which is very careful in this predicting business, there's going to be blow outs in both sides. i would think double digits, probably around 12 or more on both sides. i don't kn he's going to have a lot of authenticity in the fight

against hillary. when you look at the numbers that steve showed us, the republican party is very conservative to its bones now. perhaps it's a lot more conservative. we in the media understand. i think this is the year they are going to pick a very conservative candidate in cruz, but still, it comes down to the contest. if this is football, basketball like last night, the team with the most numbers wins. if it's golf, which is trump's game. golf, you have to finish all 18 holes. you got to pull in ball in the cup at the end. it has to be in the cup. if you don't get 1237, you didn't finish the game. if that's the game, he's not going to get it. i think the national image of trump is so troubled, troubled, they're not going to give him anything. i think that's what changed this week. a blow out says don't give him

anything he hasn't earned. it's golf, donald. you didn't finish the game. i think that's where it's at. >> that's one of the quotes of the night. it's golf, donald. it's golf. >> it's not an election to become the nominee of major party. it's earning the nomination, and part of the way you do that is by winning elections and caucuses. part of the way you do it is by convincing the party to nominate you. if the party is dead set against it they can give a one finger salute and say we're not picking the guy most you have picked. >> if they pick somebody who didn't try to earn it, who didn't earn any votes. >> a paul ryan, for example. >> i continue to think that's a problem. i think that's a big problem for the republican party. you pick your poison. >> what kind of problem? >> i think it's a problem in fall. nicole was talking about protecting the senate and house

majority. you might have trouble doing it with donald trump or ted cruz but you'll have trouble with your party. just forget the rest of the ballot or whatever. it is a pick your poison sort of situation. >> we'll talk about this later on exit with one of exit poll data. one of the pieces fascinating is it was almost equal numbers among republican voters saying if donald trump was the nominee, they wouldn't support him and if ted cruz was the neem, they wouldn't support him. about a third says i will not vote for that guy. >> let's go to our news room. robert costa here. you have some reporting from the traveling trump camp. >> i just spoke to some people close to trump. i said where is candidate tonight. they say he's in new york.

not going to give a big speech. it's a quiet night for trump. the focus is on two states. new york and california. it's going to be in new york tomorrow. have a big rally and he's going to be in california later this week. he'll have a press conference out there. they said wisconsin, the establishment came after them. they are weathering the storm and try to pivot away with a policy speech and focus on those two states. >> the way and in the volume we know donald trump consumes media. to hear some republicans saying, as they're actually already saying tonight, this wasn't so much a cruz victory as it was a trump loss in wisconsin. that, in its own way, follows the plot line for them. >> it does. just talking to the trump campaign a few minutes ago, they say wisconsin is a statement by the conservative wing of the republican party. they're still trying to reach

out to the working class. people who haven't voted in a decade. they think they can continue to pick up things. they said they didn't think they would get too many delegates. they are trying to see if they can win some. >> robert costa in the news room. thank you. we keep saying this, we haven't seen this. we said that same thing about the last couple of presidential cycles. we haven't seen this and every reason to believe we're going to california though not tonight. we're going to take break. we'll be back right after that. we're waiting to hear from ted cruz at his headquarters.

we want to go to our correspondents covering victorious campaigns. the cruz effort and the sanders effort. look what just happened on the left hand side of your screen. governor scott walker of wisconsin has brought on the gop victor and his wife. let's listen as ted cruz gets ready to talk to his supporters. ♪ ♪

♪ >> god bless the great state of wisconsin. [ cheers and applause ] what an incredible victory tonight, and thank you to your tremendous governor governor scott walker for his principle, passion and leadership. tonight is a turning point. it is rallying cry. it is call from the hard working

men and women of wisconsin to the people of america. we have a choice. a real choice. the national political terrain began to change two weeks ago. in the state of utah, we won la election. [cheers and applause] winning every single delegate in the state. then just three days ago in colorado, two congressional districts voted. once again they elected six delegates and of those six delegates we won all six. [cheers and applause] and then two days ago in north dakota, we had another tremendous win. of the delegates who signified

their support, we had 18 supporting our campaign. one is supporting donald trump. [cheers and applause] 18-1, i'll take that ratio any day of the week. [cheers and applause] and now tonight here in wisconsin, a state that just three weeks ago the media had written off, three weeks ago the media said wisconsin was a perfect state for donald trump. [ boos ] >> but the hard working men and women of wisconsin stood and campaigned tiredlessly to ma campaign to make sure tonight was a victory for every american. [cheers and applaus

[cheers and applause] cruz! cruz! cruz! cruz! cruz! cruz! >> four very different states, utah, colorado, north dakota, wisconsin, four victories. [cheers and applause] so just how significant is tonight? well, just today our campaign has raised over $2 million. [cheers and applause] people all over the country going to ted cruz.org, ted cruz.org, ted cruz.org, contributing $10 or $25 or $50. we've had over 1.3 million

contributions. [cheers and applause] >> the last two weeks and in the coming days when colorado and wyoming finish voting, we are likely to have gained over 100 delegates on donald trump. [cheers and applause] and as a result of tonight, as a result of the people of wisconsin defying the media, defying the pundits, i am more and more convinced that our campaign is going to earn the 1,237 delegates needed to win the republican nomination. either before cleveland or at the convention in cleveland

together we will win a majority of the delegates and together we will beat hillary clinton in november. [cheers and applause] tonight was a bad night for hillary clinton. [ laughter ] it was a bad night in the democratic primary and it was even worse night for her in the republican primary. [cheers and applause] we are winning because you're uniting the republican party. of the 17 candidates who starts this race, a terrific talented, dynamic field, five have now endorsed this campaign.

[cheers and applause] rick perry and lindsey graham and jeb bush and carly fiorina and wisconsin's own governor scott walker. [cheers and applause] when you toss in senator mike lee and mark lavine, we've got the full spectrum of the republican party coming together and uniting behind this campaign. [cheers and applause]

in 1960 accepting the democrat party's nomination, john f. kennedy observed i think the american people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. the times are too grave, the challenge too urgent and the stakes too high to permit the customary passions of political debate. we are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us to see through that darkness to a safe and sane future. as winston churchill said on taking office, if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future. the same is true today. tonight wisconsin has lit a candle guiding the way forward.

tonight we once again have hope for the future. [cheers and applause] tonight is about unity and tonight is about hope. young people in america once again have hope that we will bring jobs back to america. [cheers and applause] by repealing obamacare, passing -- [cheers and applause] reigning in the federal regulators that are killing small businesses. [cheers and applause] passing a flat tax --

[cheers and applause] -- and abolishing the irs, we will unleash incredible economic growth. our boarder will finally be made secure and sanctuary cities will end. [cheers and applause] truck drivers and mechanics and plumbers and steel workers, union members, men and women with calluses on their hands will once again see wages rising, opportunity expanding. working moms -- [cheers and applause] working moms struggling to make ends meet will see take-home pay rising, the cost of living

falling and common core ending. [cheers and applause] catholic schools and jewish day schools, the little sisters of the poor will see a supreme court that protects their religious liberty. [cheers and applause] cruz! cruz! cruz! cruz! cruz! cruz! cruz! >> the foundmental freedom of ever one of us to live accord to our faith and conscience. we'll see a supreme court that protects the second amendment right to keep and bear arms.

[cheers and applause] and our fundamental right to protect our families and our homes and our children. [cheers and applause] we'll see a president -- if you're joining us at the top of the hour we are listening to ted cruz, a victory speech tonight. it was projected earlier on this evening when all the votes are counted he be the victor in wisconsin. he enjoys a healthy margin over donald trump. >> instead of negotiating with terrorists, we'll rip to shreds this catostrophic iranian nuclear deal. [cheers and applause] we will defeat radical islamic terrorism and we will utterly destroy