What’s coming next after Tuesday’s voting results?

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

For anti-Trump Republicans, and there are plenty of them, the pressing question a day after the latest round of primaries is: What do we do now?

A guide to what to watch for today, after contests in five big states pushed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton closer to their parties’ nominations while knocking one of the Republican front-runner’s rivals out of the race:

CONVENTIONAL OUTLOOK

Trump’s strong showing Tuesday night pads his delegate count, yet talk of a contested convention got a boost. Party leaders will be reassessing the convention outlook after the latest delegate totals are tallied for the Republicans. An extraordinary struggle at the convention in July appears to be one of the few chess moves left for Republicans aghast at the prospect of Trump taking them into the presidential election.

DUELING TRUMPS

Watch to see which Trump emerges: There’s the scrappy Trump who’s been stirring up tensions between supporters and protesters at his rallies. And there’s the more restrained Trump, trying to position himself for the general election and act more presidential.

CLINTON’S AIM

Clinton held off on a full pivot toward the general election after Bernie Sanders snatched Michigan from her last week. Now she’s saying she’s ready to train her focus on “the really dangerous path that Donald Trump has laid out.” The Democrat seems to have accepted that Trump will be her opponent in the fall if she stays on course to win. It’s his own party that is having trouble coming to terms with Trump as the nominee.

CRUZ’S COURSE

Ted Cruz is eager to take on Trump one-on-one. Watch to see if he expends any more energy trying to nudge John Kasich out of the picture, now that Marco Rubio is gone. Kasich isn’t sounding a bit interested in leaving after having won Ohio, where he’s governor. And Cruz, despite being No. 2 in GOP delegates, has a mighty climb to catch up to Trump now.

ESTABLISHMENT OUTREACH

Are leading party figures ready to coalesce around the GOP front-runner? In Trump’s mind, it’s already happening. “The biggest people in the party are calling. They want to sit down,” he said Tuesday. The only name he dropped was House Speaker Paul Ryan. Ryan’s spokesman quickly tweeted that the speaker had called Trump at the businessman’s request.

A DILEMMA

The GOP’s in a tight spot. Do Republicans circle the wagons around Kasich, who has only won his home state, deep in the primary season, and badly lags in the delegate count? Or around Cruz, whom so many in Washington despise? Watch for talk of a possible third-party effort to give Republicans who won’t tolerate Trump someone to vote for. But few see that as a way to win the presidency.

KASICH’S COURSE

With his home state of Ohio in the rearview mirror, it’s time for Kasich to try to lay out a plausible path to the nomination despite having won only that state. He actually doesn’t have one in the primary season – the delegate math is too stacked against him. Nevertheless, he planned to campaign in Pennsylvania today, and has said he expects to compete in Maryland, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. As for the West, he joked, “We’re gonna hitch up a covered wagon.”

WESTWARD HO

After Tuesday’s action in the Midwest, candidates point their planes west. Next week’s races include voting in both parties in Utah and Arizona, and Democratic caucuses in Idaho. The Democrats also have contests in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state March 26.

SANDERS’ MATH

Sanders has his hands full trying to play delegate catch-up after Tuesday’s results. He’s hoping to make up ground in the West. He was in Arizona, which votes next week, when the votes rolled in Tuesday night and he’s running ads there. He’s also running short on time and opportunities to catch Clinton.