WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 (all times Eastern Daylight Time):
10:20 p.m.
Ted Cruz says it would be a “fireable offense” for anyone in his campaign to physically assault a reporter.
The Texas senator made the comment Monday in a news conference prior to a rally in Decatur, Illinois. Cruz was asked about allegations that Donald Trump’s campaign manager assaulted a reporter.
Cruz has been intensifying his anti-Trump rhetoric in recent days, also criticizing and partially blaming the outspoken billionaire for the sometimes violent atmosphere at his rallies.
Cruz says, “At the end of the day, the responsibility for any campaign rests with the candidate.”
Cruz calls it a “bizarre world” in which reporters are asking if it’s OK for political campaign staffers to assault journalists.
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10:10 p.m.
GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, speaking in English and Spanish at a hometown rally in West Miami, is urging his most loyal supporters to vote and to bring their friends to the polls Tuesday.
The Florida senator made it clear Monday night he needs his fellow Cuban-American Republicans to vote for him to help defeat GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
Trump’s lead in Florida, according to recent polls, is in double digits.
Speaking through a weak-sounding bullhorn, Rubio did not deny the daunting task ahead.
“If this community doesn’t vote tomorrow in historic numbers, I’m not sure I’m going to win,” Rubio told the crowd in Spanish.
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10 p.m.
Bernie Sanders tells an enthusiastic suburban St. Louis crowd that he can win Missouri’s Democratic primary Tuesday, but only if his supporters flood the polls.
The Vermont senator spoke to several thousand supporters Monday night at a rally in the Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri, a largely Republican St. Louis suburb.
A recent poll showed Hillary Clinton with a slight lead over Sanders in Missouri, one of five states holding primaries Tuesday.
Sanders says he began his campaign at 3 percent in the polls. Now, he noted, he has won nine state primaries or caucuses. Clinton, he says, is no longer considered the inevitable Democratic nominee.
Sanders, his voice hoarse, predicted a win in Missouri — if turnout is large enough.
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8:30 p.m.
More than 2 million Florida voters have already made their choice for president in the state’s winner-take-all primary.
The state Division of Elections reported late Monday that almost 1.2 million Republicans had cast ballots, compared with nearly 850,000 Democrats.
Projections are that about 4 million voters will have participated in the Florida primary. Election day is Tuesday, but voters in the Sunshine State have been voting for weeks via absentee and early in-person voting. It is a closed primary.
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8:15 p.m.
Authorities in North Carolina say there isn’t enough evidence to press charges against Donald Trump for his behavior in connection with a violent altercation at one of his rallies last week.
In a statement issued Monday night, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said legal counsel advised and Sheriff Earl “Moose” Butler agreed that the evidence doesn’t meet the requisites of North Carolina law to support a conviction for inciting a riot.
The sheriff’s office said while other aspects of its investigation are continuing, the investigation related to Trump and his campaign is over and no charges are anticipated.
At the rally last Wednesday in Fayetteville, a man was hit in the face while being escorted out.
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8 p.m.
Donald Trump is getting in his final digs at Ohio Gov. John Kasich a day before the state’s Republican presidential primary.
Trump is tearing down Kasich in front of thousands of Ohioans in an airplane hangar in Vienna Township.
Trump says, “Kasich cannot make America great again.” He says Kasich’s only economic success stems from Ohio’s newly thriving petroleum industry.
Kasich has pulled even with Trump in some Ohio polls, and ahead in others. Trump is blasts Kasich for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement when Kasich was a U.S. House member from Ohio.
However, Trump seemed unaware that Chevrolet, which builds the Chevy Cruze sedan in nearby Lordstown, Ohio, was planning to build the 2017 hatchback model in Mexico.
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7:33 p.m.
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is telling voters that those who pick him as their next president will be choosing “optimism over pessimism.”
Speaking to a large crowd of mostly supporters on the eve of the Florida primary, Rubio says the country “cannot afford to lose this and, we will, if we nominate the wrong person to lead this party,” in a reference to front-runner Donald Trump.
Trump is leading Rubio by double-digits in the latest polls in what is a must-win primary for the Florida senator to keep his campaign alive.
Rubio was making the third of four stops in West Palm Beach. His final stop was to be in West Miami, his childhood home.
7:19 p.m.
With Mitt Romney at his side, John Kasich is closing his Ohio pitch in his hometown of Westerville by urging the people who have twice elected him as governor to send a message that voters want a leader who can unite America, not divide it.
Kasich’s pitch has taken on a more pointed tone in recent days, after violence erupted outside a Donald Trump rally in Chicago. He says, “We don’t fix America by demonizing people, we don’t fix America by dividing people.” He adds that the nation is stronger when unified.
Romney has not endorsed anyone in the GOP nomination fight. But he did note at the Kasich event that the Ohio governor has a “real record” unlike others in the race.
6:12 p.m.
GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio says a Donald Trump victory as the Republican nominee would “splinter and divide the Republican Party.”
Speaking to reporters in Melbourne, Fla., the Florida senator says he’s focused on winning his home state’s winner-take-all primary.
Rubio says the bombastic billionaire’s “rhetoric ... is irresponsible and over the top.”
6:03 p.m.
Bernie Sanders is making his closing arguments before the critical Tuesday primaries, saying he would defeat GOP Donald Trump in a general election because the “American people will not support a president who insults” so many groups.
He said earlier Monday in Charlotte, “We will not for one second accept their bigotry and xenophobia.”
Sanders said that if voters turn out in a wave, he expects to defeat Hillary Clinton as he did in Michigan.
5:44 p.m.
A protester holding a Donald Trump sign has interrupted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during a rally in Peoria, Illinois.
The apparent Trump backer yelled at Cruz, “Go back to Canada!” as the crowd booed. Cruz was born in Canada and Trump has questioned whether that disqualifies him for the ballot. Cruz’s mother was an American citizen at the time of his birth.
Cruz thanked the man, despite the taunt, saying that he appreciates free speech.
Cruz says, “One difference between this and a Donald Trump rally is I’m not asking anyone to punch you in the face.”
The man held the Trump sign up as a police officer led him out of the Peoria Civic Center.
5:30 p.m.
Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign is trying to reaffirm her commitment to coal communities one day after she declared on national television she was going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.
Clinton was touting a plan she released last year that would set aside $30 billion ton protect the health benefits of coal miners and their families. But her quip about coal miners gave Republicans a perfect soundbite to use against her in states like Kentucky and West Virginia, where the party has made historic gains in coal communities in recent years by running against President Barack Obama’s energy policies.
Clinton said in a news release on Monday that coal will remain a part of the energy mix for years to come.
5:18 p.m.
Hundreds of people are crowding into a small-town, northeast Ohio airplane awaiting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s final pre-election visit to the pivotal primary state. The name of the company hosting the venue? “Winner Aviation.”
That’s a not-subtle jab at Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has staked his presidential campaign on winning his home state. But Trump is stepping up his intensity in Ohio, too ahead of Tuesday’s critical primary.
Kasich is in position to win Ohio and deal a blow to Trump’s hope of effectively becoming the presumptive GOP nominee. The two are squabbling right up to primary day, with Kasich underscoring his stewardship of the state at a time of employment gains. Trump is criticizing Kasich for Chevrolet’s decision to build the 2017 Cruse hatchback car in Mexico, not in nearby Lordstown, Ohio.
5:00 p.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign rally in suburban Chicago has been interrupted by an animal rights protester.
A woman holding a sign that says “Animal Liberation Now” disrupted Cruz’s speech Monday in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, before being led away by security. The crowd chanted “We want Ted!” to drown out the woman’s message.
Cruz acknowledged her right to speak, but tried to make a joke out of the disruption, saying he also cares “about human beings.”
Protesters are not as common at Cruz campaign stops as they are for Donald Trump, where fear of violence led to cancellation of a Trump event on Friday night in Chicago.
4:31 p.m.
An independent analysis of Donald Trump’s recently released health care plan finds it would increase the number of uninsured by about 21 million people while costing nearly $500 billion over 10 years.
The estimates released Monday by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that repealing Obama’s health care law would leave 22 million more people uninsured in 2018, and Trump’s replacement plan would only provide coverage to about 1.1 million of those.
The higher costs to the federal budget would come from repealing the tax increases and Medicare cuts used to finance the health care law. The group, which advocates for reducing government deficits, said there is not enough detail in Trump’s plan to estimate possible savings from his proposal to limit Medicaid spending.
4:25 p.m.
Authorities say police issued six citations to people attending a Donald Trump rally in Hickory, North Carolina.
The Hickory Police Department said in a news release that it issued citations for disorderly conduct and resisting an officer, among other charges. The news release didn’t specify if the citations were issued to protesters or Trump supporters.
Trump spoke Monday on the campus of Lenoir-Rhyne University. Police said no one was injured and the rally ended without a major incident.
4:20 p.m.
On the eve of major contests in a handful of crucial states, GOP front-runner Donald Trump says he’s ready to pivot to the general election.
Trump says at a town hall-style event in Tampa Monday afternoon that if he wins the states of Ohio and Florida on Tuesday, “it’s pretty much over.”
He says, “If we win Florida and we win Ohio, we can go and attack Hillary” instead of attacking his Republican rivals. He was referring to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump is also urging the Republican Party to rally around him in the face of continued resistance from many party leaders.
4:12 p.m.
Authorities in North Carolina say they are looking at Donald Trump’s behavior as they continue their probe of a violent altercation at one of his rallies last week.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office says Monday that investigators are continuing to look at the rally in Fayetteville, during which a man was hit in the face while being escorted out.
They say: “We are continuing to look at the totality of these circumstances ... including the potential of whether there was conduct on the part of Mr. Trump or the Trump campaign which rose to the level of inciting a riot.”
Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said the sheriff’s office has “not reached out to us at all.”
Authorities have already charged a rally attendee with assault, disorderly conduct and communicating threats after he was caught on video hitting a man being led out by deputies at the event in Fayetteville
4:05 p.m.
Former Alaska governor and 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is lashing out at the media for the way that protesters at Donald Trump’s heated rallies have been covered.
Palin tells a crowd of Trump supporters in Tampa that, “What we don’t have time for is all of that petty, punk-ass little thuggery stuff that’s been going on.”
She says that the media is “on the thugs’ side.”
Palin had canceled a separate event on Trump’s behalf after her husband Todd, got into a snowmobiling accident.
Trump says after taking the stage that Todd Palin is a “tough cookie,” but says, if you’re “too tough, you break ribs every once in a while.”
4:00 p.m.
Bernie Sanders is looking toward primary contests in five states as the linchpin of his strategy to turn the tide against Hillary Clinton and overcome her delegate edge in the Democratic primary.
Clinton urged Democrats to unite behind her bid to focus on a far bigger threat: Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Clinton’s pitch came as Trump blamed Sanders supporters for protests that prompted the billionaire mogul to cancel a rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago — just a few miles away from the union hall where Clinton wooed supporters.
Sanders is embarking upon a four-state swing through Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois, ending the day with an evening rally in Chicago.
3:26 p.m.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell is going on the attack over Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s admission that her policies would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
McConnell, of coal-rich Kentucky, referred to Clinton’s remarks at Sunday night’s candidate forum and said Clinton and her fellow Democrats view coal miners as “just statistics, just the cost of doing business.”
McConnell cited “boasting from the highest ranks of the Democratic Party” but didn’t refer to Clinton by name.
Clinton made her remarks as she touted her plans to bring renewable energy projects into coal country to try to replace lost mining jobs.
3:25 p.m.
A protester at a Donald Trump rally in Tampa was forcibly removed after rushing the stage.
The man made it to the metal barrier where Trump was sitting before security dragged him away. It was unclear what he was yelling.
Trump didn’t seem bothered, saying he doesn’t “want to ruin somebody’s life, but do we prosecute somebody like that?”
The man was among a handful of protesters who were forcibly removed during the first 20 minutes of Trump’s address inside the Tampa Convention Center.
Trump’s events have featured several violent clashes in recent weeks.
3:24 p.m.
In several states, Republican front-runner Donald Trump has been losing support as primary contests near. But in most cases, it’s not happening fast enough for his rivals to catch up.
Exit poll data shows Trump tends to do worse with voters who wait to pick their candidate until the final days of campaigning in their states. In some places, these late deciders have been more than twice as likely to back Trump’s main rivals ?— Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and to a lesser degree John Kasich —? than the billionaire businessman.
So how does Trump keep winning?
The front-runner is buoyed by supporters who commit to a candidate early and in some cases, participate in early voting. Trump has often built up such a lead in early voting, or such high levels of support among early deciders, that his weaker showing among late deciders simply doesn’t matter.
3:10 p.m.
Sarah Palin made a surprise appearance at a Donald Trump rally in Tampa, despite canceling a solo event after her husband was injured in a snowmobiling accident.
Palin told the crowd that her husband is currently recovering in the intensive care unit.
She said that accidents like that put things “in perspective.”
2:49 p.m.
Mitt Romney did not endorse John Kasich ahead of Tuesday’s Ohio primary, but the 2012 GOP presidential nominee shared a stage with the governor Monday and said Kasich is the only Republican running who “has a real track record.”
Romney told voters at an air museum in North Canton, Ohio, to treat the election like a job interview and review each candidate’s record.
The former Massachusetts governor has not endorsed a candidate in the nomination fight, but he has urged Republicans not to choose front runner Donald Trump.
Romney said Monday Kasich is the candidate who can balance budgets, eliminate Obamacare and bring jobs back to America.
2:23 p.m.
A prayer team supporting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is calling on its members to fast before primaries in five states on Tuesday.
An email from Cruz’s prayer team asks for a day of “fasting and prayer” on Monday. Cruz has been courting evangelical voters throughout the campaign, and this is not the first time his backers have called for giving up food to help the cause. There were similar calls for fasting before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and conservative talk show host Glenn Beck urged his listeners to join with him in fasting to help Cruz in Nevada last month.
Monday’s email says “Many of you have prayerfully interceded and fasted on your own for our nation and for Ted Cruz, the candidate we believe God will use to re-ignite the promise of America.” It then calls on supporters to do it again so that “each person would discern the difference between (God’s) wisdom and the distraction of false messages.”
Cruz ignored a question at the conclusion of a press conference Monday about whether he was fasting on Monday.
2:03 p.m.
In a not-so-veiled shot at Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan says candidates must accept responsibility for clashes that occur at their campaign events and should never condone or encourage violence.
The Wisconsin Republican did not mention the GOP’s leading presidential candidate by name in an interview Monday on WRJN in Racine, Wisconsin.
But three days after Trump supporters and opposing demonstrators fought at a Chicago event that the billionaire TV personality later canceled, Ryan said candidates should never accept violence or an atmosphere that permits it.
Ryan says the public is angry and frustrated, but he says politicians shouldn’t call people names or fuel anger for political gains. He says they instead should propose policies that resolve problems.
1:57 p.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is blaming the media for paying too much attention to Donald Trump.
Cruz told reporters Monday before a campaign stop outside of Chicago that coverage of the presidential race has been like a telethon for Trump. Cruz says he keeps “waiting for Jerry Lewis to come out and make and ask for money to help poor Donald Trump.”
Cruz says “the mainstream media loves talking about Donald Trump” because he says those in control of media outlets are partisan Democrats want Democrat Hillary Clinton to win and they think Trump is the only Republican who will lose to her.
Cruz says the media has lost focus on issues that matter to voters. He says the election “is not about the latest soap opera about Donald Trump terrorizing some poor, hapless reporter.”
1:36 p.m.
Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders is promoting a “yuuuge” turnout in Ohio’s Tuesday primary.
At a rally in Akron, Sanders said he is confident that high turnout among low-income, working-class and young voters can deliver him a win in Ohio.
“If you don’t tell anybody,” the Vermont senator said in a whispered tone, “let me mention to you, I think we’re going to win Ohio tomorrow.”
In introducing Sanders, former state Sen. Nina Turner invoked the storied Ohio State-Michigan football rivalry. She said Ohio voters can’t let themselves be outdone by Michigan, where Sanders scored an unexpected victory against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
1:31 p.m.
Donald Trump ended his campaign stop in North Carolina with a number of disruptions but without the type of violence that marked a canceled stop in Chicago and led to an assault in the state last week.
A crowd of nearly 1,000 attended the rally on the campus of Lenoir-Rhyne University. Three separate times, protesters interrupted Trump’s comments, and each time, his supporters rose to their feet, drowning out the protesters with chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!” and “USA, USA!”
Trump, who appeared in a question-and-answers session with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, blamed the disruptions on Democrats. The GOP front-runner told the audience Democrats are to blame, saying they see the success of his campaign and try to disrupt it, but he said, “It’s not a big deal.”
1:15 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is calling on Democrats to unify around her presidential bid, arguing that the party must focus on a larger threat: GOP front runner Donlad Trump.
The former secretary of state is telling supporters: “Do not rest...Do everything you can in the next 24-plus hours to come of these elections with the wind at our backs,” she said at rally in Chicago on Monday morning, just miles from where protests forced Trump to shut down a campaign event.
She adds that her campaign knows “the way forward to be able to start talking about not only unifying the Democratic party but unifying our country.”
Her new pitch comes as Trump blames Sanders supporters for protests that prompted him to cancel a rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago — just a few miles away from the union hall where Clinton wooed supporters.
Facing tightening contests in a trio Midwestern states that vote on Tuesday, Clinton is trying to boost support among minority voters.
12:27 p.m.
A Donald Trump campaign event in Florida featuring Sarah Palin has been cancelled without explanation.
Palin had been scheduled to appear on the Republican candidate’s behalf at The Villages in Florida at noon.
The former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee is one Trump’s highest-profile endorsements.
She appeared on Trump’s behalf at the Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo and Florida Strawberry Festival on Sunday.
A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions about the reason for the cancellation.
The campaign says in a statement that “Governor Palin wishes her best to Mr. Trump in the upcoming primaries.” the campaign said in a statement.
12:25 p.m.
A small group of protesters is interrupting Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump at his rally in Hickory, North Carolina.
Just as Trump began discussing his plans to build a wall at the Mexican border, the group stood up and turned to face the television cameras at the back of the auditorium on the campus of Lenoir-Rhyne University. After a few moments, Trump supporters stood up and outshouted the protesters with chants of “Trump!” and “USA!” Law enforcement escorted the protesters from the auditorium and the rally continued. Several other protesters who began shouting at Trump were taken from the auditorium minutes later.
Outside the auditorium, a group of people pressed up against a temporary railing to try to get a glimpse of Trump, who was introduced by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Just behind that group was a smaller group of protesters, one of them holding a sign that said “Love Not Hate.”
The rally started nearly two hours late because Trump’s plane was diverted to Charlotte from Hickory due to fog.
11:40 a.m.
Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio says he’s going to “shock the country” by winning Florida’s winner-take-all primary on Tuesday.
Rubio said he’ll not only win the Florida contest, but show the nation that the GOP is “not the home of politicians who try to take advantage of what’s wrong in people’s lives to win.”
Rubio made his prediction Monday in Jacksonville at a local coffee shop.
It is the first of several stops Rubio is making as he travels from north to south Florida, along I-95, on the eve of a do-or-die primary for his campaign.
The Florida senator is trailing front-runner Donald Trump by double-digits in the latest poll of likely GOP voters in his home state.
Rubio did not mention Trump’s name, but told supporters they need to beat him and preserve the conservative movement.
11:35 a.m.
Clinton is opening her final full day of campaigning before Tuesday’s primaries with a stop at a meeting of Latino activists.
The Democratic primary candidate swung through Pilsen — a major Mexican-American immigrant community in Chicago — before heading to a rally at a union hall. She urged the mostly female audience to head to the polls Tuesday.
“We especially need you now,” she says. “We have to have a big vote tomorrow that can send a strong message that loves trumps hate.”
Latino voters are a key demographic for Clinton, not only in her primary against rival Bernie Sanders but in the general election. Her aides hope GOP front runner Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigration will drive larger numbers to the polls in support of Clinton next fall.
10:30 a.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is criticizing Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for donations he made to Chicago Democrats while campaigning in Illinois.
Cruz is making five stops across Illinois on Monday, the day before the state’s primary. Cruz told journalists in Rockford that Trump can’t be trusted because he donated to Democrats, such as former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Democratic Party of Cook County, where Chicago is located, and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Cruz said that if voters are interested in “abuse of power from Chicago Democrats, then Donald Trump is a great candidate.”
Cruz has been casting Trump as a hypocrite for weeks, noting his past donations to Democrats including Hillary Clinton. But Cruz also says he will support Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee.
10:15 a.m.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz says that if Donald Trump were to “go out on Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,” he would not support him as the party’s nominee.
But speaking at a press conference in Rockford, Illinois Monday, Cruz refused to acknowledge the possibility that Trump would win the nomination, with just one day to go until a crucial cluster of winner-take-all primaries.
Instead, Cruz offered his own worst-case scenarios for what a Trump nomination would do to the party and the country.
“We elect Hillary Clinton and we destroy the country if Trump is the nominee,” he said. He repeatedly noting that he has won more primaries than anyone other than Trump and so he is best positioned to beat him to the nomination.
First Published: March 15, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
