Claim: Donald Trump won the Republican primaries.

The 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries and caucuses were a series of electoral contests taking place within all 50 U.S. states , the District of Columbia , and five U.S. territories , occurring between February 1 and June 7 . Sanctioned by the Republican Party , these elections are designed to select the 2,472 delegates to send to the Republican National Convention , who selected the Republican Party 's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election , Donald Trump . The delegates also approved the party platform and vice-presidential nominee .   A total of 17 major candidates entered the race starting March 23 , 2015 , when Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was the first to formally announce his candidacy : he was followed by former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida , retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson of Florida , Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey , businesswoman Carly Fiorina of California , former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia , Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina , former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas , outgoing Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana , Governor John Kasich of Ohio , former Governor George Pataki of New York , Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky , former Governor Rick Perry of Texas , Senator Marco Rubio of Florida , former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania , businessman Donald Trump of New York and Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin . This was the largest presidential primary field for any political party in American history .   Prior to the Iowa caucuses on February 1 , Perry , Walker , Jindal , Graham and Pataki withdrew due to low polling numbers . Despite leading many polls in Iowa , Trump came in second to Cruz . Huckabee , Paul and Santorum then withdrew from the race , following poor performances in the caucuses . Following a sizable victory for Trump in the New Hampshire primary , Christie , Fiorina and Gilmore abandoned the race . Bush capitulated after scoring fourth place to Trump , Rubio and Cruz in South Carolina . On Super Tuesday , March 1 , 2016 , Rubio won his first contest in Minnesota , Cruz won Alaska , Oklahoma and his home state of Texas , while Trump won seven states . Failing to gain traction , Carson suspended his campaign a few days later . On March 15 , 2016 , nicknamed `` Super Tuesday II '' , Kasich won his first contest in Ohio and Trump won five primaries including Florida . Rubio suspended his campaign after losing his home state , but he retained a large share of his delegates for the national convention .   From March 16 , 2016 , to May 3 , 2016 , only three candidates remained in the race : Trump , Cruz and Kasich . Cruz won most delegates in four Western contests and in Wisconsin , keeping a credible path to denying Trump the nomination on first ballot with 1,237 delegates . However , Trump scored landslide victories in New York and five North-Eastern states in April , before taking every delegate in the Indiana primary of May 3 . Without any further chances of forcing a contested convention , Cruz suspended his campaign and Trump was declared the presumptive Republican nominee by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on the evening of May 3 . Kasich dropped out the next day . After winning the Washington primary and gaining support from unbound North Dakota delegates on May 26 , Trump passed the threshold of 1,237 delegates required to guarantee his nomination .   Donald Trump chose Governor Mike Pence of Indiana to be his running mate , going on to defeat the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine in the general election held on November 8 , 2016 .