We begin today’s roundup with Jonathan Martin and Nate Cohn at The New York Times and their analysis on today’s primaries:
The Republican presidential campaign will not end next week, or even next month. But voters in the five states casting ballots on Tuesday will go a long way toward determining whether Donald J. Trump can win the 1,237 delegates necessary to claim the party’s nomination.
If Mr. Trump loses Ohio (possible) or Florida (less likely) and wins less-than-commanding victories in Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina, he would face the strong possibility of falling short of a delegate majority and entering a contested Republican convention this summer. But with victories in the home states of two of his rivals, he could end the campaigns of Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, leaving Senator Ted Cruz of Texas as the only candidate still standing in his way.
No two states loom larger on the general election map than Florida and Ohio, and the results there could offer clues to the mood of the bellwether voters going into the fall campaign.