Trump wins Michigan, Mississippi as 4 US states vote

DETROIT (Reuters) -- Republican front-runner Donald Trump rolled to big primary wins in highly prized Michigan and Mississippi on Tuesday, brushing off a week of blistering attacks from the party's establishment to expand his lead in the White House nominating race.

     Trump's convincing win in Michigan increased the pressure on the party's anti-Trump forces to find a way to stop his march to the nomination as several key contests loom next week.

U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by signs of supporters as he speaks at Madison Central High School during at a campaign rally in Madison, Mississippi on March 7. © Reuters

     Trump built his victories in a state in the industrial Midwest and another in the Deep South with broad appeal across many demographics, winning evangelical Christians, Republicans, independents, those who wanted an outsider and those who said they were angry about how the federal government is working, exit polls showed.

     At a news conference afterward, Trump mocked rivals John Kasich, the Ohio governor; Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas; and Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, and suggested they had little hope going forward.

     He took particular aim at Cruz, who split four nominating contests on Saturday with Trump and positioned himself as the prime alternative to the brash New York billionaire in the race to be the party's candidate in the Nov. 8 election.

     "Ted is going to have a hard time," Trump said of Cruz. "He rarely beats me."

     The Michigan victory could set Trump up for a potentially decisive day of voting on March 15, when Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina - like Michigan, delegate-rich states - cast ballots.

     The Republican contests in Florida and Ohio award all the state's delegates to the winner. If Trump, 69, could sweep those two states and pile up delegates elsewhere next week, it could knock home-state favorites Rubio and Kasich out of the race and make it tough for Cruz to catch him.

     Rubio, 44 - the favorite of a Republican establishment alarmed by Trump's controversial proposals and anxious about Cruz's uncompromising conservatism - lagged in Michigan polls and needs a win in his home state next week to keep his campaign alive.

     Republicans were also voting on Tuesday in Idaho and Hawaii.