As he inches closer to sewing up the Republican nomination, Donald Trump has begun turning his attention to the general election in November. | AP Photo Trump shifting gaze to general election fight The Republican frontrunner is declaring the nomination battle all but over after big wins on Tuesday night.

Donald Trump is casting his eye toward a fierce general election battle with Hillary Clinton after sweeping up dozens more delegates on Tuesday night, while Ted Cruz is starting to acknowledge a contested convention may be his last hope.

The temperature has spiked on the two-man race for the Republican nomination, with Cruz taking Idaho and Trump romping through Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii on Tuesday. Marco Rubio was shut out, leaving his campaign scrambling to declare he still has a pulse.


But Trump on Wednesday morning was looking past the crucial winner-take-all contests of Florida and Ohio next week, instead declaring that he’s ready to bring the fight to Clinton, who wobbled in Michigan, losing to Bernie Sanders by 1.7 percentage points.

“There’s no enthusiasm for Hillary. How can you have enthusiasm for Hillary? There is none,” Trump said in an interview with CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday, bringing up the relatively low Democratic voter turnout and the high levels the Republican Party has seen.

He added that Clinton’s Michigan loss was a mere “bump” in her quest for the Democratic nomination but that it foreshadows real trouble for her when she goes up against him in a general election. “But losing Michigan is more than a bump in the general. Because it says the people don’t want her,” he said.

"I think it's a bad signal for the Democrats," Trump added.

Cruz is increasingly appearing like the only GOP rival who has even a remote shot of preventing Trump from making it to the general election. The Texas senator scooped up 56 delegates last night to bring his count up to 359, but he’s still trailing Trump by 99 in the race to get the 1,237 delegates needed to cleanly win the GOP nomination.

And Cruz appears to be finally acknowledging that it’s going to take a messy, nasty process for that to happen.

Just 10 days ago, the Texas senator dismissed the idea of a brokered convention in July as a fantasy, telling reporters, "A contested convention is the great hope of the Republican establishment, it is how they are drowning away their sorrows.”

He added, "All these crazy voters go one way, we'll step in with all of our money and anoint our white knight to ride in and save the day. That's not going to happen."

He’s now striking a different tone. In a clip of an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that will air Wednesday night, Cruz was asked if he would be okay with a contested convention if it’s a two-man race and neither have reached the magic number of delegates.

“A contested convention is a different thing where you go if nobody gets 1,237 and you’ve got two front-runners. Look, Reagan and Ford battled it out in a contested convention. That’s what conventions are for,” Cruz said. “If you’re fighting with the candidates that have earned the votes of the people and it’s the delegates at the convention who elected to do that, that’s the way the system works.”

In a distinct third is Rubio, who’s badly lagging with just 151 delegates, and who’s banking on a big win in Florida on Tuesday that will allow him to snap up 99 delegates in the winner-take-all primary.

But a new poll released on Wednesday morning delivered bad news. The CNN/ORC poll showed Trump leading Rubio by double digits, with 40 percent support to his 24.

The Florida senator, who is holding a rally in Hialeah on Wednesday, has practically camped out in the state, and his campaign is insisting that reports of him considering dropping out before Florida are flat-out wrong.

Rubio’s spokesman lashed out on Twitter Wednesday morning at a CBS report that said Rubio’s campaign is engaged in deep conversations about the future after Tuesday’s rout.

“This is 100% false. Marco is only candidate who can stop Trump in Florida & we are determined to do so,” Alex Conant tweeted.

Conant also optimistically pointed to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that showing Rubio faring better against Clinton in a head-to-head matchup.

“New @nbc poll: Rubio only GOP candidate not losing to Clinton. Trump get beat by historic margins,” he tweeted.

Rubio’s campaign is also banking on a renewed anti-Trump push to help him close the gap. Various groups are hitting the Florida airwaves with roughly $10 million in negative ads against Trump. Rubio’s own super PAC added $5 million to its already substantial buy on late Tuesday.

Also betting on a big night next Tuesday is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has just 54 delegates so far and is a whopping 404 delegates behind Trump.

Kasich is hoping to score 66 more in his home state primary next week, but he's got ground to make up — a CNN/ORC poll released on Wednesday morning showed Kasich still trailing Trump by 6 points.

