David Jackson

USA TODAY

For Donald Trump, it's about wins now. For his rivals, it's about delegates.

While Trump used his seven Super Tuesday victories to argue that he can unify the Republican Party behind his candidacy, opponents contemplated how to deny the New York businessman the delegates needed to clinch the GOP presidential nomination on a first convention ballot in July.

"We're going to be a unified party, I mean, to be honest with you," Trump told reporters. "And we are going to be a much bigger party, and you can see that happening."

Trump touted the breadth of his Tuesday victories in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Vermont. Noting record turnout for a string of Republican primaries and caucuses, Trump said he feels "awfully good" about his chances in both the nomination fight and general election.

Trump racks up 7 Super Tuesday wins

While Trump — who has also won delegate contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada — seemed to be on the verge of declaring victory, many Republicans are not rushing to endorse him, particularly his remaining opponents.

Ted Cruz, who won Super Tuesday contests in Oklahoma and Alaska as well as his home state of Texas, told MSNBC that as many as 65% to 70% of Republicans nationwide recognize Trump "is not the best candidate" to go up against potential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. So the Texas senator said he will continue to amass delegates and ask his non-Trump opponents to unify behind him instead of Trump ahead of the July convention in Cleveland.

"The only way to beat Donald Trump is to stand together united and that's what I hope and believe will happen in the days and weeks to follow," Cruz said.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — who won his first contest of the campaign in the Minnesota caucuses on Tuesday — said he has only recently begun attacking Trump as "a con artist," and that those questions have begun to erode the businessman's political support.

"We are seeing in state after state his numbers coming down, our numbers going up," Rubio told supporters at a "kickoff rally" for his drive to the March 15 primary in his home state of Florida.

Some Republican congressional leaders have held out endorsing Trump and criticized his many divisive statements, such as his recent reticence to disavow an endorsement from a former Ku Klux Klan official.

Trump's wins Tuesday added more than 200 delegates to his overall tally, and a 100-delegate lead over his nearest competitor, Cruz. According to the Associated Press, Trump has 319 delegates, followed by Cruz (226), Rubio (110) and John Kasich (25).

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the nomination.

As in previous contests this campaign, Republicans continued to set turnout records on Tuesday. Virginia, for example, saw more than 1 million GOP primary voters, more than double the number it had in 2008. Turnout records are also expected in other Super Tuesday states Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Massachusetts.

Democrats, meanwhile, have seen a decrease in turnout in their delegate contests this year.

While Trump critics say the vote against the outspoken businessman is being split, there is no indication any of his rivals plan to exit the race.

Rubio needs to beat Trump in Florida. Ditto for Kasich, the governor of Ohio whose state also hosts a primary March 15.

"This country's got to get its act together," Kasich told supporters on Tuesday. "We're a great country, we can solve these problems, but I have to tell you we can't waste any more time."

The contours of the race did change somewhat Wednesday when retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson announced he would skip Thursday's debate and indicated he would soon be leaving the race.

“I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results,” Carson said in a statement. “However, this grassroots movement on behalf of ‘We the People’ will continue."

USA TODAY's 2016 Presidential Poll Tracker

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who endorsed Trump during the Super Tuesday campaign, said the businessman has shown broad political support. Sessions told Fox & Friends that the party must "be appealing to working Americans, and right now Trump has a clearer message."

Trump would be the first major party nominee without experience in elected or high appointed office since the Republicans of 1940 nominated businessman Wendell Willkie, who lost to President Franklin Roosevelt. (This analysis discounts Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who led allied forces in World War II and won two presidential elections as a Republican in the 1950s.)

Citing his success in so many states, Trump said, "I think, you know, we're a democracy. I think it's awfully hard to say that's not the person we want to lead the party, right? You know, it's very hard."

Elections 2016 | USA TODAY Network