The 2016 Blast The latest POLITICO scoops and coverage of the 2016 elections. Email Sign Up

Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico



Ted Cruz is pleased with his Saturday primary results with a win in Kansas and a lead in Maine. | Getty Cruz calls on rivals to drop out

Ted Cruz, celebrating a big win in Kansas, said on Saturday that it's time for Marco Rubio and John Kasich to drop out and for their supporters to rally behind him.

"We’ll continue to amass delegates but what needs to happen is the field needs to continue to narrow," Cruz said during a press conference Saturday night, adding that he hopes the remaining candidates who are underperforming will ask themselves, “Do I have a path coming forward?”

"If we’re divided, Donald wins," he said.

The Texas senator has been advertising himself as the candidate best placed to beat Donald Trump, who is threatening to run away with the GOP nomination after a string of big wins. During a speech at his watch party in Idaho, Cruz said that Saturday's results showed people “uniting and standing as one behind this candidate.”

“Let me speak to folks at home who may have been supporting another candidate when this all got started,” Cruz said. “Maybe right now you’re supporting Marco Rubio or John Kasich. What is becoming more and more clear is if you want to beat Donald Trump we have to stand united as one. That is happening in Idaho and across the country. And if you were supporting someone else let me tell you we welcome you to our team. We welcome you and embrace you because if we stand united that’s how we win this primary, it’s how we win the general, it's how we turn the country around.”

Cruz also said that he planned to campaign "vigorously” in Florida. Florida — a winner take-all state — has been widely viewed as a race between its home state senator, Rubio, and Trump, with Trump holding a big lead, according to the polls.

"We are competing vigorously in Florida," Cruz said. "We've got a great base of support in Florida."

Cruz also praised Kansas and Maine on Saturday for early results that showed him with a strong lead and said his string of victories has been nothing short of "extraordinary."

“Let me say, God bless Kansas, and God bless Maine,” Cruz said during the speech as early results for four Republican primaries and caucuses rolled in.

“The last couple of weeks have been extraordinary,” Cruz said. “We saw on Tuesday the Super Tuesday results that were extraordinary and then today on Super Saturday we seem to be seeing a continuation of that very same path.”

The Texas senator also won the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday.

Cruz came out shortly after he was pronounced the winner of the Kansas caucuses. With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Cruz had 51 percent of the vote, more than double Trump’s 24 percent. In Maine, with just 5 percent of the results reporting, Cruz had a 13 point lead over Trump (48 percent to Trump’s 35 percent).

Kansas is Cruz's fifth win. He's also claimed victories in Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska so far. He is the only candidate — besides Rubio, who won Minnesota — to win beat Trump in primary contests.