Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Tuesday pulled out of the United States presidential race after losing the Indiana primary to Donald Trump. Cruz, considered the only alternative to the popular-but-wildly controversial Trump, failed to stop the New York businessman’s juggernaut despite a spirited effort to discredit him. Earlier this week, he had said of Trump, “This man is a pathological liar”, after Trump had insinuated that Cruz’ father had links to former president John F Kennedy’s assassination.

Cruz was the lone survivor in a once-overflowing set of Republican party hopefuls, and had beaten Trump in some of the early state primaries. However, with Trump winning the last seven in a row, it seemed unlikely that Cruz would be able to make much of a difference. Wrapping up his campaign on Tuesday night, he said, “From the beginning I've said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight, I'm sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed.”

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders narrowly beat frontrunner Hillary Clinton in their Indiana primary, but experts believe this is unlikely to stop her from securing the nomination. Clinton has the support of thousands of superdelegates, who are instrumental in the making of the final call.