Trump snags Super Tuesday delegates

Donald Trump has increased his delegate lead over the GOP pack after a strong showing on Super Tuesday, bringing him closer to the party’s nomination. 

Those results are according to The Associated Press’s estimation of the delegate breakdown by Wednesday afternoon.

Trump’s delegate haul comes thanks to victories in seven states — Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Alabama and Arkansas. 

He also picked up 11 delegates with a second-place finish to Cruz in a close Alaska race.

Cruz will end up with about 209 delegates, a substantial haul considering he only won Texas and Oklahoma. The Texas senator was able to rack up more delegates thanks to the fact that Super Tuesday states awarded delegates proportionally. 

Rubio will win at about 94 delegates, having only won Minnesota. While he too was able to gain delegates in states where he didn’t win, he missed out on delegates in some states that required a 20 percent threshold to collect support.

The totals put Trump at 285 delegates. That’s well ahead of Cruz’s 161, Rubio’s 87, John Kasich’s 25 and Ben Carson’s 8. 

After the dust settles on Super Tuesday, about 30 percent of the total delegates will have been allocated, with the nominee needing to secure 1,237 delegates.

This report was updated at 5:16 p.m.