National

Donald Trump on track to set record for most votes won by candidate in Republican presidential nomination

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times local):

10 a.m.

Donald Trump likes to boast that he’ll be setting a record for the number of votes won by any candidate in the history of Republican presidential nomination contests.

True or false?

Probably true, and that could happen Tuesday.

A running total of primary votes maintained by The Associated Press shows that through last week’s Indiana primary, Trump had tallied 10,702,962 total votes. The record for a GOP presidential candidate, researched by political analyst Rhodes Cook’s newsletter, is George W. Bush’s total of 10,844,129 votes in the 2000 primary season.

That leaves Trump 141,167 votes short of the record. And there are two GOP primaries Tuesday, in West Virginia and Nebraska. He’s got no rivals left, and it remains to be seen whether enough people will come out to vote for him to give him a record-breaking day.

The overall record for both parties was set by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2008. She amassed 17,714,899 votes in her losing contest against Barack Obama. He won the nomination while actually polling nearly 300,000 votes fewer than Clinton.

9:30 a.m.

Hillary Clinton has new ads up in Kentucky, where Democrats vote in a primary in a week. Her $161,000 ad buy has a small price tag — but carries a big clue about the campaign’s strategy as the primary contest carries on into June.

Clinton’s Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders has vowed to continue until the final few states vote next month, even though he has a nearly impossible task catching up with her. Sanders won Indiana last week and is in a strong position in West Virginia, voting Tuesday, and in Oregon, which votes alongside Kentucky next week.

Clinton’s burst of Kentucky advertising shows she wants to prevent Sanders from notching a winning streak.

9:15 a.m.

A super PAC backing likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is reserving an additional $5.3 million in advertising for the fall, bringing the group’s general election ad plans to more than $130 million.

The latest Priorities USA purchase is for commercials on black and Hispanic radio stations in Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Colorado and Virginia. So says Priorities spokesman Justin Barasky.

The group is also announcing the hiring of an African-American media adviser, Jeff Johnson. The Baltimore-based strategist has worked with BET News and the NAACP, among other clients.

With Donald Trump now the presumptive Republican nominee, Priorities USA plans to begin advertising before its previously planned start date of June 8.

7:40 a.m.

Hillary Clinton is rolling out proposals to curb the cost of child care for working parents.

Clinton’s campaign says she plans to discuss her child care proposals during a stop at a family health center in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday. She aims to ensure no family pays more than 10 percent of its income on child care through a mix of federal subsidies and tax relief.

She’s also proposing more spending to boost wages for child care workers and expand home visits by social workers or nurses for new parents.

The Democratic presidential contender holds a commanding lead among delegates against rival Bernie Sanders.

Clinton and Sanders are competing in Tuesday’s West Virginia primary. They have races next week in Kentucky and Oregon.

7 a.m.

Congressional Republicans are returning to Capitol Hill to confront an awkward new reality: Donald Trump is their presumptive presidential nominee. But instead of uniting behind him, leading figures like House Speaker Paul Ryan are withholding their support.

That highly unusual state of affairs is creating a tricky situation for Republicans in the House and Senate. Some of them fear Trump could be a drag on their own re-election chances in a year when the GOP is fighting to hang onto its slim Senate majority.

Many leading Republicans can bring themselves to support Trump only reluctantly, if at all. And that posture is irritating to others in the party who insist it’s time for the GOP to get behind Trump and start preparing for a likely contest against Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.

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