 "U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at a campaign event at the Adventure Christian Community in Davenport, Iowa. Photo: Reuters")
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz completed his sweep of Colorado's 34 delegates while rival Donald Trump angled for favour a half-continent away in New York's all-important April 19 primary.
Cruz netted 13 more delegates at Colorado's state Republican convention. The Texas senator already had locked up the support of 21 Colorado delegates and visited the state to try to pad his numbers there.
Keeping up his tussle with Trump over values, Cruz told the Colorado crowd it's easy to talk about making America great again - "you can even print that on a baseball cap" - but that the more important question is which candidate understands "the principles and values that made America great in the first place."
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders picked up another win in Wyoming - but it did nothing to help him gain ground in the delegate chase.
Trump left the Colorado convention to his organisers, and spent about a half-hour yesterday touring the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan. His campaign issued a statement describing the site as "symbolic of the strength of our country, and in particular New Yorkers, who have done such an incredible job rebuilding that devastated section of our city."
"This is what 'New York values' are really all about," it added, a not-too-veiled poke at Cruz, who has taken heat for his earlier criticism of "New York values."
Democratic presidential hopefuls, too, were focused on New York's big trove of delegates even as Wyoming gave its nod to Sanders over Hillary Clinton.
Sanders got word of his Wyoming win from his wife, Jane, midway through a rally in Queens, part of a four-stop swing through New York City. A raucous cheer went up from the New Yorkers, but the Wyoming vote was a draw from a delegate perspective: Sanders and Clinton each picked up seven.
