Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump easily won the Alabama primary on Tuesday.
Polls heading into the Tuesday primary showed Trump with a significant lead over both Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas). A Trump rally in Madison, Alabama, on Sunday reportedly drew a crowd of 20,000 -- though Trump personally placed the estimate at 32,000.
Trump also received the endorsement of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Sunday, one of the most conservative members of the Senate. Sessions, the first sitting senator to endorse Trump, touted the candidate's position on immigration and a border wall.
"I told Donald Trump this isn't a campaign, this is a movement," Sessions said at the rally Sunday. "Look at what's happening. The American people are not happy with their government."
Sessions' endorsement of Trump was a major loss for Cruz, who has allied himself with Sessions in the Senate, and recently co-authored immigration legislation with him.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley had endorsed the race's more moderate candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, in the primary. But Kasich finished far behind the leading pack.
Trump's win in Alabama helps move him closer to sealing the Republican nomination. The state has 50 delegates, which are awarded proportionally.
In this deeply conservative state, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) won the primary in 2012 and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won it in 2008.
Voting took place in 13 states and one U.S. territory, American Samoa, on Tuesday. Alabama, Arkansas and Texas moved their primaries to Super Tuesday this year, joining Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia to give the South a significant early voice in the primaries.
Editor's note: Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.
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