Cruz claims he's party's best chance before Trump

After splitting victories in four nominating contests with front-runner Donald Trump, Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz claimed that he is the party's best chance before New York billionaire.

While Trump, holding onto his lead in the Republican nomination for the November 8 presidential election this year, winning bigger states of Louisiana and Kentucky, Cruz won Kansas and Maine on Saturday.

The next big contest for both will be Tuesday's primary in the industrial state of Michigan.

While Republicans in three other states, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii, also will vote on Tuesday, Puerto Rico Republicans will vote on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic race, front-runner Hillary Clinton won in Louisiana, and her rival Bernie Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, won in Kansas and Nebraska.

Cruz, 45, has said that results showed that he was gaining momentum in the reach to catch the real estate mogul.

Cruz, a first-term US senator from Texas, who has promoted himself as more of a true conservative than Trump, has alienated many party leaders in Washington.

The four Republican contests on Saturday together accounted for just 155 delegates. Cruz won 64 delegates on Saturday, while Trump took 49.

The delegate-rich states of Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina will vote on March 15.

It would nearly be impossible to stop Trump from being the face of the Republican it he takes both Florida and Ohio.

There are 99 delegates in Florida and 66 in Ohio at the total of 358 delegates in the five states voting March 15.