Donald Trump knocked Marco Rubio out of the Republican race by winning Florida and three more states, reinforcing his status as the party’s frontrunner, but he lost to John Kasich in Ohio, complicating his path to the presidential nomination.

Mr Trump handed a devastating loss to the Cuban-American senator in his home state of Florida, by winning 46 per cent of the vote against Mr Rubio’s 27 per cent.

Mr Trump solidified his status as the Republican frontrunner with wins in three of the five states that voted on Super Tuesday — and had a thin lead over Texas senator Ted Cruz in Missouri, where the result remained too close to call in the early hours of the morning. But the Ohio loss presents a longer path to winning the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination before the party convention in Cleveland in July.