Ted Cruz has convincingly beaten Donald Trump in the Republican primary in Wisconsin, raising the odds that the party’s presidential nominee will be decided at a contested convention in Cleveland.

The Associated Press projected that the Texas senator would win Wisconsin state, which was holding Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday. With seven per cent of the vote counted, the conservative senator had won 49 per cent of the ballots, compared to 35 per cent for Mr Trump and 14 per cent for Ohio governor John Kasich.

The victory means that Mr Cruz has won nine of the 31 states where Republicans have voted in the 2016 race. Mr Trump leads with 20 states, while Mr Kasich lags behind his rivals with only one success, in his home state of Ohio.