Republicans Despair as Ohio, Florida Stand Between Trump and Nomination

Republicans in Ohio and Florida head to the polls this week to help decide who will become their party's nominee, and whether the GOP will endure in any recognizable form in the months and years that follow. To hear those who have devoted their lives to building the party tell it, if front-runner Donald Trump prevails Tuesday in the two winner-take-all contests, its fate will be sealed.

The violent images from this weekend in Chicago, where a melee erupted when Trump canceled a rally in the face of furious protests, only crystalized opposition to him among the party's sober establishment. After mistakenly assuming that any number of missteps would sink Trump—mocking prisoners of war, calling undocumented immigrants rapists, using a woman's menstrual cycle to criticize a female reporter—there was hope that this might slow him down.