Can one debate settle it for good? Republicans clash tomorrow night for first time since Trump's Super Tuesday sweep and Cruz's demand for the rest to drop out

Republican presidential candidates will have another opportunity to take Donald Trump down a few notches tomorrow night.

They'll debate yet again this Thursday in Detroit, Michigan.

It's one of two final fight nights before the calendar day that could end it all - March 15, when Florida holds its winner-take-all contest. GOP candidates will debate there next Thursday in Miami.

Trump romped through the second biggest day in American politics yesterday– only November presidential elections are grander – etching his name on seven trophies in the Republican party's Super Tuesday display case and forcing Ben Carson out of the race.

Three states, Texas, Oklahoma, and Alaska, eluded his grasp and went to Ted Cruz, a senator from the Lone Star State.

And Marco Rubio had a dismal night, claiming only Minnesota's caucuses. Ben Carson and John Kasich claimed none. 

The rest of the night belonged to The Donald. 

The billionaire real estate tycoon has been declared the GOP primary winner in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

Ted Cruz positioned himself as the Republicans' only viable alternative to frontrunner Trump during his speech after the results came and asked his opponents to 'prayerfully' consider letting him make the journey toward November with the billionaire alone. 

'Tonight was another decision point and the voters have spoken,' Cruz said. 'Tomorrow morning we have a choice.'

The Texas senator said as long as the field was still 'divided', 'Donald Trump's path to the nomination remains more likely and that would be a disaster for Republicans, for conservatives and for the nation.'

'And after tonight we have seen that our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten, that can beat and that will beat Donald Trump,' Cruz claimed. 

He reiterated the point in a fundraising email to his supporters this afternoon. 'Our campaign is now in second place in the delegate count, and I am the ONLY candidate who can unify grassroots Republicans and defeat Donald Trump. We must not elect a candidate in Donald Trump who agrees with Hillary Clinton on issue after issue,' he said. 

SCROLL DOWN FOR STATE BY STATE RESULTS

Victory: The billionaire real estate tycoon, pictured with his son Eric Trump (right) and Gov. Christie, (left), was declared the GOP primary winner in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia on Super Tuesday

Ally: The Donald was accompanied at his victory speech by Chris Christie, who looked awkward standing behind his ally as he spoke. Trump lost out in three states - Oklahoma and Texas went to Ted Cruz while Marco Rubio won Minnesota

Surprise victory: Ted Cruz scored an upset win in Oklahoma, where polling had put him far behind Trump. He also won in his home state of Texas. Cruz told supporters that he is the only candidate who has a chance of beating Trump

Cruz's rivals did not heed his advice. Rubio went on CNN later in the evening and suggested that Cruz's performance was underwhelming and said he wouldn't be dropping out. 

'Tonight was supposed to be Ted Cruz's big night, not a night where he won two states, he was supposed to have that Southern firewall and it didn't happen,' Rubio said. 

On Fox News this morning he was equally defiant. 

'What I have said, is we are going to campaign in all 50 states and we are going to do whatever it takes to ensure that I am not only the nominee, but the Republican Party does not fall in the hands of someone like Donald Trump,' he stated. 'That said, that is not our plan. Our plan is to get to the White House with 1237 delegates.' 

'Florida is going to be huge obviously. It is my home state and I feel good about it,' Rubio said. 'If this was anybody else as a front runner, there would be people now saying let's rally around the front runner. That will never happen with Donald Trump.'  

Kasich remained in the race as of this afternoon. Carson called it quits, though said he wouldn't formally suspend his campaign. Rubio and Kasich intend to stay in until at least March 15, when their respective native states, Florida and Ohio, go to the polls.

Cruz's last stand was Texas. In winning it last night, he was able to claim strength in an almost single-minded campaign strategy that ceded other southern territories to Trump.

Partly as a result, the GOP front-runner's early victories set a blowout pace.

The tea party senator did add Oklahoma to his column in an unexpected development: Trump had out-polled him there a week ago by a dozen percentage points. And early in the morning Cruz won Alaska by 2.6 per cent. 

But Trump broke Cruz's serve in return, winning in Arkansas despite trailing there in recent polls. 

The Associated Press declared Trump the victor in Georgia – the first decision of the night – almost immediately after polls closed at 7:00 p.m.

By 8:00 p.m. the former reality TV star had punched his nomination ticket in three more states just minutes after their polling places closed for the day.

Virginia jumped into Trump's win column at around 8:45 p.m. Arkansas came at 10:25.

But Cruz's two victories establish that Trump's brand of populism hasn't yet penetrated fully into cowboy country. 

In a Super Tuesday speech, Trump congratulated Cruz on his Texas win but took a swipe at Rubio.

'I know it was a very tough night for Marco Rubio. he had a tough night,' Trump told a packed room of journalists and well-wishers at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

'He is a lightweight as I've said many times before.' 

He blasted the first-term senator, who is 25 years his junior, saying that the decision to go negative in the past week doomed his chances.

'I always liked Marco until about a week ago when he decided to go hostile,' Trump said as chuckles filled the room. 'He decided to become Don Rickles, okay? But Don Rickles has a lot more talent.'

'At least you could say that Ted Cruz has won something,' he boomed from a gilded podium set up on a small stage in front of a row of American flags. 

'He hasn't won anything. And he actually hasn't come very close.'

Rubio would be named the victor in Minnesota an hour later. 

After last night's significant win, Trump told DailyMail.com during a press conference that his string of triumphs will make it difficult for Republican Party insiders to argue that he shouldn't be their standard-bearer.

'I have millions and millions of people,' he said, describing the army of peasants wielding political pitchforks on his behalf. 

Trump also warned that when Super Tuesday is over, 'I'm going to go after one person: Hillary Clinton.'

He pegged much of his support to a nationwide financial crisis that's unfolding at the level of individual households, and said Clinton's own victory speech after her string of Democratic primary victories shows that she 'doesn't have a clue' how to reverse it.

'In her speech she just said, "They're making less money",' Trump observed.

'Well, she's been there with Obama for a long period of time. Why hasn't she done anything about it?'

And her record at the helm of President Obama's state department was 'abysmal,' he charged, in a likely test balloon of general election messaging.

'You look at what's going on with Syria. You look at what's going on with everything. It's a disaster!' 

And in a momentary detour on Clinton's classified-email scandal, he paused and looked into the sea of cameras and reporters.

'I don't know that she's going to be allowed to run. What she did is a criminal act,' he said.

'If she's allowed to run, honestly it would be a sad day for this country. Because what she did was wrong. And other people have done far less than her and they paid a very, very big price.' 

Some of Tuesday's races held implications beyond the simple question of how many delegates to the summer GOP convention each candidate will control.

In the key November swing state of Virginia, for instance, pundits were watching vote totals for signs of whether a Republican nominee could challenge Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton there.

Turnout was on pace to set a new record, and Trump needed every advantage. He won by just 30,000 votes among more than 1 million cast.

Trump also scored a gold medal in Vermont with 33 percent of the vote. Kasich came running second at 30 percent in front of Rubio, Cruz and Carson, in that order. It was the only state aside from Massachusetts the Ohio governor received double digit support - a rare bright spot for him.

Everywhere else, Rubio and Cruz seemed to be returning to a role they learned in South Carolina: jostling for second place behind Trump. 

And Trump ended the night finishing in first or second place everywhere his name was on the ballot.

Rubio's only hope was to notch a win is in Minnesota, a state his rivals have largely ignored. And he managed to do so. The young Floridian rushed there immediately after the February 20 South Carolina primary to shore up his one beachhead. 

Instead of a secret-ballot election, Minnesota holds caucuses – neighborhood meetings where voters try to persuade each other to declare their support for one White House hopeful or another. 

A win anywhere for Kasich or Carson would have been a long-shot miracle, and neither were able to pull it off.

Lashing out: Trump hit out at Marco Rubio in his victory speech after the Floria Senator launched a series of vicious attacks on him in the days leading up to Super Tuesday. Trump said: 'He decided to become Don Rickles, okay? But Don Rickles has a lot more talent.'

Second place: Ted Cruz told supporters 'after tonight we have seen that our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten, that can beat and that will beat Donald Trump'

Cruz is pictured kissing his wife Heidi. He added in his speech: 'We are the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump once ... twice ... three times'

Only victory: Marco Rubio addresses supporters in Minnesota on Super Tuesday, the only state where he won

Clinging to the race! Ohio Gov. John Kasich's best result was second in Vermont. He says he will withdraw from the race if he fails to win Ohio on March 15 

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson insisted he won't be bowing out of the race during an election night party in Baltimore, despite not winning a single state. He changed his mind today

The Republican front runner was sporting a Make American Great Again umbrella, decorated with the stars and stripes, at an earlier rally in Columbus

Kasich has said he will withdraw from the race if he fails to win his own state, Ohio, on March 15.

His campaign sent a memo to reporters today justifying that decision titled: 'Analyses Show Stopping Trump Requires Kasich Winning Ohio.'

'Today, polls show John Kasich is in a statistical dead heat in his home state versus Trump. Polls also show Kasich with far superior favorability numbers over Trump among Ohio Republicans,' it said. 'Meanwhile, both Rubio and Cruz are losing in Ohio by double digits, and a recent poll by Baldwin-Wallace even shows both losing Ohio to Trump one-on-one.' 

Carson insisted he was in it for the long haul, crediting his social media followers for inspiring his tenacity. He changed his mind this afternoon and sent a note to supporters saying there was no 'path forward' to the nomination.

Fox found that 32 per cent of all Super Tuesday voters chose a candidate in just the last few days.

Of that group, Rubio got the lion's share with 38 per cent. Trump was fourth with just 15 per cent of last-minute deciders.

Rubio struck an aggressive tone with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, suggesting his goals are to beat Ted Cruz for second place and to keep as many Republican National Convention delegates out of Trump's hands as possible.

'His whole campaign for months has been built on winning Iowa, winning South Carolina, and winning big on Super Tuesday,' he said of Cruz.

'He won Iowa but he came in third in South Carolina, and he's not going to win big on Super Tuesday. So I think there's a lot of questions.'

'We're going to have a lot of delegates after tonight,' Rubio added, 'and you're going to see very clearly after tonight that Donald Trump has no chance of ever getting the delegates he needs to be the nominee.'

'We feel great about Minnesota. We feel great about Virginia. We feel great about a bunch of them,' he said.

Asked if he had a sense of controlling his own political destiny, Rubio said: 'All these things are in God's hands, God's will is going to be done.'

The Republican field split up the 595 delegates available yesterday to July's Republican National Convention.

The first four high-profile contests in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada – all told – put just 126 delegates in play. Trump led the field at the beginning of Tuesday with 82 delegates in his corner. By the end of Super Tuesday, that number had jumped to 316.

Cruz is in second nationally with 226. Rubio is far behind at 106, while Kasich and Carson have near to none. The governor ended the night with 25 delegates an the retired neurosurgeon had a mere eight. 

The GOP convention will seat a total of 2,472 delegates from all 50 states and every U.S. territory, making 1,237 the magic number of votes a candidate needs in order clinch the presidential nomination.

All of the Super Tuesday battleground states will award delegates according to the proportions of the vote won by the candidates. In a few places they must reach a threshold – usually 20 per cent – in order to claim any delegates at all.

HIGH STAKES: Five GOP candidates and two Democratic candidates sparred over delegates on March 1, also known as Super Tuesday. Here's how they were distributed – according to population

But most follow arcane formulas that allocate their delegates by district, and put a large pot of them up for grabs according to statewide totals.

Cruz awaited Tuesday's results in the Houston suburb of Stafford, Texas, and celebrated his victories there.

Trump held a press conference, not a party, at his sprawling, opulent Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

Dozens of his high-society friends occupied the front two rows. Son Eric Trump appeared on stage with the candidate and a handful of staffers.

Wife Melania and daughter Ivanka remained in New York, as Ivanka is due to give birth any day.

Rubio was in Florida, too, but by default: With no one state appearing to a sure victory, he chose to frame it as a kickoff party for the March 15 primary there – a must-win contest if Rubio has any hope of ever surging to the front of the pack. Hillary Clinton did the sam as her opponent Bernie Sanders held a homecoming party in Vermont.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and other conservatives had kicked off the day urging their party to side with establishment candidates.

Ryan said Tuesday that anyone who wants to be the Republican presidential nominee must reject racism.

The GOP is the party of President Abraham Lincoln, he told reporters, adding: 'this party does not prey on people's prejudices.'

Ryan was grinding an axe on Trump's Sunday CNN appearance in which he declined to disavow the support of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and other white supremacists.

Trump had disavowed Duke on several other occasions and later blamed a faulty IFB – a television interview earpiece – for his lack of a forceful response Sunday on the air.

While Trump seems on course for a win, the question of who will take home the votes for the Vice Presidency remains uncertain.

Carson got the biggest chunk of support, at 11 percent, in a scattershot poll published by the Morning Consult.

Another 38 percent of respondents indicated they didn't yet know who they would like to see take Joe Biden's place.

Right behind Carson are the remaining candidates in the Republican field.

Rubio and Cruz each get 9 percent support for the vice presidency, while former Ohio Gov. John Kasich received 8 percent support.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who threw his weight behind Trump's bid on Friday and introduced him Tuesday night in Florida, also clears the top of the list at 8 percent.