Donald Trump is on pace to get more primary votes than any GOP nominee in history

Donald Trump is not just winning the Republican presidential primary, he's crushing it, according to his total tally of Republican votes so far. With his five big wins in Tuesday night's primary contests, Trump sailed past Mitt Romney's popular vote total for the entire primary four years ago to put him well on track to best George W. Bush's record for the most Republican votes secured in modern history.

If you count preliminary results from Tuesday's races, Trump currently has 9.9 million votes — less than a million away from Bush's record 10.8 million vote count in 2000. Even Republican favorite Ronald Reagan won far less votes than Trump, only snagging about 7.7 million in 1980.

Trump's impressive vote tally will likely make it all the more difficult for GOP elites to pry the nomination from Trump's hands in the case of a contested convention. If the party blocks Trump from winning the nomination, Politico reports that it will effectively be blocking a contender who has won more votes than any GOP candidate "in at least the last 36 years, and maybe ever."

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