WASHINGTON -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich ended his presidential campaign Wednesday, leaving businessman Donald Trump as the GOP's presumptive nominee. Some reluctant Republicans began to rally around Trump, but others questioned their party's future.

Trump vowed to unite the splintered GOP but remained dismissive of Republicans who have been critical of his campaign.

"Those people can go away and maybe come back in eight years after we served two terms," he said on NBC's Today show. "Honestly, there are some people I really don't want."

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, in her first remarks since Kasich dropped out, said she was more than prepared to handle the kind of deeply personal attacks that Trump wielded in defeating his Republican rivals.

"To me, this is the classic case of a blustering, bullying guy," the former secretary of state and U.S. senator told CNN.

The Republican primary essentially came to an end after Trump's decisive victory Tuesday in Indiana. His win pushed Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to end his campaign, with Kasich following suit Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio.

Kasich didn't outline his reasons for ending his bid or mention Trump. Instead, he recounted his exchanges with voters and renewed his call for Americans to spend more time helping one another.

He said it was a message that never seemed to resonate.

"The spirit, the essence of America lies in the hearts and souls of us," he said. "Some missed this message. It wasn't sexy; it wasn't a great soundbite."

Kasich was visibly emotional as he thanked his family and staff.

"Nobody has ever done more with less in the history of politics," he said.

The head of the Republican National Committee said unifying the party under Trump ahead of the general election will be "hard."

"When you have a race where you've got 17 candidates and as of late, two very serious candidates with serious campaigns, it's not easy. It's hard. I would be lying to you all if I said: 'OK, this is going to be easy. We're just going to be pivot," committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday on CBS This Morning.

Priebus said Republicans will work to attract women and minority-group voters, two groups that polls show are leery of Trump, while seeming to acknowledge it will be a struggle.

"You can't win unless you are the party of the open door," Priebus said when shown data about Trump's low approval ratings among key voters.

"Look, I get it, and there is work to do," he said. "It's not going to be overnight and instantaneous. ... I think Donald Trump is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work."

With his win in Indiana, Trump snatched up the state's entire pot of 57 delegates, taking his total to 1,053 bound and unbound delegates. He needs another 184 delegates to hit 1,237, the number needed to secure the nomination ahead of this summer's GOP convention in Cleveland.

Cruz ended his campaign with 565 delegates and Kasich with 153. Most of those delegates remain bound to support those candidates in the first round of voting at the convention. Should Trump fail to reach the 1,237 threshold and the vote goes to a second ballot, all delegates are free to vote for the candidate of their choice.

House speaker mum

House Speaker Paul Ryan did not comment on Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement saying: "I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee, is now on the verge of clinching that nomination. Republicans are committed to preventing what would be a third term of Barack Obama and restoring economic and national security after eight years of a Democrat in the White House. As the presumptive nominee, he now has the opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals."

Several GOP governors and senators said they would support Trump, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

"Our first and foremost goal is to elect a conservative, pro-business, strong on national defense, a man who will stand behind our freedoms and our rights, and that person is Donald Trump," Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said. "It is not Hillary Clinton."

Some Republican senators in tough races struggled Wednesday to position themselves in a party with Trump at the helm. One, Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, said that while she would support him in the election, she would not endorse his candidacy.

Several other Republicans are clinging to the hope that an alternative option might yet emerge. Operatives have floated former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, among others, as a possible candidate for an independent or third-party bid. But that is a long shot, with filing deadlines for getting on state ballots fast approaching.

But Trump turned quickly to the general election, saying he would begin accepting more political donations and was starting to vet potential running mates. He said on MSNBC's Morning Joe that he was inclined to "go the political route" and pick someone with legislative experience.

He later said he could consider Kasich, predicting the Ohio governor would be helpful this fall in any role, given his state's historic significance in presidential elections.

Kasich has insisted that he will not be anyone's running mate. "If George Washington came back from the dead, I might think about it with him," he said last week. "But that'd be about it."

Clinton woos Republicans

In the Democratic race, Clinton is still campaigning against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who picked up another win Tuesday in Indiana.

Despite that win, which added another 44 delegates, making his tally 1,362, Sanders remains behind Clinton, who has 1,683 delegates. When counting superdelegates -- party leaders and elected officials who may back the candidate of their choice -- Clinton's lead grows even wider, 2,205 to Sanders' 1,401. It takes 2,383 to secure the Democratic nomination.

With more than 90 percent of the delegates needed to claim the Democratic nomination, Clinton is focusing her attention on Trump.

"He is a loose cannon and loose cannons tend to misfire," Clinton said Wednesday. Her campaign also released a Web ad featuring clips of prominent Republicans, including his former primary rivals, bashing Trump.

Clinton also is looking for ways to woo Republicans turned off by Trump. As Trump found victory in Indiana, there were some early signs that a sliver of the party might see Clinton as the only option.

"I'm with her," tweeted Mark Salter, a top campaign aide to 2008 Republican nominee John McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona.

Trump's campaign has targeted independents and Democrats in the primary. He has said that -- should Clinton be the nominee over Sanders -- he expects to win a portion of Sanders' support thanks to their shared positions on trade and outsourcing.

"We have tremendous numbers of Democrats that have voted for me," he said, in a Tuesday morning interview on MSNBC.

Trump gave every indication that he would continue his attack-at-all-times approach in a campaign against Clinton, posting on Twitter: "Crooked Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most dishonest person to have ever run for the presidency, is also one of the all time great enablers!"

Clinton also has used Twitter to characterize Trump: "We don't have time to waste on Trump's fake solutions that won't do a thing to help your families."

Ben Howe, a Republican strategist who has worked for Cruz, said he'd be actively working against Trump -- a decision he recognizes means backing Clinton.

"Anything right now that would allow Donald Trump to become president is the wrong move, so the de facto result is that Hillary would win," he said.

But as Trump has divided Republicans, Clinton's political history, too, has undecided voters conflicted.

She has spent the past 24 years in the national spotlight, from first lady to U.S. senator to secretary of state. She's had to deal publicly with issues such as her husband's infidelity, a failed push for a health care overhaul, her decision to use a private email server as secretary of state and her handling of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the life of a U.S. ambassador.

Amy Bishop, 42, a stay-at-home mother from Indianola, Iowa, said she wasn't sure how she would vote. She said she would "most likely" go for Clinton over Trump, but stressed that she wasn't "100 percent."

Tracey Kingery, a Republican from Des Moines, Iowa, said she, too, was unsure about how to vote.

"I think he seriously would go half-cocked on everything. He's a little too hot-headed for me," she said. But, said the 47-year-old, "there's been too much negative stuff about her."

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Steve Peoples, Bill Barrow, Lisa Lerer, Stephen Ohlemacher, Laurie Kellman, Julie Bykowicz, Catherine Lucey, Kathleen Ronayne and Julie Carr Smyth of The Associated Press; by Elise Viebeck and Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post; and by Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times.

A Section on 05/05/2016