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Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump is setting his sights on Ohio as polls show him trading the lead with John Kasich in the governor's home state, upping the already intense pressure on the underdog candidate to pull off a big win Tuesday -- or pack it in. 

Trump shook up his campaign schedule to include a rally outside Youngstown, Ohio, Monday evening. He originally had planned to be in Florida at that time, but cancelled the rally in order to schedule the stop in Ohio. 

Trump clearly is feeling bullish about his chances in both states, with polls already showing him leading Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the Sunshine State by double-digits. 

"If we win Ohio and Florida, we can go attack Hillary ... It's pretty much over," Trump said at a town hall in Tampa, Fla., earlier Monday.

To schedule the Ohio event, the Trump campaign said it was postponing an evening event at Trump National Doral in Miami. “If we are successful on Election Day, we will do a celebration in Doral after the election,” the campaign said. 

For Kasich, who has yet to win a primary or caucus this year, Tuesday is do or die.

He has vowed to win his home state, and has effectively staked his survival in the race on doing so. Even before Tuesday's primaries -- when Ohio and four other states will vote -- Kasich saw warning signs about his numbers in the Midwest when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz bested him for second place in next-door Michigan. 

“You’ve got to win your home state,” Basil Smikle Jr., executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, told FoxNews.com’s Strategy Room. 

Kasich, though, who still leads Trump slightly in an average of Ohio polls, is vowing to come away the victor Tuesday night. 

“I am going to win Ohio, and it’s going to be a whole new ballgame,” Kasich said Monday on Fox News. 

While it would seem virtually impossible for Kasich, who is in last place in the delegate count, to catch up to Trump or even Cruz, Kasich maintains that nobody will have enough delegates to secure the nomination by the July convention. His goal is to keep it open. 

“I don’t think anybody at this pace is going to have enough delegates to win,” Kasich said Monday. 

On “Fox News Sunday,” Kasich said not only was he doing well in Ohio but also “doing well in other states.”

“We’re going to be very competitive, “he said. 

Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney also hit the campaign trail for Kasich twice in Ohio on Monday. He’s also made robocalls for other candidates in an effort to deny Trump the nomination.

A recent NBC/Marist survey shows Kasich holding the edge with 39 percent to Trump’s 33 percent. Cruz has 19 percent while Rubio has just 6 percent.

Kasich, though, said last month that if he does not win his home state, he'll drop out. 

Trump, for his part, sees an opportunity to at least clear away half the remaining field, with wins in Ohio and Florida, which both hold winner-take-all primaries. He wants to foreclose the possibility of an open convention in July. 

Tuesday’s primaries in Ohio and Florida are among five high-stakes, must-wins for both Kasich and Rubio, respectively. Both trail Trump and Cruz in the delegate count.

“If Trump wins Florida – which it looks like he is going to do – and Ohio, he is well on his way to winning the nomination on pure numbers,” Liz Peek, a columnist at The Fiscal Times, told FoxNews.com’s Strategy Room.

She added, “If Kasich could stop him in Ohio, then all the other states tomorrow night and others to follow are proportional, so he probably won’t get to the magic number that he needs for the nomination.”

For Trump, things are looking sunnier in Florida.

According to new Quinnipiac University polls, the New Yorker is up double-digits against Rubio. Of likely Republican voters, 46 percent support Trump compared to 22 percent for Rubio.

Cruz comes in third with 14 percent, while Kasich finishes fourth at 10 percent.

Marco Rubio will win the Washington, D.C., caucus Saturday, NBC News projects. 

It will mark Florida senator's third win in the presidential race. Rubio previously won the Minnesota caucus and the Puerto Rico primary. 

Rubio got 37 percent, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 36 percent. Donald Trump got 14 percent and Ted Cruz got 12 percent, with 100 percent of the vote in. 

Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Conant said on Twitter after the projection that the district is "embracing the future." 

One night after declining to criticize Donald Trump's rhetoric toward the protesters at his rallies, his rivals for the Republican nomination, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), all criticized the Republican front-runner.

Rubio, who is camped out in his home state in advance of the March 15 primary, told Megyn Kelly of Fox News that Trump was finding out that his "words have real consequences." But roughly half of Rubio's analysis was a criticism of the political left. After stating his appreciation for Chicago's police, Rubio said that the protests needed to be put in contest.

"This is Chicago, protesters are an industry," he said. "It is clear, just from watching some of these images, that this was an organized effort, an orchestrated effort, from groups that wanted to disrupt this event, and Chicago is a hub for that sort of activity. I would also say that people have a right, whether you disagree with someone or what he’s about to say – and I certainly disagree with Donald Trump on many things, it’s why I’m running against him for president – you don’t have a right to take away the First Amendment right of people to speak freely. I think you’ve seen some of this on college campuses recently. There was an article, not long ago I think, that [conservative commentator] Ben Shapiro tried to speak on a campus, and they basically shut him down. So I think this is crossing over into the broader society, and it’s problematic."

With that said, Rubio criticized Trump for his well-documented mockery of the people who interrupted his rallies.

"I wouldn’t say Mr. Trump is responsible for the events of tonight," said Rubio, "but he is most certainly, in other events, has in the past used some pretty rough language, saying in the good old days we used to beat these people up, or I’ll pay your legal bills if you rough them up. So I think he bears some responsibility for the general tone."

As Rubio was wrapping up, Cruz was standing outside a dinner event in Rolling Meadows, Ill., for an impromptu press conference. He took a harsher tone, significantly stepping up what he'd said to radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier that night.

"The responsibility for that lies with protesters, who took violence into their own hands. But in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top. Any candidate is responsible for the culture of a campaign. And when you have a campaign that disrespects the voters, when you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, when you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discord," Cruz said, citing an event in Florida that had already led to a criminal complaint, but not heretofore been mentioned by a rival candidate.

"It is my hope that going forward we will have a substantive, issue-based discussion, where we can have differences about how we turn this country around, that we do so in a way that appeals to our better angels instead of our worst instincts," Cruz continued. "That seeks to pull us together, and unite us, instead of tear us apart. You know, we've seen for seven years a president who often at times of crisis, has sought to divide us, sought to divide us on ethnic lines, on religious lines, on class lines. America’s better than this. We don’t have to tear each other apart."

Asked if Trump should have gone ahead with the rally, Cruz paused for a moment, then said the decision should have been based on public safety.

"But I think a campaign bears responsibility for creating an environment when the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence, to punch people in the face," said Cruz. "The predictable consequence of that is that it escalates, and today is unlikely to be the last such instance. We saw, earlier today, in St. Louis, over 30 arrested. That’s not how our politics should occur. You know, the city of Chicago in 1968 saw some ugly days, when politics descended into hatred and incivility and even violence. It is my hope that in 2016 we can appeal to our better angels, to avoid going down that road once again."

Cruz found some levity only when he was asked if Trump's policies might have inspired the protests. Some of the activists captured by news cameras carried signs referencing Trump's proposed ban on Muslim entries to the United States, or his comment that Mexico was letting "rapists" cross the border.

"At the end of the day, finding Donald Trump's policies is a difficult endeavor," said Cruz.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, whose scheduled MSNBC town hall was pre-empted by the Chicago chaos, issued a statement late Friday night that pinned the blame on Trump himself.

"Tonight the seeds of division that Donald Trump has been sowing this whole campaign finally bore fruit, and it was ugly," said Kasich. "Some let their opposition to his views slip beyond protest into violence, but we can never let that happen. I urge people to resist that temptation and rise to a higher level. Now is the time for Americans to come together and stand firm for what we know is true: we are great because we are a peaceful people who live by the rule of law. We are stronger together, we will reject those who try to divide us for personal gain and we will do it the right way—at the ballot box."

CHICAGO –  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump canceled one of his signature rallies Friday, saying he didn't want to see "people get hurt" after protesters packed into the Chicago arena where it was to take place.

The announcement that the billionaire businessman would postpone the rally until another day led a large portion of the crowd inside the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion to break out into raucous cheers. Meanwhile, supporters of the candidate started chanting "We want Trump! We want Trump!"

There were isolated physical confrontations between some members of the crowd after the event was canceled.

Speaking later with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, Trump said he had arrived in Chicago two hours earlier and about 25,000 people were trying to enter the arena.

After meeting with law enforcement authorities, he said, "I didn't want to see people get hurt (so) I decided to postpone the rally...

"What we did was intelligent," Trump said. "A very good decision..a wise decision."

He also told Van Susteren, "if we had the rally, I think it would not have been a good situation." But, he added, "Our First Amendment rights have been violated."

Trump returned to the First Amendment issue in a later conversation with Fox News' Sean Hannity. "I have the right to speak and they (his supporters) have a right to listen," he said.

He also added that he was "getting a lot of credit for canceling...we did the right thing."

There was no sign of Trump inside the arena on the college campus, where dozens of UIC faculty and staff had petitioned university administrators to cancel the rally. They cited concerns it would create a "hostile and physically dangerous environment" for students.

Before the announcement the event wouldn't take place, a handful of intense verbal clashes took place between Trump supporters and protesters as the crowd waited for his arrival.

For the first time during his White House bid, the crowd appeared to be an equal mix of those eager to cheer on the real estate mogul and those overtly opposed to his candidacy.

When one African-American protester was escorted out before the event started, the crowd erupted into chants of "Let them stay!"

Veronica Kowalkowsky, an 18-year-old Trump supporter, said before the event started that she had no ill will toward the protesters — but didn't think they felt the same way.

"I feel a lot of hate," she said. "I haven't said anything bad to anyone."

Protesters at the rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rushed the arena floor in jubilant celebration after the announcement that he was calling off the event due to security concerns.

Many jumped up and down, with arms up in the air, shouting "F--- Trump!" ''Bernie! Bernie!" and "We stoppedTrump!"

Kamran Siddiqui is a 20-year-old student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where the event was to take place.

He says: "Trump represents everything America is not and everything Chicago is not. We came in here and we wanted to shut this down. Because this is a great city and we don't want to let that person in here."

Siddiqui says he's a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He says it "feels amazing" to have stopped Trump from speaking at his own rally.

He adds: "Everybody came together. That's what people can do. Now people got to go out and vote because we have the opportunity to stop Trump."

Hours before the event was scheduled to start, hundreds of people lined up outside the arena at the University of Illinois at Chicago — a civil and immigrant rights organizing hub with large minority student populations.Trump backers were separated from an equally large crowd of anti-Trump protesters by a heavy police presence and barricades.

Some Trump supporters walking into the area chanted, "USA! USA!" and "Illegal is illegal." One demonstrator shouted back, "Racist!"

One protester, 64-year-old Dede Rottman of Chicago, carried a placard that read: "Build a Wall AroundTrump. I'll Pay for it."

However, 19-year-old Rusty Shackleford of Lombard, in line to attend the Trump rally, said he was there to "support the man who wants to make America great again."

Chicago community activist Quo Vadis said hundreds of protesters had positioned themselves in groups around the arena, and that they intend to demonstrate right after Trump takes the stage. Their goal, he said, is "for Donald to take the stage and to completely interrupt him. The plan is to shut Donald Trump all the way down."

Anti-Trump strategy looks toward convention

Rubio adviser to Ohio voters: Anyone but Trump 00:45

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's communications director seemed to acknowledge that Trump has the best shot at getting the needed delegates to secure the nomination when he said Friday, that Kasich is the best candidate for Republicans who want to defeat Donald Trump in the governor's home state of Ohio.

"If you are a Republican primary voter in Ohio and you want to defeat Donald Trump, your best chance in Ohio is John Kasich," Alex Conant told CNN's "At This Hour with Berman and Bolduan," adding Rubio was the best candidate to debate Trump in Florida.

When asked specifically if he was telling Rubio supporters in Ohio to vote for Kasich, Conant responded, "Yeah, my answer is John Kasich is the one candidate in Ohio that can beat Donald Trump. That's stating the obvious. So ... if you're a Republican primary voter in Ohio, and you don't want Donald Trump to be the nominee, John Kasich is your best bet."

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has encouraged Republicans to support whoever has the best shot at beating Trump in any particular state so that Republicans could select their nominee at the Republican National Convention in July.

On the heels of his sizzling victories in the Mississippi and Michigan primaries and the Hawaii caucuses, Donald Trump is calling for unity in the race for the Republican presidential nomination because the GOP frontrunner believes none of his rivals can catch him.

“I would love to see the party come together and unify,” Trump said on CNN’s “New Day” on Wednesday. “I would say at [this] point it’s pretty tough for anybody to do anything.”

Not that Trump is planning to shift his strategy of attacking those who attack him.

“I am a uniter,” he said. “But I have to finish off the project. You know, I can’t all of a sudden stand there and let people — you know, [Florida Sen.] Marco [Rubio] was very, very nasty to me, I have to tell you. He was very, very nasty to me, and I guess he made a mistake, because I was more nasty to him. You have to finish off what you have to finish off. I can’t say all of a sudden, you know, let them make statements.”

But the brash billionaire believes Thursday’s GOP debate won’t be as fiery as most of the others.

“I think the debate tomorrow night will be a softer debate,” Trump said. “I really do. I believe it’s going to be a softer debate. I hope it’s going to be a softer debate. I can tell you that I go in much more as a uniter. … I think the wins last night were very, very big ones and very decisive ones.”

Trump speaks as Rubio, left, and Cruz listen during a Republican presidential primary debate in Houston on Feb. 25. (Photo: David J. Phillip/AP)

Although an NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll had Trump up just three points on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz heading into Tuesday’s GOP contests, he more than tripled that margin in all but one state.

The real estate mogul and former “Celebrity Apprentice” star finished 12 points ahead of Cruz in Michigan, 11 points ahead of him in Mississippi and just under 10 points ahead in Hawaii.

“If we could embrace this moment as a party, we’re going to win so easily,” Trump said. “We’re going to win Michigan. We’re going to win New York, possibly. We’re going to win areas and states that were never in play before and would never be in play for any of these other candidates. I mean, Ted Cruz cannot win these states.”

And according to two new CNN/ORC polls released Wednesday, Trump is leading Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in their home states. In Florida, Trump has a 16-point advantage (40 percent to 24 percent) over Rubio; in Ohio, Trump’s lead over Kasich (41 percent to 35 percent) is six points, the polls show.

“The Democrats can’t beat us,” Trump said. “The only way they’re going to beat us is if we keep fighting so stupidly.”

Trump doesn’t think Bernie Sanders’ surprising upset over Hillary Clinton in Michigan is a turning point in the Democratic race.

“No, I think she’ll get the nomination, assuming she is allowed to run, which she probably will because the Democrats will make sure nothing happens to her,” he said. “Assuming she is allowed to run legally, I think that, yes, she’ll definitely get the nomination. This is just a bump. But losing Michigan is more than a bump in the general [election], because it says the people don’t want her.”

Looking ahead to that general election on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Trump said he would even consider Rubio for his running mate.

“Sure,” Trump said. “He’s got a lot of talent. I just don’t want to say that yet.”