Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won their respective primaries in their home state New York on Tuesday. Republican frontrunner Trump was projected to win the primary as soon as the polling closed late evening. The win will give his campaign the much needed boost after a string of losses to second-placed Ted Cruz. Clinton won the primary also as expected ending Sanders’s streak of recent wins — he has won seven of eight nominating contests before New York. Trump was expected to take his home state, but the question being asked was by how much. He needs to win New York by a big margin, to keep himself on course to the nomination.
He leads the count of delegates with 756, but Cruz, with 559, has been narrowing the gap with recent wins. But with neither anywhere close to 1,237, the race may go to the convention. For now, however, Trump was celebrating the win. “Thank you New York! I love you,” he said in a tweet. Speaking to cheering supporters Tuesday night at Trump Tower, he declared: “We don’t have much of a race anymore. Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated. We’re really, really rockin’.”
Trump could end up exceeding 50 percent of the vote in the GOP race, which would be a first for him in any state and give him a shot at claiming all 95 of the state’s delegates. Incoming returns show him with roughly 62 percent.
Thank you New York! I love you!#MakeAmericaGreatAgain#Trump2016pic.twitter.com/T1J0aUwMXl
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2016
Fox News projects that Ohio Gov. John Kasich will place second in the state, leaving Texas Sen. Cruz to finish third. Cruz, though, has all along downplayed Trump’s New York performance as expected in his home state.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump easily won New York state’s presidential nominating contest on Tuesday, moving closer to capturing enough delegates to win the nomination and avoid a contested convention in July. The New York City billionaire’s big victory in his home state gave him renewed momentum in the Republican race and pushed him closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
The victories for Trump and Clinton in one of the biggest state nominating contests so far set up both front-runners for strong performances next Tuesday, when they are expected to do well in five other North-eastern state primaries.
Trump had more than 60 percent of the vote with about 40 percent counted, easily beating rivals Ted Cruz, a US senator from Texas, and Ohio Governor John Kasich and putting him in position to possibly win most or all of the state’s 95 delegates. Trump could win all of the delegates if his vote total is above 50 percent state-wide and in each of the state’s congressional districts.
Trump entered the New York contest with 756 delegates, while Cruz had 559 and Kasich had 144, according to an Associated Press count. The count includes endorsements from several delegates who are free to support the candidate of their choice.
Text CONGRATS to 47246 to tell Hillary you’re with her tonight. pic.twitter.com/ZBQ6wKlCPr
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 20, 2016
Trump said his New York win would make it almost mathematically impossible for Cruz to win the Republican nomination on the first ballot at the party’s national convention in July. Cruz, Kasich and establishment forces in the party have been trying to keep Trump from winning on the initial ballot. If Trump does not secure enough delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot at the July 18-21 conclave in Cleveland, delegates would be allowed to switch to other candidates.
Trump remains unpopular with the Republican leaders and activists who select and serve as delegates, while Cruz has invested time and money courting them. Some establishment Republicans have been alienated by Trump’s more incendiary proposals, such as building a wall along the border with Mexico and slapping a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. The New York victory will expand Clinton’s lead of 244 pledged delegates over Sanders, and make it nearly impossible for him to overcome the deficit and capture the 2,383 convention delegates needed for the nomination under Democratic rules that allocate delegates proportionally based on each state’s result.
The voting in New York was marred by irregularities, including more than 125,000 people missing from New York City voter rolls. The city has roughly 4 million voters considered active for the primaries.