Our friend Pat Buchanan thinks Donald Trump is the candidate to back this election because he has reanimated the conservative-populist voters who have been ignored by the GOP elite since Ronald Reagan left the White House in 1988 and who backed Pat when he ran for president in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
Advertisement
As Sanders took a victory lap following a 14-point triumph in Wisconsin, Clinton took fresh aim at the Vermont senator as part of a three-part strategy before the NY primary on April 19: Disqualify him, defeat him, and unify the party later.
Failure to rack up 1237 delegates in time will see party faithful vote on the floor of the convention to decide the nominee – a process the Trump camp fears will not favour the real estate mogul.
However, the victories on Tuesday would be crucial for Cruz and Sanders to build momentum as the contests now move to NY, the home turf for both Trump and Clinton.
Republican presidential candidate, Sen.
Clinton still held a significant lead, with upcoming primaries in her home state NY and Pennsylvania likely to swing in her favour, despite recent losses. We have a choice. Faced with Trump as the likely opponent, Democrat voters might reasonably think their party is unbeatable in November and therefore they can indulge themselves in choosing a candidate.
“Don’t destroy the Democratic Party to satisfy the secretary’s ambitions to become president of the United States”, Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, told CNN Tuesday night. Trump was also joined backstage by several of the 30 NY county chairs who have pledged their support to the billionaire in the state’s primary. The proportion of delegates each candidate wins at the county level will be the same proportion to travel to the national convention.
“He’s a relatively new Democrat, and, in fact, I’m not even sure he is one”, Clinton told Politico’s Glenn Thrush in an interview published on Wednesday morning.
“Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet – he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump”, the statement read. Trump also leads in Pennsylvania.
“Hillary, get ready. Here we come”, he said.
The GOP race is expected to favor Trump and Kasich as the map turns East and voters are generally more moderate.
Sanders said his momentum gives him an “excellent chance” to win California, Oregon and other states.
“Cruz is ahead of everyone on this”, Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg said, describing Cruz’s aggressive but quiet delegate strategy as “equally important” to the actual votes.
With most of Wisconsin’s delegates allotted, Clinton now has 1,274 delegates to Sanders’ 1,025, based on primary and caucus results alone. When unpledged “superdelegates” were included, her lead stretched to 1,712 delegates – 2,383 are needed for nomination – to 1,011 for Sanders. If Trump is close to the magic number, for example, he might be able to scrounge up commitments from delegates in the five states and territories that didn’t have statewide presidential preference votes during the primary season.
Advertisement
If none reaches the threshold of 1,237 before the Republican primary races wrap up on June 7, the nominee could be decided at a contested convention where, after the first ballot, delegates will be free to vote according to personal preference instead of being bound by the primary results.
