Some 95 delegates were up for grabs for the Republican party and 247 delegates were at stake for the Democrats. And while Cruz has been successful in notching delegate victories in recent weeks at GOP conventions in Wyoming, Colorado and North Dakota, states up on the calendar next week in the Northeast don’t look promising for the Texas senator. Trump was widely expected to beat his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich in Tuesday’s election.
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Even before the NY results are in, Clinton’s campaign is declaring the Democratic race virtually over and warning rival Bernie Sanders that he risked damaging the party’s eventual nominee if he keeps up harsh criticism of the former secretary of state. And Kasich is actually leading Trump in New York County (Manhattan). Clinton’s campaign has cast NY as a make-or-break moment for the Democratic race.
With Sanders putting up a strong fight against Clinton, New York has been the scene of some of the harshest exchanges between the two Democrats who both call the state home.
Going into the NY primary, Trump was 481 delegates shy of reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination.
“We don’t have much of a race anymore”, Trump said during a victory celebration at Trump Tower, the same venue where he launched his presidential campaign in June. In a nod to her role as a NY senator a decade ago, she tells supporters they helped prove “once again, there’s no place like home”.
Heading into Tuesday, Trump and Clinton found themselves in a similar position: hoping to gain validation and momentum after a string of disappointments.
CNN said Trump won the Republican primary with 68.6% of the vote, streets ahead of his evangelical rival Ted Cruz on 13.6% and Ohio Governor John Kasich on 17.8%, with one% of the vote counted. In order for Trump to win the nomination before the convention, he will need to win roughly 60 percent of the remaining delegates, including those from tonight’s primary.
Trump is facing not just party rules that may not favour him, but disapproval from many Republican leaders – who have been alarmed by his proposals such as building a wall along the border with Mexico and slapping a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. Candidates blanketed every corner of the state, from Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs to working class enclaves in Buffalo and Syracuse.
“We must unite the Republican Party because doing so is the first step in uniting all Americans”, Cruz said in formal remarks. Cruz’s campaign feels confident that it’s mastered the complicated process of lining up individual delegates who could shift their support to the Texas senator after a first round of convention balloting.
Having spent months relying on a slim staff, Trump has started hiring more seasoned campaign veterans. It takes 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.
Cruz downplayed the billionaire businessman’s win as little more than “a politician winning his home state”.
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On the Republican side, Donald Trump went to vote today while recovering from a slip up Monday night when he called the 9-11 terrorist attacks the 7-Eleven terrorist attacks. Securing the GOP nomination requires 1,237.
