Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton cast their big wins in New York’s nominating contests as a sign they are now all but unstoppable in their race to be the presidential nominees for their respective parties. The Keystone State is likely to vote similarly to NY, but it also has 54 uncommitted delegates that may well be key to Trump in building up to the 1,237 that he needs. Neither has a mathematical chance of clinching the nomination before the Republican convention in July, though they hope to block Trump’s path and overtake him at the GOP gathering.
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“After her win in NY this week, these numbers in nearby Pennsylvania suggest that the entire northeast is looking pretty good for the Clinton campaign”, Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement accompanying the poll’s release.
In the Democratic race, Clinton won the statement victory she needed over U.S. Sen.
For her part, Clinton did almost as well as Trump in percentage terms with 58 percent, while she outpolled Trump in the raw vote by nearly half a million.
Following her win in New York, Clinton made clear she was focusing on the general election after her unexpectedly competitive primary battle with Bernie Sanders. The former secretary of state holds a 61% to 32% edge among women, compared to Sanders’ smaller 50% to 41% advantage with men. She could lose them all and still win the nomination – if she does well enough to win some delegates.
The results in NY are very bad news for the Cruz campaign.
Of the 247 Democratic delegates at stake in New York, Clinton picked up at least 135 while Sanders gained at least 104. Asked whether Cruz could win on the first ballot, she said, “We’re not going to get into the prediction game”.
“She’s the person I think who can continue to lead this country in the right direction”, said Democratic National Committee member Valarie McCall, of Cleveland, now for Clinton. Ted Cruz, deeming both “dangerous” for America.
His chief rival, Texas Sen.
Clinton has said her lead in pledged delegates over Sanders is larger than the advantage Barack Obama ever had over her in their 2008 primary fight.
Several Cruz supporters in the crowd said they hope the race will not end up pitting Mr. Trump against Ms. Clinton. However, his senior adviser, Tad Devine, said later that the campaign planned to “sit back and assess where we are” after a string of contests next week. The victory marks a rebound for Trump after a hard few weeks of gaffes, campaign upheaval and a loss in Wisconsin on April 5.
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Trump, the billionaire real-estate mogul, got a major boost in his quest to secure the Republican nomination with a majority of delegates but could not eliminate the possibility of a contested convention. The ad onslaught has come with a more negative tone going after her character – the issue Republicans want to put front and center in the fall election – and that has frustrated Clinton and her team.
