Trump’s big victory in his home state gave him renewed momentum in the Republican race and pushed him closer to the 1,237 delegates required to win the nomination.
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Trump entered the NY contest with 756 delegates, while Cruz had 559 and Kasich had 144, according to an Associated Press count.
After Donald Trump lost the Wisconsin primary two weeks ago by a double-digit margin to Ted Cruz, he was garnering about 54 percent in the New York GOP primary polls.
Trump, a real estate billionaire, had 60 percent of the vote to 25 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and 15 percent for Texas Sen. “They continue that trend with Donald Trump”, Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said in a statement.
For progressives it’s sometimes hard to know whether there’s more delight to be had in the plight of Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, but Tuesday’s NY primary certainly delivered pleasure on the Cruz side of that equation. That’s because he remains unpopular with the Republican Party leaders and activists who serve as delegates at the summer nominating convention.
Democrats are unified behind Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, as a new poll shows that her lead has grown to 13 points in the state and 81% of respondents say they will vote for her in November. The political parties are choosing the standard-bearers they will submit to voters in general elections, not conducting an exercise in direct democracy (though it is not likely one of those would have enabled Sanders to win, either).
After New York, candidates will set their sights on the northeast, with Pennsylvania being the big prize. Kasich’s victory in the borough came out of a total of 24,887 Republican votes cast, compared to 267,723 total Democratic votes in the borough.
Dionne’s point was that Cruz “forgot that there are conservative NY values, too”. “This is about getting to 1237”, he said.
She made a plea to Sanders’s voters to join forces with her, telling them, “I believe there is much more that unites us than divides us”.
“I’m so excited to share with you what America has learned over the past few months, and it has nothing to do with a politician winning his home state tonight”, Cruz told a gathering in Philadelphia Tuesday night. Both dominated the balloting in New York City as well as the rest of the state.
But despite the odds, Cruz is still pushing forward in the race for the Republican nomination.
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Ninety-five delegates were up for grabs in the Empire State. But, practically speaking, it is now hard to see how either Cruz or Sanders could get enough delegates to win.
