With at least 89 of New York’s 95 delegates in hand, he insisted it was “impossible” for any of his rivals to catch him and warned party leaders against trying to take the nomination away from him at the convention. A resurgent campaign by Cruz has diminished but not ruled out the likelihood that Trump can gain the number of needed delegates, which could lead to a contested convention.
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With about half of the vote in both races, Clinton and Trump both led their primaries by roughly 60 percent.
Cruz, who finished in New York behind Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, used the end of his rally to address the front-runner’s Tuesday night win, with Trump taking all New York City boroughs except Manhattan. The Texas senator panned Trump’s win as little more than “a politician winning his home state”, then implored Republicans to unite around his candidacy. Trump’s strategy in ruling out Cruz is now part of a broader swipe at the Republican establishment and each time he talks about the race being over he’s doing his best to pile pressure on his party to bring them into line.
But to get there, Trump must win every state in the Northeast yet to vote – including Maryland, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey – as well as in and California, two delegate-rich states.
After the official results rolled in and revealed a demonstrative win in New York’s Democratic primary Tuesday, the band at Hillary Clinton’s victory party played Stevie Wonder’s classic “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”.
For Clinton, the NY victory is her first victory against Sen. Almost 7 in 10 Sanders supporters in NY said that they would definitely or probably vote for Clinton if she is the party’s pick.
Heading into yesterday, Trump led the GOP race with 744 delegates – ahead of Cruz, who had 559, and Kasich,
with 144.
Trump’s victory also sets him up for a strong performance next Tuesday, when five other Northeastern states hold nominating contests that he expects to do well in.
“But in Sanders’ back yard and other parts of upstate NY, the Vermont liberal fared well”. And with Sanders trailing on 1180 delegates to Clinton’s 1893, it seems nearly certain that Hillary will be the Democratic candidate. The remaining 81 delegates would be allocated based on the share of votes in all New York’s 27 congressional districts.
The voting in NY was marred by claims of irregularities with the state’s attorney general reporting hundreds of complaints logged on a statewide voter hotline as well as reports of thousands of people being scrubbed from voter rolls. Speaking at a rally in State College, he appeared to predict the win for his rival.
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“[Texas] Senator [Ted] Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated”, Fox News quoted Trump as saying.
