Republican US presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton rolled up wins in northeastern states on Tuesday in a major show of strength and immediately turned their fire on each other in a possible preview of a general election matchup.
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The pair agreed this week to co-ordinate strategies to try to stop Mr Trump winning more state primaries, a move Mr Trump condemned as a sign of weakness and desperation.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Democratic race in Pennsylvania – the night’s biggest prize with 210 delegates going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia – as well as Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware. “The attractive thing is women don’t like her, and look at how well I did with women tonight”. A candidate needs 2,383 total delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot.
On the Republican side, Trump secured 63.6 percent of the vote in Rhode Island, 60.8 percent in DE, and 55 percent in Maryland, election officials said.
Mr Trump, the Republican businessman, pushed forward with his charge that Mrs Clinton is “playing the woman card”, telling CNN’s New Day that “she does have the woman card” but said that “a lot of women don’t like Hillary, despite the card”. IN is one of Mr Cruz’s best chances to slow Mr Trump down. He has 927 delegates overall compared with Cruz’s 559 and Kasich’s 148. “The people of California have a right to determine who they want to see as president of the United States and what kind of agenda they want the Democratic Party to have”, Sanders said, before launching yet another attack on Clinton, calling her a candidate who raises “millions of dollars from Wall Street and the drug companies and the fossil fuel industries”.
She seemed to support Sen.
Quinnipiac University Political Science Professor Scott McLean says Clinton should thank voters in Connecticut’s largest cities for her victory.
In her victory speech, Clinton gave a nod to Sanders and spoke of the need for party unity.
Cruz and Sanders meanwhile were looking forward to states yet to vote with rallies on Tuesday evening in IN and West Virginia.
Trump’s win in Pennsylvania, the biggest prize in Tuesday’s five contests, lends a boost to his embattled campaign which is facing a growing challenge from rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich who announced this week that they are teaming up to thwart his rise.
Her wins will make it increasingly hard for Sanders to overtake her lead in delegates, raising questions as to how long he will remain in the race. Clinton’s victories build on her resounding success in NY, which stunted Sanders’ momentum and left the Vermont Senator fending off calls from Clinton supporters to fold his campaign so that she can start exclusively targeting Republicans.
Sanders has vowed to stay in the race until voting wraps up in June.
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Sanders ended Tuesday night with 1,306 delegates, factoring in superdelegates.
