Trump, Clinton Claim Paths To Victory After New York

By: Lorin McLain

It’s no wonder the New York primaries mattered more this year than previous election cycles. After Tuesday night’s blowout by the GOP and Democratic frontrunners, both say their paths to victory are pretty much guaranteed. Donald Trump took more than 60 percent of the GOP votes, earning all but six of the state’s 95 delegates. Former NY Senator Hillary Clinton won over Brooklyn-born Bernie Sanders by 58 percent to 42 percent. Both will split the state’s 247 delegates in proportion to vote totals.

The New York primaries leave Trump with 845 delegates of the 1237 needed to lock the nomination. Clinton has 1,930 of the 2,382 needed to be the Democratic candidate, while Sanders has 1,189 (both totals include super delegates). Trump took his win to assure his supporters in a victory speech that his main rival Ted Cruz “is just about mathematically eliminated” from any possibility of clinching his party’s nomination. Clinton said her win was “a home stretch for the nomination and victory is in sight.” Sanders’ campaign maintains they have a path to victory, downplaying the loss Wednesday morning citing the race in 2008 when then Senator Obama in New York lost the state by a larger margin. Still, after a string of primary victories for Sanders, the loss cost him what could have been a change of dynamics in the Democratic race.

The good news keeps going for both front-runners heading into the next Super Tuesday on April 26th, when voters in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island make their choice. Current polls show those states heavily in favor of the frontrunners. The most recent major polls show Trump leading by at least 15 points in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland, and Clinton by more than ten points in Pennsylvania, more than 20 points in Maryland, and eight points in Connecticut. Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware are winner-take-all states for the Republicans where a total of 125 delegates are at stake. All states are proportional for the Democrats.

Senator Cruz and Ohio Governor Kasich currently trail Trump with 559 delegates and 147 respectively. Both are banking the GOP’s delegates are going to switch to their side at the Republican convention in July if Trump fails to clinch the 1237 needed. Trump has been practically at war with his party since he lost to Ted Cruz in a closed caucus process in Colorado, where party committees selected delegates. Trump railed against the results, accusing the Republican National Committee of setting up “corrupt” rules to allow Ted Cruz or another candidate to “steal” the election. After winning New York, the billionaire candidate told supporters a failure of him grabbing nomination would prove “it’s a system that is rigged.”