Clinton and Trump take NY primaries by storm
Hillary Clinton rode to victory in Tuesday night’s Democratic Party presidential primaries in New York, consolidating her position as the front-runner to win her party’s nomination for the 2016 elections.
The ex-US Secretary of State came out on top by a wide margin, garnering 57.9% of the vote versus 42.1% for her rival Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Senator for the state of Vermont.
That left Mrs Clinton with 1,893 delegates for the Democratic convention in July to choose the party’s choice for president, compared to 1,180 for Mr Sander’s.
A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.
“Under the bright lights of New York, we have seen that it’s not enough to diagnose problems; you have to explain how you actually solve the problems,” she reportedly told a cheering crowd gathered in Times Square.
“This campaign is the only one, Democratic or Republican, to win 10m votes,” she added in a conciliatory tone to Mr Sanders supporters.
A CNN exit poll had pointed to a much more hotly contested race, with Mrs Clinton expected to come away with just 52.0% of the votes compared to 48.0% for Mr Sanders.
In parallel, Donald Trump clinched the Republican Party’s primaries in the Empire State, his home state, sweeping to victory after winning the support of 60.5% of New York’s registered Republican voters, versus 25.1% for John Kasich and 14.5% for Ted Cruz.
To take note of was the weak showing of Mr Cruz, the Republican Senator from Texas, which is known for having a different brand of conservatism than that on offer in New York.
Tuesday’s result brought Trump a step closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to win his Party’s nomination.
At last count, the Queens, New York –born Trump had 845 delegates, ahead of Mr Cruz with 559 and Mr Kasich with another 147.
However, if Mr Trump failed to win the necessary number of delegates he faced the prospect of a so-called ‘contested primary’ which allows delegates to switch their vote, potentially handing Mr.Cruz the final victory.