US nomination race narrows
AFTER BIG NEW YORK WINS, TRUMP AND CLINTON CAST THEMSELVES AS INEVITABLE CHOICES FOR NOMINATION
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton score big wins in New York |
Trump’s crushing defeat of Ted Cruz tilted the energy in the Republican race back to the front-runner, just as Republican National Committee members began meeting.
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton scored sweeping victories in nominating contests in their home state of New York, and immediately cited those wins to argue that they are all but unstoppable as their respective parties’ presidential nominees.
Trump’s crushing defeat of Ted Cruz in Tuesday’s primary election tilted the energy in the Republican race back to the front-runner, just as Republican National Committee members began meeting in Florida yesterday to discuss their July convention, where the nominee will be chosen.
For the Democratic favourite, Clinton’s more narrow victory over Bernie Sanders snapped a string of victories by the 74-yearold democratic socialist and gave her a much-needed lift with more tough fights ahead.
The eventual victors of the Democratic and the Republican nominating campaigns will face each other in November’s general election.
Trump’s win, celebrated to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York at Trump Tower in Manhattan, marked a rebound from his Wisconsin defeat two weeks ago. It set him up for another big night on April 26, when Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland will hold primaries.
With a campaign staff reboot and a more focused performance, Trump has sought to improve in recent weeks as a candidate. The tone of his victory speech was in keeping with a more measured style the often brash billionaire has adopted.
“We don’t have much of a race anymore based on what I’m seeing on television,” Trump said as television networks projected a large margin of victory for him. “Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated.” Trump, 69, predicted some “amazing weeks” ahead for his campaign.
Still, he has a long way to go to seal the nomination and begin trying to heal the wounds in his bitterly divided party.
Some fence-mending may happen when he sends campaign advisers to the RNC meeting, which started in Hollywood, Florida, yesterday.
Trump’s haul of most of New York’s 95 delegates moved him closer to the 1,237 needed to win the nomination outright.
Anything short of that will lead to a contested convention when Republicans hold their national conclave July 18-21 in Cleveland.
“There’s only two issues left for Republicans: Will Trump get 50 per cent of the delegates prior to Cleveland, and if not, how close will he be? New York gives him a nice boost, but it will take weeks before we know the answer,” said Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary under former President George W. Bush.
Cruz, a 45-year-old US senator from Texas, came in third in New York and gave his primary night speech in Philadelphia, where he was already focused on running in Pennsylvania. He called on Republicans to unite around his candidacy.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, 63, is seeking to use his secondplace showing in New York as proof he is emerging as Trump’s central challenger.
Clinton got nowhere near the knockout punch she needed to finally put Sanders away.
But the broad smile on her face as she gave her victory speech spoke volumes about how important New York was to her bid to become the first female US president. Clinton’s win made it nearly impossible for Sanders to overtake her commanding lead in delegates needed to win the nomination.
Ted Cruz is mathematically out of winning the race. Now all he can do is be a spoiler, never a nice thing to do. I will beat Hillary!” Donald Trump | Republican presidential candidate The race for the nomination is in the home stretch, and victory is in sight.” Hillary Clinton | Democratic presidential candidate We’ve got a shot to victory. We have come a very long way in the last 11 months, and we are going to fight this out until the end of the process.” Bernie Sanders | Democratic presidential candidate