Trump wins big in New York, will score huge delegate haul
NEW YORK — Donald Trump scored an easy win in Tuesday's New York primary and was poised to claim the vast majority of his home state's 95 delegates as he predicted imminent victory in the Republican presidential nomination race.
"We don't have much of a race anymore," Trump said during a victory celebration at Trump Tower, the same venue where he launched his presidential bid back in June.
Arriving on stage to the booming sounds of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," Trump said it would be "impossible" for rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich to catch him in the Republican delegate race and that he would have enough support before the convention opens July 18 in Cleveland.
"We are going to have an amazing number of weeks," Trump said in a shorter-than-usual victory speech.
In order to take all 95 of New York's delegates, Trump would have to win more than 50% of the the votes statewide, and more than 50% in each of New York's 27 congressional districts. Late Tuesday it appeared he would end up winning all but a handful of the total.
Kasich, taking second place in New York, appeared to be winning a few delegates — his first since winning the Ohio primary March 15 — but Cruz was likely to be shut out.
The Republican presidential race now heads to other northern and eastern states where Trump is expected to do well. Five states hold primaries next Tuesday — Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island — and Cruz and Kasich have already begun campaigning in those places..
"This is the year of the outsider," Cruz told a crowd in Philadelphia. "I’m an outsider."
The Texas senator remains second in the GOP delegate chase but will trail Trump by nearly 300 in the wake of the New York results.
Kasich, speaking at a town hall Tuesday in Annapolis, Md., predicted a "deadlocked" convention that would give him a chance.
"There are no rules for the convention,” Kasich said. “None have been created yet and even if they create rules, you can be nominated from the floor.”
For Trump and Clinton: Battle won. But not the war
Trump, who stressed his opposition to existing trade deals and his status as a political outsider during his New York campaign, appeared to be rallying following weeks of reversals.
After a double-digit loss to Cruz in the Wisconsin primary April 5, Trump watched as the Texas senator scooped up groups of delegates at various state conventions and meetings in recent days. Trump accused Cruz and Republican officials of trying to "steal" the nomination from him via a "crooked" delegate selection process.
In his victory speech, Trump said his supporters would not stand for a "rigged" nomination system.
Trump has reorganized a campaign that failed to anticipate the state-by-state struggle for individual delegates. The businessman retained veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort, who has assumed most of the responsibility for running the campaign.
In New York and beyond, Cruz and Kasich have sought to block Trump from securing the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the Republican presidential nomination on the first ballot at the convention in July in Cleveland. Delegates would be unbound on subsequent ballots, and anti-Trump opponents hope to pick up support.
Though Trump currently lacks a majority of awarded GOP delegates, he told Fox and Friends on Tuesday, "We're in a position where we'd like to see if we can close it out."
Making trade a major part of his New York campaign, Trump stressed the losses of manufacturing jobs in cities throughout the state and emphasized that Cruz and Kasich have backed trade deals.
The Manhattan businessman told supporters at Trump Tower that he would push for better trade deals, and added that "we're going to keep the jobs here."
Trump bashes trade deals in appeals to New York voters
Cruz suffered in the Empire State after his crack this year that Trump represents liberal "New York values."
Many New Yorkers, even those who oppose Trump, expected the businessman to win the popular vote in his home state.
Michele Shellard, 54, who saw Kasich speak in Schenectady, said Trump is "so powerful with Republican faithful downstate and upstate." She said Trump "really has a forceful campaign," but she hoped Kasich could pick up a few delegates.
Carol Kennedy, 55, an auditor from Schenectady, said she would prefer Kasich, who is more of a "center" candidate.
"The other candidates are a little too far right," Kennedy said. "OK, a lot too far right."
Jaidann Juston, 32, a Mexican-American Trump supporter in New York City, said, "I want to live the American dream, and for me, Trump is the epitome of the American dream like he’s just the American dream times a hundred."
His family immigrated to the USA illegally in the 1960s and resides in New Mexico, but he is all for building a border wall. "I am for the wall on the Mexican border," Juston said. "I really do think that Mexico will pay for the wall."
Contributing: Deirdre Shesgreen, Emiliana Molina, Medill News Service