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.”