Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both picked up a win in their respective New York primaries Tuesday, marking another major milestone in the 2016 presidential campaign trail.
New York makes 34 states that have held Republican primaries and 35 states that have held Democratic primaries. More than two months have passed since the first primaries were held in Iowa, and thousands of delegates have been awarded. Trump and Clinton hold lofty leads over their closest competitors — Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, respectively — but winning New York means something different to each candidate.
Trump, Clinton and Sanders are all New Yorkers in some form or another. Trump was born in Queens and Sanders in Brooklyn. Clinton was born in Chicago, but worked as a senator of New York for eight years. Trump’s infamous Trump Tower is in New York City, and Sanders has a very clear Brooklyn accent, something he’s become famous for.
Cruz stood very little chance of winning in New York, and a win in New York for Trump isn’t quite as significant as it might have been two months ago. New York has simply been added to the growing list of victories the businessman has accumulated, putting him at 21 wins. While Trump certainly wasn’t desperate for votes, there were a couple of significant votes he didn’t receive — his childrens’.
Eric and Ivanka Trump missed the deadline to register to vote in New York as Republicans, another failure in a list of missteps that have plagued the Trump campaign in the past few weeks. His win in New York could dispel some concern of the GOP frontrunner losing steam and prove to voters that a few mistakes do not make a disaster as far as Trump is concerned.
A win in New York is a much larger success for Hillary Clinton, who has now broken a a seven-state losing streak.
The rhetoric between the two Democratic candidates has taken on a much more hostile tone in the past two weeks. The candidates faced off for their first debate in a month Thursday last week, which continued the heated confrontations the two have had for the past two weeks. Sanders gained some confidence recently with his wins, and while Clinton’s victory in New York wasn’t unexpected based on the polls, an upset would have been incredible for his campaign.
Less than 20 states still have primaries to host, and in three months the parties will host their respective conventions. There’s still time for things to change and for the gaps to narrow, but Clinton and Trump have established themselves as the party front-runners.
No further debates have been concretely scheduled for either party, and the next primary elections will take place Tuesday in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, making it likely that Sanders will have a good next week.
The Vermont senator has done well in states that are nothern, mainly white and mainly suburban, and each of the five states heading to the polls next week fit those descriptions. Maryland and Pennsylvania both have pretty high delegate counts — 95 in Maryland and 189 in Pennsylvania — but they shy in comparison to the 247 Democratic delegates New York boasted. In order for next week to really make a dent in Clinton’s campaign, each win in those states will need to be, to coin a Sanders’-Trump term, “yuge.”
Sam King is a communication junior and news editor of The Battalion.
Trump, Clinton claim victories in New York
April 20, 2016
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