Peter Munro
Naked Politics Blogger
Who won?
Instantly, Donald Trump was projected to be the clear winner with a strong margin of 60% on the Republican side. Ted Cruz, the main hope for anti-Trump conservatives, had a terrible night, struggling to gain just 15% of the vote. He finished behind Kasich who placed in second with a respectable 25%, especially considering his previous results.
On the Democratic side, Hillary won the primary with 57% of the vote. Whereas, Bernie Sanders finished with 43% on the night, a good percentage that would never have been expected when he announced his candidacy last year.
What does this mean?
Well, for the Republicans, this was not an unexpected result. New York is Trump’s home state and he currently resides in the Trump Tower penthouse, the inside of which, is utterly covered in gold. His margin is not surprising and the delegates that he is receiving tonight will assist him in getting closer to the magic number that is required for automatic nomination.
In contrast, Ted Cruz had absolutely nothing to offer New Yorkers tonight. The Texan not long ago slammed the idea of “New York values” and has never recovered in polls since. Despite the fact that it was an expected loss, it is still a setback nonetheless as he picked up 0 delegates. Cruz has had a tough time recently, particularly as he is realistically, the only candidate who can stop Trump reaching that magic number.
The fact that Kasich’s picked up a few delegates tonight means that Cruz will probably have to change his opinion of him. He now needs Kasich to stay in the race in order to take away as many delegates from Trump as possible.
For the Democrats, this was also not a surprise result; Clinton also lives in the state and has been a Senator here for 8 years, leading the fightback after the 9/11 attacks. She even mentions that this is her “adopted home”. Additionally, the Secretary of State, as the ‘establishment candidate’, has a large party base that gives her massive support, especially from more moderate democrats who do not agree with Bernie’s policies.
Bernie, despite receiving a good percentage of the vote, needs more delegates if he is going to seriously challenge Clinton’s campaign. New York was a big ask for Bernie, but he has done impressively in the state, especially when we consider how many pundits wrote him off completely, not just in the state, but throughout the whole primary.
What next?
As mentioned, Cruz desperately needs Kasich to stay in the race and hope that he steals valuable delegates away from Donald Trump before he runs away with the competition. It is undeniable that, especially with the upcoming East coast states, Cruz has a very tough time ahead. Trump is looking to do extremely well in these upcoming states, so Cruz is going to have to pull of something special to gain any delegates in the near future.
It is now up to Hillary to be magnanimous and take this opportunity to win this race. Too many times has she done extremely well in a primary, and then not run off with the competition. This is another chance for her to pull away from Sanders and make his path even more difficult. He has to think about his message going forward. Despite the rising tension between the Democrats, Hillary noted in her victory speech that “there is more that unites us than divides us”.
The next primary is Connecticut on 26th April, followed by Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Indiana’s primary is on 3rd May. It’s going to be a pivotal one.