Frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won their home state of New York during Tuesday’s primaries, The Associated Press has reported.
Clinton managed to score her first win in almost a month, putting an abrupt end to rival Bernie Sanders’ streak of seven consecutive victories. Another win — and in Clinton’s adopted home state, no less — would have spelled disaster for the former secretary of state.
With 247 Democratic delegates at stake in New York, divided proportionally based on the vote, Clinton stands to increase her lead over her upstart challenger.
“We started this race, not far from here on Roosevelt Island,” Clinton told supporters during her speech in New York City. “Victory is in sight.”
On the Republican side, Trump, a New York native, clinched a decisive victory with networks projecting his win within seconds of polls closing.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich came in second among the state’s GOP voters and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trailed in third place.
As soon as Trump was declared the winner, the city’s iconic Empire State building turned red in his honor. (The landmark lit up in dark blue when Clinton was declared the winner on the Democratic side.)
As Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” played in the background, Trump took to the stage at his Trump Tower in Manhattan, telling supporters, “We don’t have much of a race anymore, based on what I’m seeing on television. Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated.”
The Manhattan real estate developer — who’s been struggling to reshape his staff amid recent delegate losses in Wyoming, Colorado, Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina — could claim a majority of the 95 delegates if he captures more than 50 percent of the vote in each of the state’s 27 congressional districts.
The win gives Trump a much-needed boost as he heads into Pennsylvania and Indiana, which have emerged — along with California — as must-wins in the GOP contest.
With 90 percent of the votes in, Trump scored 60 percent, Kasich followed with 25 percent, while Cruz got 15 percent. Meanwhile, Clinton received 57.5 percent to Sanders’ 42.5 percent in initial tallies.
According to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research, a majority of GOP voters said they believed the candidate with the most votes going into the convention should be the party’s presidential nominee. Voters from both parties also said they’re concerned about the economy and Wall Street.
Nearly 6 in 10 New York Republican voters say their party has been divided by the nomination process, while only 3 in 10 Democratic voters say the same about their party.
About 70 percent of Democratic voters said that they would definitely or probably vote for their second choice candidate, if he or she became the party’s nominee.