Donald Trump swept all five Republican primaries held Tuesday, beating back a new alliance between Ted Cruz and John Kasich designed to deny him the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the Republican nomination on the first ballot at the convention in July.
Hillary Clinton won the biggest prize of all on the Democratic prize by taking Pennsylvania. She also took the primaries in Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut. But Bernie Sanders battled back with a win in Rhode Island and kept it close in Connecticut.
Voters in five Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states headed to the polls Tuesday as Clinton and Trump hope to solidify their status as their parties’ presidential front-runners.
Both Cruz and Kasich have been mathematically eliminated from winning an outright majority themselves through the primary process. Trump can still do so, but his path will be difficult and he has little margin for error.
The billionaire led in each state by anywhere from 21 to 37 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling averages, while Cruz and Kasich are bunched together and far behind.
Kasich and Cruz still might be able to deny Trump delegates in the states that award them by congressional district. Only Delaware is truly winner-take-all and the Ohio governor prevented Trump from getting a clean sweep in New York last week while Cruz was shut out.
Pennsylvania’s 54 unbound delegates will remain in play long after Tuesday’s vote and could be pivotal if Trump gets close to capturing a majority but doesn’t quite get there.
Strategic anti-Trump voting, where Republicans who dislike the front-running billionaire support the candidate who is best positioned to beat him or at least deny him a few delegates, could be a factor. Kasich is considered stronger in the Northeast, though Cruz has leapfrogged him for second in recent Pennsylvania polling and still has his fervent backers who might not have gotten the #NeverTrump memo.
“He’s a constitutional conservative. He’s got a better chance to beat Trump,” said George Godding of Chevy Chase Village, Md., explaining his vote for Cruz. “I like Kasich too, but he’s just not going to make it.”
Clinton is in a stronger position than Trump. Every win she gets makes Sanders’ already difficult path to the Democratic nomination more arduous. She didn’t manage a clean sweep Tuesday night, but she did enough to keep a majority out of Sanders’ reach.
The former secretary of state’s supporters will likely use her primary victories to enhance pressure on Sanders to at least stop criticizing Clinton and possibly even drop out of the race. The once-civil Democratic contest got more contentious during a stretch where Sanders piled up caucus wins and pulled into a near-tie with Clinton nationally.
Sanders doesn’t sound like a candidate who is planning on going quietly into the good night anytime soon. On Tuesday, his campaign sent out a fundraising solicitation that showed Clinton attending Trump’s 2006 wedding and being all smiles.
“Let me be clear, there is only one candidate in this Democratic primary who Donald Trump said would make a ‘great president,’ and it’s not Bernie Sanders,” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver wrote in the email to supporters.
Sanders’ success in raising money from small donors could keep him in the race even if he does poorly in Tuesday’s primaries. The party establishment has little influence on these contributors and they may continue to believe in Bernie no matter what happens on Election Day.
Trump has recently expanded his critique of the “rigged” Republican nominating process to include digs at the Democrats. Bernie Sanders has been treated terribly by the Democrats — both with delegates [and] otherwise,” the Republican tweeted. “He should show them, and run as an Independent!”
The delegate math for Sanders, however, has grown daunting.
Tuesday night will also feature two major Democratic primaries for Senate. In Pennsylvania, the party establishment hopes to push Katie McGinty over the finish line against Joe Sestak, who lost to Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in 2010.
Chris Van Hollen is facing off against Donna Edwards in the Maryland Democratic senatorial primary. Both sitting House members, Van Hollen has the edge in endorsements while Edwards is trying to rally the state’s large contingent of African-American Democratic voters.
Maryland Democrat Tom Carroll, a veteran of the international development field, told the Washington Examiner he voted for Van Hollen because he is “just an amazing candidate. I’d vote for [Edwards] in any other election.”
Tim Carney contributed to this report.
