Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, responded Friday to Hillary Clinton’s earlier claims that she had received more primary and caucus votes than the New York businessman.
“I have gotten more votes than anybody running, 2.3 million more than Senator Sanders. And it is 1.4 million more than Donald Trump,” the Democratic favorite said during a CNN debate Thursday night. After 32 state primaries and caucuses, Clinton currently leads all candidates with 9.3 million total votes.
Trump shot back at Clinton while addressing approximately 7,000 attendees at a rally in Hartford, Conn. The billionaire real estate mogul minimized her lead in the popular vote, criticized low Democratic turnout and attacked Clinton’s ability to grow the economy.
“Hillary Clinton got up yesterday, said I have more votes than Trump by a million or something. I’ve been running against 17 people. She’s running against one. If I was running against four or five, I would have millions of votes against Hillary Clinton,” Trump told the Connecticut Convention Center audience.
The businessman-turned-politician said he trails Clinton’s turnout rate by “about a million” votes, but celebrated the Republican Party’s turnout in 2016 compared to the 2012 election. The party has seen a 70 percent jump in those figures while Democrats have seen 30 percent drop in participation this year compared to President Obama’s second election.
Both political parties are scheduled to have primaries in Connecticut on April 26. The Republicans will award the 28 delegates to the candidate who surpasses 50 percent of the party’s vote and wins all five of the state’s congressional districts.
Last week’s poll of GOP voters by Emerson put Trump at 50 percent while Ohio Gov. John Kasich took 26 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finished with 17 percent.
