By Ianiz Patchedjiev
The state of New York, a state that rarely plays a major role in the Presidential Nomination Process, voted overwhelmingly in favor of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton last week, solidifying them as the leading candidates of their respective parties.
Following his victory in New York, Donald Trump was quick to claim that the was now the only candidate left that was capable of securing the 1,237 votes needed for the Republican Nomination. Indeed, the results of the New York Primary are something of a nightmare for anti-Trump Republicans; Trump dominated by securing 60.4% of the vote and winning at least 89 of the 95 total delegates. Remarkably, John Kasich managed to win 4 delegates for the first time since his victory in his home state of Ohio and Ted Cruz walked away with no delegates, a troubling sign for the only man that had a chance at overtaking Trump in terms of the delegate count. However, while Trump claims that he will certainly have enough delegates for the nomination, his opponents seem to disagree; both Kasich and Cruz claim that Trump will fail to secure enough delegates and that instead Republicans will rally around them at a contested national convention in the summer in a last-ditch effort to block Trump. Yet, if Trump performs well at the string of Primaries scheduled for April 26, it may become impossible to stop him.
Meanwhile, the New York Primary served as a crushing blow to Bernie Sanders, who had hoped that his recent winning streak of states and Brooklyn background would enable him to overtake Hillary at the Primary. At his numerous New York rallies, Sanders had repeatedly claimed that he would win, making his defeat even more crushing to his supporters. He did perform well, capturing 42% of the votes and 106 of the 247 delegates, but not nearly well enough to continue on the path to overtake Clinton, who took 58% of the votes and 139 of the delegates. Sanders plans to continue fighting, eyeing the five primaries to be held on April 26 as his last hope to stay competitive. However, what really makes this race interesting is the fact that most of his supporters, especially the young progressives that have flocked to him, refuse to support Hillary at any cost, claiming that they’ll only vote with Bernie on the ballot. This means that if or when Clinton wins the nomination, she’ll struggle to unite the party base and annex the Sanders coalition she needs if she wants to win the Presidency.
