WASHINGTON POST
By Amber Phillips
Voters in five states stretching from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast went to the polls on Tuesday.
At the presidential level, Donald Trump crushed his two remaining competitors, while Hillary Clinton handily took four of the five states in play, extending her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders.
Fix Boss Chris Cillizza picked some winners and some losers from the night that was. They're below, and check out more Fix primary coverage here.
Winners
Donald Trump: This was an an absolutely sweeping across-the-board victory for the real estate mogul. Trump, as expected, won all five states. But his huge margins of victory exceeded expectations. From a delegate perspective, this may wind up being Trump's single best night of the primary process. His massive wins in Connecticut and Maryland help him run up the delegate score. His big margin in Pennsylvania should be a persuasive argument for the 54 unbound delegates the state sends to the Republican National Convention. And what's clear is that Trump is getting stronger and stronger as the race moves to Indiana on May 3, a state that the anti-Trump forces now must win in order to blunt his momentum heading into the critical California primary on June 7. If Trump wins Indiana, the race will be all but over.
The simple fact is this: Trump just keeps winning and, increasingly, winning across all subgroups and demographics within the GOP. He still isn't a numeric lock to get to the 1,237 delegates he needs. But man oh man is he sitting pretty right now.
So much for that “pivot” to being “presidential”: Last night, during his victory speech, Trump declared: “Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she’d get 5 percent of the vote."
“I think the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else going on,” he said at Trump Tower. “The only thing she’s got going on is the women’s vote. And the beautiful thing is women don’t like her, ok?”
Earlier in the day, he boasted about actress Lena Dunham saying she’ll move to Canada if he’s elected. “She’s a B actor and has no, you know, mojo,” he said.
Hillary Clinton: Five more states came off the table Tuesday night -- including big delegate prizes in Pennsylvania and Maryland -- and Clinton remains in a commanding delegate position over Sanders. Clinton and her team are reluctant to call the race over for fear of angering Sanders supporters. And the race will keep going all the way through California in early June. But, for all intents and purposes, this one is over. To quote MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: "She has effectively put this out of reach."
In her victory speech, Clinton praised Sanders and his supporters and savaged Republicans as deeply out of touch with the needs of middle class Americans. Expect more and more of that in the coming days as Clinton continues her primary pivot and begins to focus full time on Trump.
Hillary is looking ahead to Indiana's primary next week, where she is locked in a tight race. “The state has always been a tough nut to crack for Clinton," writes Abby Phillip. “In 2008, she defeated Obama here by less than one percentage point. This year, her challenges could be similar to the ones she faced in states like Michigan (where she lost, unexpectedly) and Ohio (where she won narrowly)." Clinton was ahead 46 percent to 42 percent in the latest Fox News poll from the Hoosier State, where 92 delegates are at stake.
Losers
Ted Cruz: He finished a humiliating third place in four of the five states that voted. Remember that Cruz is now the de facto establishment candidate. And that Kasich has won a total of one state and has fewer delegates than Marco Rubio, who left the race in March. Soooo....why the heck is he not only getting blown out by The Donald but losing to Kasich? Momentum matters to Cruz. And, as of Wednesday morning, Cruz will be at a dead stop. Look for him to pull out all the stops he has to get restarted.
Tuesday can only be described as another debacle for the Stop Trump movement.The Texas senator’s very real problem is that anti-Trump voters are not rallying behind him as the best alternative. Not that Maryland will be competitive in the fall, but 57 percent of Maryland Republicans said they would definitely vote for Trump if he became the party’s nominee, compared to only 37 percent who said they’d definitely back Cruz.
Trump’s victories raise the stakes for next week’s Indiana primary. Dan Balz calls it “a make-or-break event” for Cruz:“A defeat in Indiana, though not a mathematical ending to the nomination battle, would nonetheless be a crippling blow to what is left of his strategy for winning.”
Bernie Sanders: “Even if Sanders were to score a blowout in California, which offers more than 500 delegates on June 7, Clinton appears certain to have locked up the nomination." It's not a question of if Sanders loses now, it's a question of when he decides to leave the race -- and what he wants as a parting gift. Presumably that will be some major influence over the party platform at the convention (unlikely) and/or a prominent speaking role at that convention (likely). The thing to watch now is whether Sanders tempers his rhetoric against Clinton, a tacit acknowledgement that the math is close to conclusive, or whether he keeps going at her hammer and tongs. His most ardent supporters -- are there any other kind when it comes to Sanders? -- won't want him to pull any punches. How much does he listen to them? And how much should he?
Fix Boss Chris Cillizza picked some winners and some losers from the night that was. They're below, and check out more Fix primary coverage here.
Winners
Donald Trump: This was an an absolutely sweeping across-the-board victory for the real estate mogul. Trump, as expected, won all five states. But his huge margins of victory exceeded expectations. From a delegate perspective, this may wind up being Trump's single best night of the primary process. His massive wins in Connecticut and Maryland help him run up the delegate score. His big margin in Pennsylvania should be a persuasive argument for the 54 unbound delegates the state sends to the Republican National Convention. And what's clear is that Trump is getting stronger and stronger as the race moves to Indiana on May 3, a state that the anti-Trump forces now must win in order to blunt his momentum heading into the critical California primary on June 7. If Trump wins Indiana, the race will be all but over.
The simple fact is this: Trump just keeps winning and, increasingly, winning across all subgroups and demographics within the GOP. He still isn't a numeric lock to get to the 1,237 delegates he needs. But man oh man is he sitting pretty right now.
So much for that “pivot” to being “presidential”: Last night, during his victory speech, Trump declared: “Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she’d get 5 percent of the vote."
“I think the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else going on,” he said at Trump Tower. “The only thing she’s got going on is the women’s vote. And the beautiful thing is women don’t like her, ok?”
Earlier in the day, he boasted about actress Lena Dunham saying she’ll move to Canada if he’s elected. “She’s a B actor and has no, you know, mojo,” he said.
Hillary Clinton: Five more states came off the table Tuesday night -- including big delegate prizes in Pennsylvania and Maryland -- and Clinton remains in a commanding delegate position over Sanders. Clinton and her team are reluctant to call the race over for fear of angering Sanders supporters. And the race will keep going all the way through California in early June. But, for all intents and purposes, this one is over. To quote MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: "She has effectively put this out of reach."
In her victory speech, Clinton praised Sanders and his supporters and savaged Republicans as deeply out of touch with the needs of middle class Americans. Expect more and more of that in the coming days as Clinton continues her primary pivot and begins to focus full time on Trump.
Hillary is looking ahead to Indiana's primary next week, where she is locked in a tight race. “The state has always been a tough nut to crack for Clinton," writes Abby Phillip. “In 2008, she defeated Obama here by less than one percentage point. This year, her challenges could be similar to the ones she faced in states like Michigan (where she lost, unexpectedly) and Ohio (where she won narrowly)." Clinton was ahead 46 percent to 42 percent in the latest Fox News poll from the Hoosier State, where 92 delegates are at stake.
Losers
Ted Cruz: He finished a humiliating third place in four of the five states that voted. Remember that Cruz is now the de facto establishment candidate. And that Kasich has won a total of one state and has fewer delegates than Marco Rubio, who left the race in March. Soooo....why the heck is he not only getting blown out by The Donald but losing to Kasich? Momentum matters to Cruz. And, as of Wednesday morning, Cruz will be at a dead stop. Look for him to pull out all the stops he has to get restarted.
Tuesday can only be described as another debacle for the Stop Trump movement.The Texas senator’s very real problem is that anti-Trump voters are not rallying behind him as the best alternative. Not that Maryland will be competitive in the fall, but 57 percent of Maryland Republicans said they would definitely vote for Trump if he became the party’s nominee, compared to only 37 percent who said they’d definitely back Cruz.
Trump’s victories raise the stakes for next week’s Indiana primary. Dan Balz calls it “a make-or-break event” for Cruz:“A defeat in Indiana, though not a mathematical ending to the nomination battle, would nonetheless be a crippling blow to what is left of his strategy for winning.”
Bernie Sanders: “Even if Sanders were to score a blowout in California, which offers more than 500 delegates on June 7, Clinton appears certain to have locked up the nomination." It's not a question of if Sanders loses now, it's a question of when he decides to leave the race -- and what he wants as a parting gift. Presumably that will be some major influence over the party platform at the convention (unlikely) and/or a prominent speaking role at that convention (likely). The thing to watch now is whether Sanders tempers his rhetoric against Clinton, a tacit acknowledgement that the math is close to conclusive, or whether he keeps going at her hammer and tongs. His most ardent supporters -- are there any other kind when it comes to Sanders? -- won't want him to pull any punches. How much does he listen to them? And how much should he?