The grand plan by the establishment Republican Party to block Donald Trump hit another major bump in the road as he swept the five northeastern states on the ballot today by overwhelming majorities. Trump easily won primary elections in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
He captured more than 60% of the vote in Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. In the large, diverse state of Pennsylvania he captured nearly 60% of the vote and won in every part of the state- urban, suburban and rural. Trump is winning about 54% of the vote in Maryland, including the suburban D.C. area where Washington insiders predominate. Cruz is running dead last in all of the states but Pennsylvania, and he barely cracked 20% of the vote there.
It's also another big night for Hillary Clinton. She has convincingly won Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania and narrowly won in Connecticut, while Sanders won Rhode Island. There is no mathematical possibility of Sanders winning the nomination at this point. Trump, on the other hand, did everything he needed to keep his hopes alive of winning the magical 1,237 delegates he needs to win the Republican nomination on a first ballot.
With his clean sweep tonight, he's getting very close to having 1,000 delegates, or close to 400 more than Cruz. Despite his overwhelming win in Pennsylvania, archaic party rules guaranteed him only 17 delegates. He'll have to wrestle with the other candidates in the field to win over the 54 unpledged delegates. Trump is the only candidate coming into next week's Indiana primary with any momentum. Cruz has pretty much made Indiana his last stand. If he is unable to beat Trump here next week, it's unlikely he will win any of the significant state races yet to be decided.
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