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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

The Empire State of Politics

The pressure period is beginning for Republican presidential contender Donald Trump. New Yorkers vote today in the state where he is heavily favored. Mr. Trump will also likely place first in the next five eastern venue primaries scheduled for April 26th. However, in order to score a first ballot victory, Trump must not only win these states, but corral a combined 70%+ average of the available delegate votes, or risk going to a contested convention. 

Both Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton are expected to place first in their respective intra-party contests tonight, and by significant margins. Trump, however, needs to pull over 80% of his home state delegate vote, which will be no easy feat under the complex New York Republican delegate apportionment system. 

Ms. Clinton, on the other hand, will obtain far more than she needs to meet her state delegate quota. The former Secretary of State and New York Senator needs only 30% of the remaining delegates nationwide to clinch the party nomination. Looking to get 175 of the state’s 291 Democratic delegates, Ms. Clinton will have little trouble in making her former electorate a major win, and one that becomes the next serious step toward her mathematically clinching the nomination. 

 For Trump to score big, he needs to capture an absolute statewide majority, something he has yet to do in any state (Massachusetts has been his strongest domain at 49.3%). Under NY rules, all 11 at-large delegates are awarded a candidate who exceeds 50% of the statewide vote. 

In order to sweep the state, Trump – or any candidate – would have to then break 50% in each of the state’s 27 congressional districts, a performance that is highly unlikely. If no candidate scores an absolute district majority, the first place finisher is awarded two delegates, and the person capturing second position gains one. Therefore, under such a system, any leading candidate would have a difficult time in securing the overwhelming number of delegate commitments. 

Below are the latest unofficial delegate results:

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