Hillary Clinton nearly locks up nomination with wins in several Northeast primaries
Apr 26, 2016, 7:35 PM | Updated: 8:12 pm
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton smiles during a campaign stop, Monday, April 25, 2016, at City Hall in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Hillary Clinton is just a few hundred delegates from claiming the Democratic presidential nomination after taking Bernie Sanders in four out of five Northeast primaries on Tuesday.
BREAKING: Trump wins Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland; Clinton wins Maryland. @AP race call at 8 p.m. EDT. #Election2016 #APracecall
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2016
BREAKING: Hillary Clinton wins Democratic primary in Delaware. @AP race call at 8:38 p.m. EDT. #Election2016 #APracecall
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2016
#Breaking: CNN projects Hillary Clinton will win the Pennsylvania Democratic primary https://t.co/71oF3H6C30 pic.twitter.com/G0Yi3VDO4N
— CNN (@CNN) April 27, 2016
BREAKING: Hillary Clinton wins Democratic primary in Connecticut. @AP race call at 10:31 p.m. EDT. #Election2016 #APracecall
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2016
Sanders took home one healthy win in Rhode Island.
BREAKING: Bernie Sanders wins Democratic primary in Rhode Island. @AP race call at 9:11 p.m. EDT. #Election2016 #APracecall
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2016
Clinton claimed a healthy portion of the 384 available delegates in primaries held Tuesday across five states: Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
As a result, Clinton took home 50 delegates in Maryland, 91 in Pennsylvania, 11 in Rhode Island, 26 in Connecticut and 12 in Delaware.
Sanders took 20 in Maryland, 48 in Pennsylvania, 13 in Rhode Island, nine in Delaware and 24 in Connecticut.
Though Tuesday was not enough to officially clinch the nomination, it effectively sounded the death knell for Sanders’ campaign.
Clinton has crossed the 2,000 delegate mark, boasting 2,137 total. More than 500 of those were superdelegates, which can support any candidate. The delegates needed to clinch the nomination are 2,383.
BREAKING: Clinton has at least 90 percent of delegates needed to win Democratic nomination, when superdelegates are included.
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2016
Sanders’ team has sent mixed signals about his standing in the race, with one top adviser suggesting a tough night would push the Vermont senator to reassess his bid and another vowing to fight “all the way to the convention.”
In a statement released after the final votes came in on Tuesday, Sanders said he would remain in the race for president, despite his lack of delegates.
“The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be,” the statement read. “That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast.”
The statement continued to state that Sanders would take his campaign to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia ahead of the November election.
Sanders said candidly on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that his campaign is “handicapped” since the states in play Tuesday don’t allow independents to participate, but added that “we are going to fight through California and then we’ll see what happens.”
For her part, Clinton has already started to look past Sanders and on to the general election, including Republican front-runner Donald Trump. She cast the billionaire businessman as out of touch with Americans while campaigning this week.
“If you want to be president of the United States, you’ve got to get familiar with the United States,” Clinton said. “Don’t just fly that big jet in and land it and go make a big speech and insult everybody you can think of.”
