Donald Trump’s sweep of Northeast primaries keeps him on path to nomination

Donald Trump swept in all five primaries in Northeast states on Tuesday, keeping him on the narrow path to the Republican presidential nomination.

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: CNN projects Donald Trump will win the Rhode Island Republican primary https://t.co/71oF3H6C30 pic.twitter.com/Cx6eytOjcq

— CNN (@CNN) April 27, 2016

#Breaking: CNN projects Donald Trump will win the Delaware Republican primary https://t.co/71oF3H6C30 pic.twitter.com/iZnoCtu5FI

— CNN (@CNN) April 27, 2016

Trump won the majority of the 172 Republican delegates that were up for grabs across five states — Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

The business mogul took home 28 delegates in Connecticut, 35 in Maryland, 17 in Pennsylvania, 16 in Delaware and nine in Rhode Island.

In a speech on Tuesday, Trump called himself the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. He currently has 950 delegates, compared to Ted Cruz’s 560 and John Kasich’s 153. More than 1,200 are needed to win the nomination.

BREAKING: Trump declares himself GOP's 'presumptive nominee,' even though he is short of required delegates.

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2016

The largest concern for Trump going into Tuesday was Pennsylvania and its quirky system of selecting delegates.

While the statewide Republican winner gets 17 delegates, the other 54 are directly elected by voters and can support any candidate at a convention. Their names are listed on the ballot with no information about which White House hopeful they support.

Even with the complications of Pennsylvania, Trump has to feel good about his results.

Tuesday’s wins keep him on the path to winning enough delegates to claim the nomination by the time the Republican National Convention rolls around in July. He’ll need all the help he can get if he’s going to win it by then.

Not only does the New York billionaire have to win 58 percent of all remaining delegates to reach the magic number by the end of the primaries on June 7, but he also faces a unified Cruz and Kasich looking to force a contested convention.

In their effort to stop Trump, Cruz and Kasich have formed an extraordinary alliance: Kasich has agreed not to campaign in Indiana’s May 3 primary, and Cruz has agreed not to campaign in Oregon and New Mexico, which vote later.

Trump can afford to lose Oregon and New Mexico, which award delegates proportionally. Indiana, however, is especially important because the winner can collect all 57 of the state’s delegates, or at least a large majority.

Cruz called the partnership “big news” as he campaigned in Indiana on Monday. “That is good for the men and women of Indiana. It’s good for the country to have a clear and direct choice.”

Trump labeled his rivals’ strategy “pathetic.”

“If you collude in business, or if you collude in the stock market, they put you in jail,” Trump said as he campaigned in Rhode Island. “But in politics, because it’s a rigged system, because it’s a corrupt enterprise, in politics you’re allowed to collude.”

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