News

Actions

Donald Trump wins GOP primary in New York

Posted at 9:19 PM, Apr 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-19 22:19:41-04

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Latest on campaign 2016 as voters in New York cast their ballots in the state's primary (all times Eastern Daylight Time):

9 p.m.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has won the primary in his home state of New York.

Trump was widely expected to beat his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich in Tuesday's election. The precise allocation of delegates from the state won't be determined until the vote results are calculated by congressional district, but Trump is certain to extend his delegate lead and come closer to the 1,237 delegates required to clinch the party's nomination.

Early results of the exit poll in the state show a large majority of New York Republicans want the next president to be a political outsider.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Trump had amassed 756 delegates, while Cruz had 559 and Kasich had 144.

----

8:45 p.m.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is trying to move beyond a crushing defeat in New York, which he is dismissing as merely "a politician winning his home state."

Instead, he is pivoting with a sweeping call to unite the Republican Party by painting himself as the outsider able to capture the imagination of a party searching for leadership.

Already moving on to Pennsylvania, Cruz is saying: "This generation needs to answer a new set of questions. Can we? Should we? Will we?"

Cruz is comparing his candidacy to Ronald Reagan's and John F. Kennedy's, asking the Pennsylvania audience, "Are we still those people, those dreamers and doers?"

The Pennsylvania primary is April 26.

----

8:15 p.m.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he believes the Republican presidential primary will be "deadlocked" and delegates will choose their nominee at the party's convention in July.

Kasich spoke in Annapolis, Maryland, on the evening of the New York primary. Maryland holds its primary next Tuesday.

Kasich is predicting that neither Ted Cruz nor Donald Trump will win enough delegates to clinch the GOP nomination before the convention in Cleveland. He is pitching himself as a candidate with a positive and unifying message.

Former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich attended the event. He says Kasich's resume "reflects what the country needs right now."

----

8:10 p.m.

Donald Trump will mark the results of the New York primary with a press conference in the Manhattan skyscraper he calls home.

Trump is expected to address the media Tuesday night sometime after polls close in his native state. He has held a commanding lead in all recent state polls.

The lobby of Trump Tower has been festooned with patriotic touches: a large American flag is hanging behind the podium from which Trump will speak and portions of the lobby are bathed in red, white and blue lights.

Unlike most other candidates, Trump usually eschews large election night rallies, instead choosing to address reporters and a small group of friends and supporters.

----

7:35 p.m.

New Mexico Gov. Susan Martinez is expressing fundamental differences with presidential candidate Donald Trump on his proposal to build a bigger wall along the southern U.S. border and make Mexico pay for it.

Martinez told the Associated Press on Tuesday that building fences can impact the U.S. economy and relationship with trading partners in Mexico and farther south.

The chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association confirmed comments made behind closed doors as she traveled last week to a Republican gala in New York City attended by Trump, and a Republican Governors Association fundraiser in Florida.

Martinez is frequently mentioned as a potential vice presidential pick. She says she understands the need for a secure border as a former prosecutor who has lived near the border for some 50 years.

------

7:30 p.m.

Hundreds of voters have complained to New York's attorney general about problems at polling places during the state's presidential primary.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's voter hotline received 562 phone calls and 140 emails by late afternoon Tuesday. That's compared to 150 complaints received during the 2012 general election.

A Schneiderman spokesman says this year's total number of election complaints is "by far" the most it's handled since Schneiderman took office in 2011.

The complaints include registration problems, a lack of privacy at the voting booth, accessibility and poor instructions from poll workers.

Schneiderman's office says it received many complaints from people complaining that they were not allowed to cast a primary ballot because they had not registered with a political party.

------

7:15 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is telling thousands of supporters at Penn State that his rival Hillary Clinton is "getting a little bit nervous" by his recent string of wins.

Sanders addressed the boisterous crowd in Pennsylvania Tuesday as New Yorkers voted in their state's crucial presidential primary.

Earlier, in an interview with The Associated Press, Sanders said he expects his campaign will "surprise" people and do "a lot better than people think."

He dismissed claims by the Clinton campaign that his path to victory is "close to impossible," saying "that's what people who are getting nervous will say."