Donald Trump has added five primary victories and a large number of Republican delegates to his increasingly dominant presidential campaign.
Media projections showed that he easily won Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware—collectively nicknamed the “Acela primary,” after the express train line that runs from New England to Washington, DC.
Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania could still be less than absolute, due to the state’s voting rules, which leave 54 of the state’s 71 delegates free to vote for whomever they choose.
Texas senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich are both resting their diminishing hopes on preventing Trump from getting a majority of delegates—but he already has 919 out of the 1,237 he needs to win outright.
Cruz and Kasich’s recent attempt to coordinate their campaigns, divvying up the states where they each have the best chance, is already seen as a failure.
Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton was declared the early winner in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Bernie Sanders won Rhode Island. The polls were closer in Connecticut, but Clinton was declared the winner there, too, at about 10:45 pm EDT, with 50.3% of the vote.
Sanders has said he will reassess the campaign’s direction in light of this evening’s results—but promises to stay in the race for the time being. He needs to start winning primary contests by extremely wide margins if he is to have any chance of checking Clinton’s considerable lead.
This post has been updated.