Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won big victories in New York State’s presidential primary election on Tuesday.
Trump, a billionaire businessman, and Clinton, the former secretary of state, each extended their leads in the race for the Republican and Democratic nominations.
Trump earned close to 60 percent of the vote in the Republican primary and almost all of New York’s 95 delegates. Ohio Governor John Kasich won 25 percent of the votes, while Texas Senator Ted Cruz had 15 percent.
In the Democratic primary, Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, 58 percent to 42 percent. She won 135 of New York’s 247 delegates to the party’s convention this summer.
In her victory speech, Clinton tried to unite her campaign with Sanders and his supporters.
“To all the people who supported Senator Sanders, I believe there is much more that unites us than divides us,” Clinton said.
Trump spoke to his supporters Tuesday night. He said he is the only Republican with enough support to win the party’s nomination.
“We don’t have much of a race anymore,” he said. “It’s really nice to win the delegates with the votes.”
Trump has won a total of 845 delegates. Cruz and Kasich are hoping he does not receive the 1,237 delegates required for Republican presidential nomination.
If Trump does not receive a majority of delegate votes, an open convention is possible. In an open convention, delegates can vote for any candidate.
For the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton has a total of 1,887 delegates. A candidate needs 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.
Over the next week, the candidates are expected to spend much of their time in the northeastern states. Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Maryland will hold primary elections on April 26.
Chris Hannas wrote this story for VOA News. Jim Dresbach adapted his story for Learning English. Additional information came from the Associated Press. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
primaries – n. elections in which members of the same political party run against each other for the chance to be in a larger and more important election
billionaire – n. a rich person who has at least a billion dollars or pounds
Republican Party – n. a political party in the United States
Democratic Party – n. a political party in the United States
open convention – n. a party convention at which delegates are free to vote for the candidate of their choice
