|
 Trump's crushing defeat of Ted Cruz in Tuesday's primary election
tilted the energy in the Republican race back to the front-runner,
just as Republican National Committee members begin meeting in
Florida on Wednesday to discuss their July convention, where the
nominee will be chosen.
For the Democratic favorite, Clinton's more narrow victory over
Bernie Sanders snapped a string of victories by the 74-year-old
democratic socialist and gave her a much-needed lift with more tough
fights ahead.
The eventual victors of the Democratic and the Republican nominating
campaigns will face each other in November's general election.
Trump's win, celebrated to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "New York,
New York" at Trump Tower in Manhattan, marked a rebound from his
Wisconsin defeat two weeks ago. It set him up for another big night
on April 26, when Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware,
and Maryland will hold primaries.
 With a campaign staff reboot and a more focused performance, Trump
has sought to improve in recent weeks as a candidate. The tone of
his victory speech was in keeping with a more measured style the
often-brash billionaire has adopted.
"We don't have much of a race anymore based on what I’m seeing on
television," Trump said as television networks projected a large
margin of victory for him. "Senator Cruz is just about
mathematically eliminated."
Trump, 69, predicted some "amazing weeks" ahead for his campaign.
Still, he has a long way to go to seal the nomination and begin
trying to heal the wounds in his bitterly divided party. Some
fence-mending may happen when he sends campaign advisers to the RNC
meeting starting in Hollywood, Florida, on Wednesday.
Trump's haul of most of New York's 95 delegates moved him closer to
the 1,237 needed to win the nomination outright. Anything short of
that will lead to a contested convention when Republicans hold their
national conclave July 18-21 in Cleveland.
"There's only two issues left for Republicans: Will Trump get 50
percent of the delegates prior to Cleveland, and if not, how close
will he be? New York gives him a nice boost, but it will take weeks
before we know the answer," said Ari Fleischer, who was White House
press secretary under President George W. Bush.
Cruz, a 45-year-old U.S. senator from Texas, came in third in New
York and gave his primary night speech in Philadelphia, where he was
already focused on running in Pennsylvania. He called on Republicans
to unite around his candidacy.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, 63, a long-shot candidate, is seeking to
use his second-place showing in New York as proof he is emerging as
Trump's central challenger in the states that come up next on the
calendar.
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NO KNOCKOUT PUNCH FOR CLINTON
Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York, former secretary of
state and former first lady, got nowhere near the knockout punch she
needed to finally put Sanders away.
But the broad smile on her face as she gave her victory speech spoke
volumes about how important New York was to her bid to become the
first female U.S. president.
"Today you proved once again there's no place like home," Clinton
said. "This one was personal."
The race for the Democratic nomination, she said, is now in "the
home stretch, and victory is in sight."
Clinton, 68, was to campaign in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Sanders
flew home to Vermont to take a day off the campaign trail.
Clinton's win made it nearly impossible for Sanders to overtake her
commanding lead in the number of delegates needed to win the
nomination.
Dilawar Syed, a tech entrepreneur who is also the co-founder and
vice chairman of the AAPI Victory Fund, a Super PAC focused on
mobilizing Asian-American voters, said it looked like Clinton has
the nomination.
“Clearly Senator Sanders has a lot of supporters and enthusiasm
there. He also has raised a lot of good resources," Syed said. "I
think the primary will go on for some time. But just looking at the
numbers, we know where this is going."
Nationally, the race for the nominations has tightened recently for
both parties, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday.
Clinton and Sanders are tied among Democrats, with each drawing
about 47 percent support in the national poll. At the beginning of
the year, Clinton led Sanders by nearly a 2-to-1 margin; Sanders has
closed that gap over the past few months.
Among Republicans, Trump leads with 44 percent support, compared
with 33 percent for Cruz and 16 percent for Kasich.
The April 15-19 poll surveyed 719 Democrats and 593 Republicans. It
has a credibility interval of 4.7 percentage points.
(Additional reporting by Alana Wise and Megan Casella in Washington,
Jonathan Allen in New York and Emily Stephenson in Philadelphia;
Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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