"We don't have much of a race anymore based on what I'm seeing on
television," Trump, 69, told cheering supporters at a victory party at
his Trump Tower in Manhattan. "We are really, really rocking."
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton won commanding victories in New York state's U.S.
presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, recapturing lost campaign
momentum and moving the front-runners closer to their parties'
nominations.
The billionaire businessman's huge
victory in his home state put Trump in position to win nearly all of the
state's 95 delegates, edging closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to
win his party's presidential nomination and avoid a contested national
convention in July.
Clinton's dominating
double-digit primary election win in New York, which she once
represented in the U.S. Senate, snapped Democratic rival Bernie Sanders'
winning streak and made it nearly impossible for him to overtake her
delegate lead.
The victories in one of the biggest
state nominating contests so far set up Trump and Clinton for another
round of strong performances next Tuesday, when they are expected to do
well in five other Northeastern state primaries.
Trump captured about 60 percent of the vote, easily beating Ohio Governor John Kasich, who got 25 percent, and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of
Texas, who had 15 percent, with 95 percent of the votes counted.
For Trump, it was enough to win all 14 statewide delegates and most of
the delegates from each of New York's congressional districts.
"We don't have much of a race anymore based on what I'm seeing on television," Trump, 69, told cheering supporters at a victory party at his Trump Tower in Manhattan. "We are really, really rocking."
He
said the Republican Party establishment forces that have tried to keep
him from a first-ballot victory at the convention are "in trouble," and
repeated his criticism of a "crooked" system that has allowed Cruz to
outmaneuver him and win delegates in a series of recent state
conventions.
Trump entered the New York contest
with 756 delegates, while Cruz had 559 and Kasich had 144, according to
an Associated Press count. The count includes endorsements from several
delegates who are free to support the candidate of their choice.