Business mogul Donald Trump swept five northeastern primaries — Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island — on Tuesday, continuing the momentum he gained from a huge victory in the New York primary last week.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won a total of four contests, and three of them — Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware — by double digit margins, according to The New York Times. Clinton scraped by in Connecticut, where she won by 4 percent of the vote with 90 percent of the state reporting as of 11:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday night. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), meanwhile, took Rhode Island with 55 percent of the vote as of 11:15 p.m. EST.

Trump was largely expected to do well in Tuesday’s races. According to FiveThirtyEight’s polls-plus forecasts, Trump had a greater-than 99 percent chance of winning in every state on Tuesday. In all five states, Trump won by triple digits while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich split the remaining vote.

To get the nomination on the first ballot without a contested convention, Trump needs 1,237 delegates.

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With wins on Tuesday, Trump is one step closer to winning the nomination outright. However, Pennsylvania’s primary is unlike any other state in the country. It has 54 unbound delegates, which means they can vote for whoever they want to on the first ballot, according to The New York Times. This “loophole primary” prevented Trump from securing the state’s 71 delegates and makes it more difficult for him to amass the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

In total, Trump came away with 17 delegates for Pennsylvania because of this rule, according to The New York Times.

Including Tuesday’s victories, Trump has 950 delegates, according to the RealClearPolitics delegate count.

On the Democratic side, a candidate needs 2,382 delegates to secure the nomination. After Tuesday, according to RealClearPolitics, Clinton has 2,137 pledged delegates as well as superdelegates, who can vote for whichever candidate they want to at the convention. Sanders has 1,306 delegates, as of 11:15 p.m. EST.

According to The New York Times, Sanders will reassess his campaign after Tuesday, but remained adamant that he will stay in the race until the Democratic convention.

The next primary is in Indiana, which is on Tuesday. The race is widely considered to be important for Trump, who beat Cruz in order to have a chance of getting the nomination on the first ballot.

Published on April 26, 2016 at 11:46 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu