Donald Trump decisively won his home state of New York in Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary, defeating his chief competitor, Texas Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore], who came in third place behind Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The New York businessman surpassed the 50 percent of the vote threshold in the state and in congressional districts to trigger a winner-take all scenario and deprive his opponents of most delegates. Trump nearly swept the contest, earning 89 delegates while Kasich won 3 and Cruz won zero.
In New York, Trump got 60.5 percent of the vote, Kasich had 25.1 percent and Cruz had 14.5 percent.
Though a contested convention remains possible, Trump tried to project himself as the likely nominee in his celebratory speech from Trump Tower, saying: “Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated.”
According to the Associated Press delegate count, Trump leads the race with 845 delegates, Cruz follows with 559 and Kasich has 147. A candidate needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination — and Cruz and Kasich now are just trying to stop Trump from hitting that number before the convention.
After the race was called, Trump thanked the state on social media.
Thank you New York! I love you!#MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/T1J0aUwMXl
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2016
Heading into Tuesday’s contest, Trump repeatedly took shots at Cruz for his infamous dismissal of “New York values” in a debate earlier this year.
“We love this city,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “You look at the other folks that are running – they couldn’t care less about New York. We do care about New York. We care about New York a lot. We care about New York values.”
The race now continues in the Northeast, with Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island voting next Tuesday.
Though Kasich remains distantly behind Trump and Cruz in the delegate race, Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver wrote in a memo released Tuesday: “The next seven days are absolutely critical and every Republican in the country who wants an open convention and to win the White House should rally around Gov. Kasich in the upcoming April 26 states. It’s now or never to stop Trump and save the Republican Party.”