Trump rolls on the "Acela Primary"
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April 26 presidential primary elections, 2016
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 Date: November 8, 2016 |
Winner: Donald Trump (R) Hillary Clinton (D) • Jill Stein (G) • Gary Johnson (L) • Vice presidential candidates |
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April 27, 2016
Billionaire developer Donald Trump won all five Republican presidential primaries up for grabs on April 26, and did so in convincing fashion, winning at least a majority of the vote in every race. His sweep of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island further tightened his grip on the GOP presidential nomination.
Trump’s remaining rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, recently agreed to divide up some of the remaining primary states, but there weren’t many encouraging signs in April 26 returns to indicate they’ll be able to derail his campaign in upcoming contests.
One impressive result of the evening was Trump’s ability to carry a diverse range of suburbs by a comfortable margin. At the same time, while Kasich finished second in four out of the five primaries, he appeared to be winning only a handful delegates in a part of the country—including his native state of Pennsylvania—where he once thought he’d perform well.
While the GOP delegate outcome in Pennsylvania is a bit opaque with 54 of 71 at stake unbound by the presidential primary results, what’s clear is the scope of Trump’s victory in the state: with 93 percent of the precincts reporting, he was beating Kasich 57-to-21 percent and winning 66 of 67 of the state’s counties (with Sullivan not yet reporting). And in all but a handful, Trump captured a majority of the vote. His worst region in the state was the Philadelphia suburbs, but he still beat Kasich there by nearly 25 percentage points.
| Pennsylvania Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
 Donald Trump |
56.6% | 902,593 | 17 | |
| Ted Cruz | 21.7% | 345,506 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 19.4% | 310,003 | 0 | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.6% | 9,577 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 0.7% | 11,954 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 0.9% | 14,842 | 0 | |
| Totals | 1,594,475 | 17 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Pennsylvania Secretary of State | ||||
In Maryland, Trump won all 23 of Maryland’s counties, as well as the city of Baltimore. Trump’s worst county was Montgomery in the Washington suburbs, with its relatively large number of voters who have post-graduate or professional degrees who have been more resistant to Trump than less well-educated voters. Kasich, who finished a distant second in Maryland won 35 percent of the vote in Montgomery to Trump’s 39 percent.
| Maryland Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.6% | 2,770 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 1.3% | 5,946 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.3% | 1,239 | 0 | |
| Ted Cruz | 19% | 87,093 | 0 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.2% | 1,012 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.2% | 837 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 23.2% | 106,614 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.3% | 1,533 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 0.7% | 3,201 | 0 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0.1% | 478 | 0 | |
| Donald Trump |
54.1% | 248,343 | 38 | |
| Totals | 459,066 | 38 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Maryland Secretary of State | ||||
Trump handily won Connecticut, from its wealthy New York City suburbs in Fairfield County to working class cities like New London and Waterbury. Of the 169 cities and towns in Connecticut, Trump won at least 162 with only Seymour not reporting.
| Connecticut Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
|
Donald Trump |
57.9% | 123,484 | 28 | |
| John Kasich | 28.4% | 60,503 | 0 | |
| Ted Cruz | 11.7% | 24,978 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 0.8% | 1,731 | 0 | |
| Other | 1.3% | 2,676 | 0 | |
| Totals | 213,372 | 28 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Connecticut Secretary of State | ||||
Delaware and Rhode Island completed Trump’s five-for-five winning hand. In both states, he defeated Kasich by more than 40 percentage points.
| Delaware Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
|
Donald Trump |
60.8% | 42,472 | 16 | |
| Ted Cruz | 15.9% | 11,110 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 20.4% | 14,225 | 0 | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.8% | 578 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 1.3% | 885 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 0.9% | 622 | 0 | |
| Totals | 69,892 | 16 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Delaware Secretary of State | ||||
| Rhode Island Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
|
Donald Trump |
63.7% | 39,221 | 12 | |
| Ted Cruz | 10.4% | 6,416 | 2 | |
| John Kasich | 24.3% | 14,963 | 5 | |
| Marco Rubio | 0.6% | 382 | 0 | |
| Other | 1% | 632 | 0 | |
| Totals | 61,614 | 19 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Rhode Island Board of Elections | ||||
James A. Barnes is a senior writer for Ballotpedia and co-author of the 2016 edition of the Almanac of American Politics. He is a member of the CNN Decision Desk and will help to project the Democratic and Republican winners throughout the election cycle.
See also
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Presidential election, 2016/Polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
- Presidential election, 2016/Straw polls
