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Election 2016: What Went Down Last Night In Five Primary States

Trump, Clinton win big.

A lot was settled Tuesday night (April 26) in both political primaries as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump pushed their delegate count into territories that almost certainly will lock up the bids for their party’s nomination.

Going into Tuesday’s five-state primary gauntlet, which included delegate rich states like Pennsylvania and Maryland, Clinton won four of the five contests (with Bernie Sanders taking Rhode Island) while Trump made a clean sweep.

The results of yesterday's primaries brought about new math that have both Clinton and Trump campaigns very confident about their chances for a nomination moving forward.

For Clinton, the Democratic Party nod is almost certain as the Associated Press reports she can lose every state moving forward and still become her party’s nominee. Currently she leads Sanders 2168 to 1401 (including both pledged and superdelegates).

The Sanders campaign issued a statement after their defeat in four of Tuesday’s five states, and for the first time they didn’t include a possible path to victory. While the numbers don’t look good for the Vermont Senator, his campaign vows that they will remain in the race until July’s Democratic National Convention.

For Trump, his five state wins further presses the narrative that he’ll be the GOP’s candidate come the fall. Entering into Tuesday’s primary bout, the billionaire businessman had already secured enough delegates to mathematically eliminate the chances of either Texas Senator Ted Cruz or Ohio Governor John Kasich's bid for an outright Republican nomination win.

As it stands right now Trump’s 988 pledged delegates puts him far ahead in his journey for a necessary 1237. Moving forward, the Cruz campaign will look to next week’s Indiana Primary where he has a fighting chance to secure that state’s 57 winner-take-all delegates. If he and Kasich are able to retract enough delegates away from Trump come July, a contested convention in Cleveland is still very much a possibility. It’s the only hope for both of their campaigns (which announced a sort of alliance moving forward) and a building #StopTrump movement made up of current and former GOP lawmakers, donors, lobbyists and members of the general public who don’t feel he has the party’s best interests in mind.

Next Tuesday (May 3) all eyes will be on aforementioned Indiana as 83 delegates are in play for Democrats, and 57 for Republicans. According to a RealClear Politics poll, which averages three major polls conducted between April 18 and April 22, Trump is shown leading Cruz by only 6 percent. That same poll has Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders by four percentage points, which is within the survey’s margin of error.

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