News

Donald Trump Picked Up Some Much-Needed Delegates

by Chris Tognotti

Tuesday night was the New York primary for both the Democratic and Republican parties, and in both cases there was a fair amount of drama in play — can Bernie Sanders secure enough delegates to hang on, can Donald Trump's march to 1,237 be denied, and so forth — despite polls that suggested comfortable victories for both frontrunners. Especially in Trump's case: according to the polls, he was dominating the field by 30 points heading into the voting. So, now that the votes have come in, how many delegates did Donald Trump win in New York?

It's always a big question on both side who'll come away with more delegates, although thanks to the different way the Republicans award delegates, things could be a lot more decisive on their side. The Democratic Party strictly uses proportional delegate allocation in all of the states, while some of the Republican primaries — including New York — use a winner-take-all system, or a winner-take-all by district system.

That last one is how things work in New York. As FiveThirtyEight's Harry Enten expertly detailed on Monday, 14 of the Empire State's 95 delegates will be awarded proportionally, unless somebody finishes above 50 percent — an outright majority secures all 14. Then, the rest of the state's 81 delegates are awarded through a district-by-district system. Each congressional district has three in total, with a plurality earning you two, and a majority netting all three.

KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images

Basically, the upshot is that Trump took a huge step forward in his quest for 1,237, by virtue of crossing 50 percent in the statewide vote, and cleaning up a slew of delegates. So, how'd he do? The final numbers aren't in quite yet, and they'll be updated as the votes are counted, but here's what you can say for certain right now: Trump has won more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, meaning he's claimed at least 14 delegates so far. And according to The New York Times, with 98 percent of precincts reporting, Trump has tacked on even more — he's got a total of 89 right now.

Heading into Tuesday, Trump was sitting at 755 delegates, a mere 212 ahead of first runner-up Ted Cruz's 543. That deficit is going to look a whole lot steeper by Wednesday morning — Cruz failed even to finish second in the state he once bashed on the campaign trail, getting outpaced by Ohio governor John Kasich, who managed to nab 3 delegates. All in all, it was a red-letter day for Team Trump, and he's that much closer to grasping the nomination in his much-discussed fingers.