News
Here's How Many Washington Delegates Trump Won
Washington residents and other political spectators might be wondering: Did Donald Trump win all of Washington's delegates? There were 44 Republican delegates that were up for grabs during the state's May 24 Republican primary.
Early accounts predicted that Trump would win the primary, and they weren't wrong: Trump won at least 27 delegates in Washington, and received more than 76 percent of the votes.
Washington does not employ a winner-take-all delegate system for their Republican contests and instead uses a proportional system, meaning delegate count corresponds to the percentage of the vote each candidate won. Although Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Ben Carson have all dropped out of the race, they are still on the state's mail-in ballot, meaning that voters could have selected them.
And they did. Because of this, Trump won't win all of Washington's delegates, since Cruz's share of the votes will translate to a proportional number of delegates.
Ahead of the Washington state primary, Rick Santorum announced his endorsement of Trump and just before the polls closed at 8 p.m. PST reports of rioting outside a Trump rally in New Mexico broke on Twitter.
Washington's primary is somewhat confusing since only the Republican party is using the results for delegates.
The state also held Democratic and Republican caucuses earlier this year, and the Democratic party is only using their caucus results — which saw a decisive victory for Bernie Sanders — to allocate delegates for the Democratic National Convention.
The results get even more strange in light of Cruz's near-unanimous support at Washington's GOP convention, although any delegates that Trump won in the state's primary will be bound to him at the Republican National Convention in July.
Although Washington's Republican party is using the results from the May 24 primary, some say the primary is more "a chance to make a statement" due to the confusing nature of Washington's proportional delegate system. If either Cruz, Kasich, or Carson won 20 percent or more of the state's votes, they could have received any of the state's 14 at-large delegates, and could also win delegates in any of the state's districts if they win the majority there.
Given that Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, this convoluted delegate math only serves to confuse the obvious: that Donald Trump won Washington and, short of a miracle, will face off with Hillary Clinton in November.