Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton win Delaware primaries
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DOVER, Del. (AP) — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump won their respective presidential primaries in Delaware on Tuesday with comfortable margins, further padding their leads over their opponents in the delegate count.
Early returns showed Trump with 29,843 votes, or just under 60 percent of the vote in the GOP primary. Ohio Gov. John Kasich had 10,422 votes, or just under 21 percent, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was in third place with 16 percent of the vote.
The win guarantees Trump the support of the state’s 16 delegates, at least on the first ballot, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. But if the billionaire businessman is unable to win the number of delegates needed for the nomination on the first ballot, Delaware’s delegates will not be bound to support him on subsequent ballots.
Delaware Republicans will vote on who will serve as their delegates at this weekend’s state party convention.
Meanwhile, Clinton easily defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.
With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had 42,092 votes, or 60 percent of the vote. Sanders had 27,652 votes, or 39 percent.
Tuesday’s victory was a first for Clinton in Delaware, where she lost the 2008 Democratic primary to Barack Obama after favorite son Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Delaware has a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote in their respective primaries. Unaffiliated voters, who account for about 23 percent of the state’s roughly 600,000 registered voters, must remain on the sidelines until November general.
