Donald Trump swept all five states up for grabs in Tuesday’s GOP primaries, giving his hopes for winnin the party’s presidential nomination a huge boost.
The big victories for Trump, who topped 60 percent in several states, make it much less likely that rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich will force the race to a contested convention this summer in Cleveland.
Trump called on both of his rivals to drop out of the race and pivoted to the general election, where he said Hillary Clinton would be an easier opponent to defeat than the more than a dozen Republicans he has topped in the GOP race so far.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. These two guys can’t win, there’s no path,” he continued. “So why would I change? If you have a football team and you are winning and you get to a super bowl, you don’t change your quarterback.”
“Everyone of them are ready for Hillary,” he continued before arguing that he is the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, in a general election.
There were 118 bound delegates at stake in contests in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island, and Trump is poised to take a strong majority of these by virtue of winning the popular vote in each state.
{mosads}Trump will get all 17 bound delegates in Pennsylvania, as well as the 16 up for grabs in winner-take-all Delaware.
Trump’s victories in Maryland and Connecticut make it likely he’ll take a majority of the 66 delegates for those two states, as the bulk are allocated in winner-take-all contests at the congressional district level.
Trump’s haul will be limited in Rhode Island, which awards its delegates on a strictly proportional basis. But the GOP front-runner will still take more delegates than Cruz or Kasich.
Trump entered Tuesday with 845 delegates, needing to win about 58 percent of the remaining 674 still up for grabs to get to 1,237 delegates, the threshold for clinching the nomination.
The sweep means Trump is likely to lower the percentage of delegates he needs to win the rest of the way to get to 1,237.
GOP candidates now go to Indiana, which is viewed as the latest hurdle to Trump by his rivals. If Trump wins the state, he’s almost certain to become the nominee.
To try to hold him off, Cruz and Kasich entered into an alliance in Indiana, with Kasich agreeing to pull his resources from the state to allow for a one-on-one contest between Trump and Cruz.
Polls show Trump with a narrow lead over the Texas senator one week before voters head to the polls.
Cruz and Kasich both hope that if Trump doesn’t get 1,237 delegates, a GOP convention could settle on a different nominee. Cruz believes he can win enough support on a second ballot to become the GOP nominee.
The Trump campaign has thus far struggled with the inside game of getting supporters elected as delegates. Cruz has routed Trump time and again on that front, even in states Trump handily won in the popular vote.
The latest test for Trump will come in Pennsylvania, where 54 of the state’s delegates are elected directly by voters and unbound to any candidate.
Many of those candidates have already said they’ll support whoever wins their district, at least on the first ballot at the convention, but Cruz has been working hard to ensure his supporters are selected as delegates. That could help him on subsequent ballots at a contested convention.
The Trump campaign had two House members — Pennsylvania Reps. Tom Marino and Lou Barletta — working on the ground to get Trump’s operations up to speed.
The Trump campaign passed around a delegate slate card at polling stations across the state, urging voters to select candidates that have already pledged their support to the GOP front-runner.