Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton quicken their stride towards the presidential nomination on the back of convincing Republican and Democratic victories in primary ballots in New York.
Donald Trump speaks during an election night event in New York. Photo: Bloomberg
For both these would-be nominees, New York was vital. Trump needed a strong haul of the state's convention delegates if he was to put a spanner in the wheel of his rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz; and Clinton needed to win convincingly, if she was to throw off her dogged rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sander, who had whipped her in the previous seven state primary and caucus contests.
Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton celebrate at her New York primary campaign headquarter. Photo: AP
Both New York winners also needed the psychological lift of a hometown win as a loud signal that their campaign momentum would be reinvigorated after a series of losses and missteps.
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Just as important, from a political perception point of view, was the relative vote for each of Trump and Clinton. And with more than 95 percent of the count done, they were not so far apart.
As he does, Trump will beat his chest over his 60‐point vote, compared with Clinton's 57.6 points. Clinton or a surrogate, no doubt will respond with a quip that hers slightly lower vote share was of a vastly bigger pie – 1.7 million Democratic votes, compared with 0.8 million Republican votes.
Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz speaks during a campaign event in Scotia, NY. Photo: AP
Within seconds of the vote closing, the Associated Press, CNN and MSNBC declared Donald Trump the winner of the Republican primary. Almost an hour passed before the first media projections that Clinton had won the Democratic primary – handily, a shade over 60 per cent with 40 per cent of vote counted. Sanders lagged with not quite 40 per cent of the vote.
Given the anticipated certainty of Trump topping the poll, a more important question was by how much he had won, because that would play directly into what has become fierce hand-to-hand combat with challenger Ted Cruz for convention delegates, and more importantly their loyalty in the event of a brokered convention.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves to supporters as she enters the room with daughter Chelsea Clinton and son-in-law Mark Mezvinsky. Photo: AP
In terms of grabbing all of New York's 95 Republican convention delegates, Trump needed more than that 50 per cent to snatch all of the state's 14 at-large delegates and to clean up in the congressional district-by-district allocation of delegates he also needed an absolute majority for the three delegates from each district and for each district in which he scores less than 50 per cent, he'd surrender a delegate to the second-placed Ohio Governor John Kasich.
And with more than 55 per cent of the vote counted, analysts were predicting that Trump would win more than 90 of the state's 95 delegate. Before the New York vote Trump led with 756 delegates, ahead of Cruz's 559 and Ohio Governor John Kasich's 144.
Still, the New York win doesn't get Trump out of the woods – he has more of a cushion, he still needs to perform strongly in upcoming state-by-state votes if he is to win the 1237 delegates required to clinch the nomination ahead of the July convention.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton celebrates on stage after winning the New York state primary election. Photo: AP
More importantly, he also needs show that he has overcome the failure to date of his campaign to play the local political game, to ensure that the individuals who are appointed by the party's state officials are loyal to him – and not Cruz supporters.
In victory speech, Trump was dismissive of Cruz - "We don't have much of a race any more - Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated".
The detail in CNN's exit poll data was a fascinating revelation of the thinking that turbo-charged Trumps run-away win in New York – he had super majorities in all the key demographic: men (59 per cent), women (56 per cent), all age groups 30 and older, whites (59 per cent). And, perhaps surprisingly, Trump won across all educational groups: Those with high school diplomas or less (67 per cent), some college education (59 per cent), a college degree (53 per cent) and those with postgraduate degrees (50 per cent).
Republican front-runner Donald Trump easily won New York state's presidential nominating contest on Tuesday. Photo: Frank Franklin II
When Trump came out to celebrate, observers wondered if he had undergone some kind of 'I‐need‐to be‐more‐presidential' makeover - there was no promotion of his steaks or his bottled water; 'Lyin' Ted' had become 'Senator Cruz;' and his Democratic opponent, who he's taken to calling 'Crooked Hillary,' simply wasn't mentioned. Trump avoided one of his biggest wind‐up risks by not taking questions from reporters.
Entering to Frank Sinatra's New York, New York, played at the level of a sonic boom, Trump told supporters and reporters at Trump Tower in downtown Manhattan: "Nobody's gonna to mess with us [when I'm president].
"It's just incredible - guess we're close to 70 per cent, and we're gonna end at a very high level, and get a lot more delegates than anybody projected, even in their wildest dreams.
"We are gonna be so strong again, we are gonna be literally, legitimately so strong again. We don't have much of a race anymore, going by what I see on television. Senator Cruz... I've pretty much knocked the hell out of him.
"Nobody should take delegates and claim victory unless they win those delegates with voters and voting," Trump said, a reference to the delegate battle in which he has been out-foxed by Cruz.
"We're going to go into the convention, I think, as the winner. I wanna just thank everybody, I have great, great admiration and praise for the city of New York and the state of New York. I can think of nowhere I would rather have this victory! We love New York! We love New York!"
At a victory rally at the Sheraton New York, Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind faded as Clinton declared: "There's no place like home.
"We have won in every region in the country. New Yorkers, you've always had my back, and I've always tried to have yours. Today together we did it again, and I am deeply, deeply grateful.
"It is humbling that you trust me with the awesome responsibilities that await our next president, and to all the people who supported Senator Sanders, I believe that there is much more that unites us than divides us."
That last line was the long expected pitch for party unity – and a coded appeal for Sanders to surrender, which he has long said he'll not do ahead of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in mid-July.
Of course Clinton had dipped her toe in these waters before. In 2008 as a would‐be presidential nominee, she trounced the little‐known Barack Obama in the New York primary – by a resounding 17 points.
She lost the nomination 2008 nomination to Obama, but after New York 2016, Clinton is more certain that she's on her way to a general election. You won't hear it from the Sanders campaign, but the Vermont senator pretty well cooked his presidential goose in New York.
He needed to do much better than the prospective New York delegate split with Clinton – 104/85 in Clinton's favour – if he was to seriously dent the 200‐plus delegate lead she has over him.
He didn't – and with so much good New York wind in her campaign sails, Clinton likely will be making life a bit more difficult for Sanders in upcoming contests in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and California – with its gleaming haul of 475 delegates.
Even before voting closed at 9pm local time, Texas Senator Ted Cruz conceded defeat while campaigning in Philadelphia, telling reporters: "This is the year of the outsider and I am an outsider; Bernie Sanders is an outsider."
But there were concerns about what Pennsylvania weed Cruz might have been smoking when he added: "America has always been her best when she is lying down with her back on the mat…"
Attempting to reposition himself as an outsider, as opposed to the Washington politician that he is, Ted Cruz introduced new lines to his stump speech in Philadelphia, declaring: "I'm an outsider, Bernie Sanders is an outsider. Both with the same diagnosis [of America's problems], but both with very different paths to healing. Millions of Americans have chosen one of these outsiders."
Later Cruz spoke of Ronald Reagan and John F Kennedy as outsiders. But the line of comparison that he drew for himself was with his fellow Harvard Law graduate, Barack Obama.
And then he virtually stole Obama's signature slogan, mouthing "yes we will" as opposed to Obama's "yes we can." Cruz explained: "Our sitting president ran on a slogan that should have been a great first step… It promised us, "yes we can." In his analysis "Yes we can" was a recognition of the hope that we can and should recover.
"The problem was that Barack Obama's prescriptions only led to more elitist control from Washington. Less freedom for the people."
All of which will bring some voters to consider the words of Cruz's New York colleague Peter King, who told a TV talk show as New Yorkers were voting: "I hate Ted Cruz - I think I'll take cyanide if he got the nomination."