Connecticut Primary Shows Clear Leaders in Race

By

ESTHER SHITTU ’17

On Tuesday Apr. 26, 2016, Connecticut held its Presidential Primaries, resulting in Hilary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R) emerging as the frontrunners for the Presidency.

According to the AP, with 99 percent reporting, on the Republican side Donald Trump won all 28 of Connecticut’s delegates with 57.9 percent of the votes (123,367 votes), compared to his opponents Kasich, who won no delegates and 28.4 percent of the votes (60,481 votes) and Cruz, who also won zero delegates and a mere 11.7 percent of the votes (24,969 votes).

On the Democratic side, the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was close. According to the Hartford Patch, at around 8pm it seemed that Sanders would win Connecticut, however, by 10:30 pm, the race turned around and Clinton took the win. With 55 delegates up for grabs, Clinton was able to gain the support of 28 delegates, while Sanders gained 27. In terms of votes, Clinton had 51.8 percent (170,075 votes), while Sanders had 46.4 percent (152,410 votes).

According to NBC, which further broke down the demographic of the Connecticut Primary results, among Trump voters, 50 percent were between the age of 45 to 65 years old and only 8 percent were 17 to 29 years old. Trump had 90 percent of his voters identify as white and two percent as Hispanic or Latino. For Kasich, 47 percent were 45 to 64 years old and 11 percent were 17 to 29 years old. He had 97 percent identify as white and only one percent as black. 53 percent of Cruz’s voters range from 45 to 64 years old and only 6 percent were between the ages of 17 to 29 years old. 93 percent of Cruz voters identify as white and only one percent identify as black.

On the Democratic side, Clinton has 47 percent of her voters ranging between the ages of 45 to 64 years old and 5 percent were 17 to 29 years old. In terms of race, 69 percent identify as white and only 1 percent identify as other. For Sanders, 35 percent of his voters were between 45 to 65 years old and 12 percent were 65 or over, while 27 percent were below the age of 29 years old.

Trump’s major win in Connecticut placed him very close to the 1,237 delegates that he needs for the Republican nomination. With only 571 delegates left, Trump now has 996 delegates, while Cruz has 565 and Kasich has 153. Aware of the fact that he is a shoe-in for the Republican nomination, Trump’s victory speech given from Trump Tower on Tuesday night Apr 26 took a different approach. He focused his attack more on Hillary Clinton and less on his two Republican opponents.

According to several news sources, such as Hartford Patch, CNN, and Slate Magazine, Trump believes that the reason that Clinton has as many votes as she does is because she is  a woman. CNN reports that Trump says Clinton’s only card is the “woman’s card.”

“She has got nothing else going,” Trump said during his victory speech. “Frankly if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she would get 5 percent of the vote. And, the beautiful thing is women don’t like her.” In response to Trump’s Tuesday night victory speech, Clinton wrote on Twitter, “Caught your speech, @realDonaldTrump. About that ‘woman’s card’…”

He added in his interview with Chris Cuomo on “New Day,” that if Hillary Clinton was a man, she would “get virtually no votes.”

Although he was hard on Clinton, Trump seems to have a soft spot for Clinton’s opponent Bernie Sanders.  In his speech on Tuesday night, he said, “I think Bernie Sanders should run as an independent. I think he’d do great.”

Although the victory for Clinton on Tuesday brought her closer to the needed 2,383 delegate nomination, there are still 1,243 delegates availible. Based on the AP, Clinton now has 2,165 delegates, while Sanders has 1,357 delegates.

Bernie Sanders for his part took his loss to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in stride. After Clinton’s win, Sanders issued a statement saying, “I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victories tonight, and I look forward to issue-oriented campaigns in the 14 contests to come.”

Sanders continued focusing on the victory he did win on state and making a promise to his supporters.

“I am proud that we were able to win a resounding victory tonight in Rhode Island, the one state with an open primary where independents had a say in the outcome…The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast.”