Clinton and Trump dominate Pennsylvania primary, McGinty triumphs in Senate race

Up for grabs on Tuesday, the second-largest delegate haul remaining on the primary calendar were Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and once again, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took sweeping victories.

Clinton claimed the victory here in Pennsylvania, taking the biggest prize of the night, as well as in Delaware, Maryland and Connecticut. Though Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took Rhode Island, Clinton widened her lead over the Vermont senator. As of 11 p.m. on April 26, according to The New York Times, Clinton beat Sanders in Pennsylvania with 57 percent of the vote to his 42 percent.

As for Pennsylvania on the Democratic side, there are 210 total delegates. Of these, 127 are allocated according to the congressional districts’ votes, 62 are based on statewide totals and 21 are unpledged — these are “superdelegates.”

Vice President of Penn for Hillary and College senior Robert Klein said that a victory in Pennsylvania could “be a big boost of momentum for the campaign.”

As for why he believes Clinton appeals to Penn students, Klein praised her three main issues: her acknowledgment of the issues of college debt, campus sexual assault and climate change.

“You have Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and the Republicans denying the very existence of climate change, let alone not having a plan,” Klein added.

Penn for Bernie did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday by publication time.

In her victory speech from the Philadelphia Convention Center, Clinton said, “With your help, we are going to come back to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention with the most votes and the most pledged delegates,” and that, “We will unify our party to win this election and build an America where we can all rise together, an America where we lift each other up instead of tearing each other down.”

Though Clinton is almost assured the nomination at this point, Klein said he believes that Sanders has fired up the Democratic party, saying, “He has waged a very impactful campaign, and he’s reached a lot of people and created a lot of energy.”

On the Republican side, it was a clean sweep for Donald Trump, who won all five contested state primaries with a commanding amount of the votes on Tuesday. He is now even closer to the 1,237 delegates necessary to clinch the Republican presidential nomination.

Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland and Delaware all went for the 1968 Wharton graduate, who won with over 55 percent of the votes across all states.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich managed to place second place in four of the states, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) only finished second in Pennsylvania.

In the heated Democratic senatorial race, Katie McGinty rode a wave of establishment support, including nods from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, to defeat former Navy admiral and former congressman Joe Sestak, who had been heavily favored throughout the primary campaign.

Sestak incurred the wrath of the Democratic Party establishment in 2010 after running against Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary, who had recently switched his party registration from Republican. Sestak beat Specter, but lost to Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in the general election. Toomey will now face McGinty, Governor Tom Wolf’s former chief of staff, in November.

Penn Democrats President and College junior Max Levy was pleased with the result across Pennsylvania’s main races, including a victory for state Rep. Dwight Evans in the 2nd District primary against 11-term Rep. Chaka Fattah.

“We have championed strong, progressive candidates throughout this primary process and are proud to say that the people of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania agreed with us,” Levy said in a statement. All three of the candidates Penn Democrats endorsed — Clinton, McGinty and Evans — won their primaries.

“I’m kind of surprised that Cruz is coming in second in Pennsylvania,” said Penn College Republicans President and College and Wharton junior Jennifer Knesbach. “Kasich focused all of his efforts in Pennsylvania for the most part. He spent a lot of time in Philly and in Pittsburgh, whereas Trump was spending all his time in all five states and still managed to blow projections out of the water.”

Kasich and Cruz’s defeats in the northeastern states at play yesterday shed light on the two candidates’ recently announced collaborative strategy to win three future primaries. In an effort to force a brokered convention, both candidates issued written statements calling for the Ohio governor to stop competing in Indiana and for Cruz to clear the way for Kasich in New Mexico and Oregon.

Moving forward, Indiana will hold its primary on May 3, while Nebraska and West Virginia will be contested by Republicans the following week on May 10.

Trump obtained the majority of the 118 pledged delegates at stake across the five states. Before the polls closed on Tuesday, Trump held a commanding pledged delegate lead with 844 delegates over Cruz’s 543 and Kasich’s 148.

While Pennsylvania was the largest state up for grabs on Tuesday, only 17 of its delegates were pledged to the candidate with the most votes across the state. The remaining 54 delegates are unbound and were chosen directly by voters, even though delegates are free to endorse any of the candidates up until the Republican National Convention in July. Political pundits and major media outlets alike have dubbed this type of delegate allocation as a “loophole”-type primary.

The quirky rule didn’t go unnoticed by students who went out to vote today on Penn’s campus.

“I think something everyone is noticing this primary season is just how undemocratic the GOP primary is,” Knesbach said. “In Pennsylvania, you have to vote for the delegates and the delegates then can vote. It shows how crazy the process is.”

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