It Was Their Day; Trump and Clinton

Evidently, the elections in five eastern states neighboring and close to New York were not very significant. It was expected that Hillary Clinton from the Democratic Party and Donald Trump from the Republican Party would be the ultimate winners of the day, and this indeed happened. According to polls, Bernie Sanders only had a chance of winning in Rhode Island, where he also emerged victorious. However, by the end of the day, both the Democratic and Republican parties were somewhat surprised! What unexpected event occurred on Tuesday, and what impact will the final results have on the fate of this election? The Democratic Party: What made Hillary Clinton's victory on Tuesday particularly sweet was not the victory itself, but the scale of the victory. Clinton was ahead of her rival in the polls in four out of the five states on Tuesday. Therefore, her winning was not of extraordinary significance. Moreover, after her significant win in New York, she had brought Bernie Sanders to the brink of definitive defeat. However, the percentage of votes Clinton received that day and the number of delegates she secured for the Democratic National Convention exceeded even the most optimistic predictions. In the five states on Tuesday, Clinton garnered over 60% of the votes in Delaware and Maryland, with Maryland being particularly significant due to its population. In another populous state on that day, Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton received 56% of the votes compared to Sanders' 44%. With a 52% win against 47% in Connecticut, the loss of 43% to 55% in Rhode Island (with 24 delegates) would not be of much concern for Clinton's campaign. As a result of these stunning victories, Clinton reached a total of 1640 delegates, increasing her lead over Bernie Sanders to more than 300 delegates. While it seemed that after these five states, the close competition between Clinton and Sanders would continue, in practice, Clinton's high votes led some to already name her the de facto winner of the Democratic Party's internal elections. Notably, Clinton's campaign has completely distanced itself from the tone of intra-party struggle, and she generally does not make serious criticisms of Sanders in her speeches, instead mentioning him when she wants to praise or thank her rival. Conversely, in all her speeches, she relentlessly attacks Donald Trump and even Ted Cruz with a sword drawn from its sheath. In other words, she is fully prepared for the final election. Simultaneously, one of the super PACs supporting Clinton, which had not yet entered the race, announced that it would now engage in the fight on her behalf against her Republican rivals. The Republican Party: Among Republicans, the most significant surprise of the day was not Trump's victory but the scale of Trump's victory. In this party, which is experiencing one of the most newsworthy and different internal elections in recent decades, two days before the Tuesday elections, Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced that they had united against Trump. This coalition was essentially the implementation of a wise plan proposed more than a month ago by Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate in 2012; that in 'winner-take-all' states, Republicans should vote for only one of Trump's rivals to prevent the votes from being divided and to ensure Trump could not secure any delegates. According to the plan of this anti-Trump coalition, it was decided that in the state of Indiana, which has such regulations, John Kasich would withdraw in favor of Cruz, while in Oregon and New Mexico, Cruz would cede the field to Kasich to strike Trump. However, neither Oregon nor New Mexico has 'winner-take-all' regulations. One immediate effect of this coalition was the intensification of Trump's rhetoric against his opponents. He, who had apparently promised Republican leaders that he would behave more wisely from now on, reverted to the same unconventional candidate he was before New York, calling Ted Cruz 'Lyin' Cruz' in his speeches and stating that John Kasich's eating habits were nauseating. He also attacked the Republican Party's internal election mechanisms, claiming that the system was corrupt and full of fraud. After all these sharp attacks, not only did the support of ordinary Republicans for him not diminish, but he managed to secure a significant margin of victory in all five eastern states, delivering a heavy blow to the 'anti-Trump' coalition. In these five states, he received between 54% and 64% of the votes and secured 105 delegates under his name, making the success of the anti-Trump project less likely than ever. In the camp of his rivals, Ted Cruz secured one delegate and John Kasich five delegates. However, unlike the Democratic Party, where the outcome is somewhat clear, in the Republican Party, there remains a possibility until the last day that Trump may not reach the minimum required votes for the party's nomination and could be sidelined by party leaders. The most critical part of the fight against Trump in the Republican Party will take place next Tuesday in Indiana, which has 57 delegates, and these 57 delegates will be awarded to the first-place finisher in the election. In this state, Donald Trump had a significant chance of victory, but with Cruz and Kasich uniting, the likelihood of Cruz's victory has increased more than ever. Therefore, this state will be an important test for the anti-Trump campaign.