Live Blog: Five States Up for Grabs in East Coast Primaries
Pittsburgh, PA. Pennsylvania is one of the states to watch in today’s primary elections. (via Flickr)
11:45 a.m. PST: Today, all eyes are on the East coast as five states—Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania—hold presidential primaries. What to know as voting begins:
1. The pressure is on in Pennsylvania. Of the five states, it has the largest amount of delegates up for grabs. Polls show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton with strong leads in the state. On the GOP side, however, the Pennsylvania primary is a little different: 54 of the state’s 71 delegates are unbound, meaning that they are “essentially free agents” with the ability to make or break Trump’s nomination. ABC News breaks it down:
In total, 71 delegates are up for grabs for the Republican candidates. The candidate who garners the most votes in the primary gets 17 of the delegates, who are bound on the first ballot to vote for them at the GOP convention this summer. These 17 bound delegates are made up of three RNC members and 14 members of the state Republican Party.
Then, there are the remaining 54 delegates, which are elected directly on the GOP primary ballots handed out Tuesday in each congressional district without being bound to a candidate, meaning they are up for grabs at the convention. Voters in each of Pennsylvania’s 18 districts will pick three delegates to represent them at the GOP convention on Tuesday’s ballot.
The Democratic candidates have a much more straightforward process, with 210 delegates up for grabs, 189 of which are pledged delegates whom voters pick on the ballots. The remaining 21 are superdelegates that are picked by the party.
2. Closed primaries strike again. Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland all hold closed primaries. Rhode Island has ‘semi-closed’ system, in which unaffiliated voters can vote however they desire, but become a member of the party they vote for until they “disaffiliate,” a process that takes 90 days. Additionally, voters already registered under a certain party must vote within that party during the primary. Following a turbulent primary election in New York last week, many are beginning to question the “closed primary” system.
3. The Kasich and Cruz effort to team up against Trump is already failing. John Kasich and Ted Cruz shocked many with yesterday’s announcement that they were joining forces in “a last-ditch effort” to keep Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination. However, less than a day after their alliance was revealed, it began to fizzle. The New York Times reported:
Mr. Cruz trumpeted what he called the “big news” in Indiana, a state that appears pivotal to stopping Mr. Trump from winning a majority of delegates. “John Kasich has decided to pull out of Indiana to give us a head-to-head contest with Donald Trump,” he said.
But at his own campaign stop in Philadelphia on Monday, Mr. Kasich tamped down Mr. Cruz’s triumphalism. Voters in Indiana, Mr. Kasich said, “ought to vote for me,” even if he would not be campaigning publicly there. He added, “I don’t see this as any big deal.”
Trump is predicted to win all five primaries today, adding pressure to both the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.
Here’s a page to watch as election results roll in.
—Posted by Emma Niles
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Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/live_blog_five_states_up_for_grabs_in_east_coast_primaries_20160426/
