Clinton, Trump aim to seal deal in 5 primaries
Print Edition
US presidential frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump seek to deliver knockout blows against their rivals in tomorrow’s five high-stakes primaries, with pressure mounting to wrap up the nomination races and pivot toward the general election battle.
Don’t expect the challengers to buckle just yet.
The extraordinary 2016 race has tested American political tradition, with the Democratic and Republican parties taking their nomination battles deep into primary season.
Clinton, aiming to become the nation’s first female commander in chief, faces a resilient liberal Senator Bernie Sanders, whose grassroots campaign to highlight income inequality has mobilized millions of young voters.
But the ex-secretary of state is poised to extend her delegate lead tomorrow when Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island host their primaries.
Pressed Saturday on reports that she has begun her search for a running mate, Clinton shook her head and replied: “I’m just working hard to win on Tuesday.”
Clinton leads in polling in the northeastern states, and if she sweeps all five Sanders will be hard pressed to exit the race.
In Pennsylvania, Clinton turned to the general election, knocking Trump and Republican candidate Ted Cruz and tailoring her message to working-class voters eager to see a return of manufacturing jobs.
“These are not jobs that can be exported, they have to be done right here in Pennsylvania,” Clinton told supporters last week in Philadelphia.
Politics professor Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania said Sanders is “obstinate” about staying in the race, perhaps to earn a speaking spot at the Democratic convention in July.
Clinton “is the inevitable nominee now and the only question is at what point does she wrap up the magic number” of necessary delegates, Madonna said.
A canopy of drama hangs over the Republican race, where the math points to a contested convention.
That means Trump will have to defy the odds with particularly strong showings through the remainder of the statewide contests if he is to win the nomination outright before the party’s delegates gather in Cleveland in July to pick their nominee.
Snatching most of the Republican delegates at stake tomorrow would propel him that much closer to reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to nail down the nomination.
His campaign is increasingly on notice, however, that the provocative celebrity billionaire would need to surpass that number and not merely outperform rivals Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
But Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus took aim at conservatives who have said they will not back Trump should he become the flagbearer.
“Politics is a team sport, and we can’t win unless we rally around whoever becomes our nominee,” Priebus told an influential gathering in Florida of over 100 Republican delegates on Friday.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
