Trump, Clinton favored to win today's primaries

Five more states will hold presidential primaries today, and the forecast does not look good for anyone not named Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

Trump, the reality television star turned Republican front-runner, leads his closest opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, by nearly 300 delegates, and most polls predict him to sweep all of today’s contests. Clinton will aim to thwart any rebound efforts from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., after handily winning New York’s Democratic primary last week. The former secretary of state is favored to win every primary today, save Rhode Island.

On Sunday, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced they will join forces to try to stop Trump from reaching the 1,237-delegate majority that would guarantee him the nomination. Trump has 845 delegates heading into today’s contests in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Going forward, Kasich and Cruz will stay out of each other’s way and focus campaign efforts in states they are likely to win. Cruz will dial into Indiana and Kasich will focus his attention on states like Oregon and New Mexico. Together, they hope to win enough states to slow Trump and force a contested Republican convention in July.

Trump pounced on the news to rally supporters. At campaign events in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania on Monday, he referred to the coordinated effort as “collusion” and a way for the establishment to continue to rig the system against him. Trump claimed such practices are illegal in the business world but fine for America’s dirty politics.

“Actually, I was happy because it shows how weak they are, it shows how pathetic they are,” he chided.

Both Cruz and Kasich are mathematically eliminated from winning the Republican nomination outright but are staying in the game to make sure Trump does not either.

Even with his sizable lead, and fresh from winning 89 of New York’s 95 delegates, Trump still has a lot of work to do between now and the last round of primaries on June 7. He needs to win about 60 percent of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination, which will be tougher now with the coordinated campaign efforts against him.

Delaware is the only winner-take-all state up for grabs today—and it awards the fewest delegates. Each of the other four will award on a proportional basis. Even if Trump wins all five states, he could come away with only a small bump in his lead.

Pennsylvania, the most delegate-rich state, will grant only 17 of its 71 delegates based on today’s votes. The remaining 54 delegates are unbound and candidates can court them right up to this summer’s convention.

Trump needs blowout victories to do real damage to Cruz and Kasich.

Clinton also is looking for a blowout win today as she tries to crush the spirit of an energetic but sliding Sanders campaign.

Last week, Clinton conquered Sanders by 16 points in New York, casting doubt on how much longer the Democratic-Socialist can stay in the race. The sizable victory came as a surprise to Sanders, a Brooklyn native, who rallied crowds as big as 27,000 leading up to the contest.

But in the days after the loss, Sanders has continued to electrify massive crowds, with 14,000 attending an event in New Haven, Conn., on Sunday and thousands more joining him in Baltimore the day before.

And as supporters pour into auditoriums and stadiums, dollars continue to stuff his pockets. Sanders has outraised Clinton by at least 50 percent in every month this year. In March, he raised nearly $20 million more than the Clinton campaign and has accumulated $183 million since last summer.

The large cash flow may sustain Sanders’ race until the California primary on June 7, but math will soon become his greatest enemy.

Clinton has a 700-plus delegate lead over Sanders, combining both pledged and so-called super delegates. And polls predict her to increase that lead today.

The Democratic front-runner has scored big endorsements from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. She also got a thumbs-up from the mayors of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and endorsements from the largest newspapers in both Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Indiana will be the next state to cast ballots, on May 3. The Hoosier state has little polling data, and some predict it could determine whether Trump can win the GOP nomination or not. It may also be a fatal blow to the Sanders campaign if he can’t win enough votes to stay competitive today.