Trump, Clinton, McGinty score big wins

The primaries in Pennsylvania and four other states on April 26 helped the Republican and Democratic presidential frontrunners further solidify their quests for party nomination.

Trump won all five of the GOP primaries in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island with at least 54 percent of the vote in each state. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Rhode Island Democratic primary.

Before the primaries on Tuesday, Trump had 845 of the 1,237 needed for the Republican nomination. But Tuesday boosted his delegate count to 950 compared to Sen. Ted Cruz, who finished the night with 560 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 153.

‘This to me was our biggest night,’ Trump said in his victory speech. ‘I consider myself the presumptive nominee.’
Voter turnout to Centre County’s 91 precincts was ‘about what we expected,’ said Centre County Director of Elections Joyce McKinley. All told, 109,607 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday, or 36.89 percent. There were 45,955 Democratic voters, 43,071 Republican voters and 20,422 nonpartisan voters.

‘On Monday, I was predicting a turnout of between 38 and 40 percent,’ McKinley told the Centre County Gazette. ‘That number, of course, is not official yet. But, overall, I say it was a good turnout for a presidential year election.’

Although Pennsylvanians chose Trump and Clinton as a whole, Centre County voters gave their nod to Bernie Sanders.

Represented on ballots across the state’s 91 precincts, Sanders pulled in 10,269 votes to Clinton’s 8,431; however, The Associated Press reported Clinton took more than 55 percent of the total votes in the commonwealth.

Trump, on the other hand, won easily throughout Centre County. He grabbed 10,016 Republican votes to just 5,195 for Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

In Pennsylvania, the Democratic nominee must secure 2,383 delegates to win the party’s nomination. The Republican nominee must have 1,237 delegates to win. Numbers as of Tuesday this week showed Clinton held 1,946 while Sanders held 1,192 with 1,627 delegates yet to be allocated. Donald Trump has 845 delegates to Cruz’s 559 and Kasich’s 148. There are still 733 Republican delegates remaining available.

Trump still has a way to go before officially reaching the number of delegates needed for the nomination, but his added haul mean that neither Cruz nor Kasich can get a majority of delegates.

For the Democrats, Clinton widened her lead over the Vermont senator, boosting her total delegate count to 2,141. Sanders holds 1,321 delegates after the results from April 26.

In Centre County, Sanders picked up almost 54 percent of the vote. On April 19, Sanders hosted a rally at Penn State targeting millennials, the senator’s strongest base.

Republican voters in Centre County gave Trump about 49 percent of the vote, with Cruz and Kasich taking 23 and 22 percent of the vote respectively.

Republican and Democratic voters were also asked to select three delegates to their respective party’s National Convention from the Fifth Congressional District.

Centre voters chose Joyce C. Hass (7,668 votes), C. Arnold McClure (6,146) and James Kline (5,928) on the Republican ticket, and Susan A. Demetrick (9,092), Jared Deloof (8,664) and Dan Long (8,541).

In the race for attorney general, Democrats chose Josh Shapiro (9,949 votes) over Stephen A. Zappala Jr. (3,319); and on the Republican side, John Rafferty (8,771) defeated Joe Peters (7,741).

On Tuesday, the Democratic establishment helped Democrat Katie McGinty secure a victory for the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary race over former Rep. Joe Sestak, who was the frontrunner for much of the campaign. McGinty, a former chief of staff to Gov. Tom Wolf, will now face off against first-term GOP Sen. Pat Toomey in the general election.

In Centre County, McGinty took almost 50 percent of the vote, with Sestak receiving 31 percent of the vote and Braddock mayor John Fetterman taking 21 percent of the vote.

Statewide, Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro won the contested three-candidate race for the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania Attorney General, defeating Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. In the general election, he will take on the Republican victor, Sen. John Rafferty of Montgomery County, who took 67 percent of the vote in a race against Joe Peters.

In the 5th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Glenn Thompson will face Democratic challenger Kerith Strano Taylor in November because both ran unopposed in the primary.

In state House races, incumbent Democrat Scott Conklin ran unopposed in the 77th district. No one ran on the Republican side. In the 171st district, Democrat Melody Fleck will face incumbent Republican Kerry Benninghoff in November. Both ran unopposed. In 76th district, incumbent Democrat Mike Hanna will face Republican Stephanie Borowicz in the fall.

With 109,697 registered voters in Centre County, there were more people eligible to vote in this race than for the presidential primary elections in both 2008 and 2012.

In 2012 there were about 83,000 registered voters with 21 percent casting ballots and in 2008 there were 90,000 registered voters with 43 percent casting ballots.

This race brought 40,471 people to the polls, or about 37 percent of registered voters including 42 percent of registered Democrats and 48 percent of registered Republicans.