Jackson Free Press

The Latest: Hillary Clinton wins Democratic primary in NY

NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 as voters in New York cast their ballots in the state's primary (all times Eastern Daylight Time):

9:47 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic presidential primary in New York, which she represented in the U.S. Senate for eight years.

Clinton beat out rival Bernie Sanders in Tuesday's election, further extending her lead in the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

Most Democratic primary voters see Clinton as the best candidate to face Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee in November, and 7 in 10 see her as the most likely eventual nominee.

Before Tuesday, Clinton led Sanders 1,292 to 1,042 in the delegate count. When including superdelegates, the AP count had Clinton at 1,761 and Sanders at 1,073.

Most of New York's Democratic delegates are awarded on a proportional basis by the outcome in each congressional district. New York has 247 pledged delegates at stake.

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9:40 p.m.

Donald Trump, fresh off a commanding victory in the Republican primary in his home state of New York, is suggesting he may soon have the race in hand.

Trump, speaking Tuesday night in Trump Tower, says Senator Ted Cruz "is just about mathematically eliminated" from clinching the delegates needed to win outright before the national convention.

"We don't have much of a race anymore," says Trump, declaring that his campaign is "really rocking" and he could have the nomination sown up before the party convention in Cleveland.

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9:35 p.m.

Donald Trump is touting that "the people who know me best" gave him a resounding victory in the Republican primary in his home state of New York.

Trump appeared Tuesday night in the lobby of Trump Tower to the strains of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." He then walked a red carpet with an American flag as a backdrop, the whole scene bathed in red, white and blue lights.

He saluted his family and campaign staff, saying it's "been an incredible night, an incredible week."

The Trump campaign was banking on a significant win in New York after a stumble in Wisconsin earlier this month. The win allows him to stay on a narrow, but real, path to capture the delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination before the party's national convention in Cleveland this summer.

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9:05 p.m.

Cheers broke out in Trump Tower in Manhattan at 9 p.m. Tuesday night as polls closed and news organizations called the New York Republican primary for Donald Trump.

He's expected to speak soon in front of assembled reporters, supporters and staffers, who have gathered in the lobby of Trump's midtown office and residential building.

Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says the campaign's goal is to beat the margins that rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich achieved in their home states.

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9 p.m.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has won the primary in his home state of New York.

Trump was widely expected to beat his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich in Tuesday's election. The precise allocation of delegates from the state won't be determined until the vote results are calculated by congressional district, but Trump is certain to extend his delegate lead and come closer to the 1,237 delegates required to clinch the party's nomination.

Early results of the exit poll in the state show a large majority of New York Republicans want the next president to be a political outsider.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Trump had amassed 756 delegates, while Cruz had 559 and Kasich had 144.

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8:45 p.m.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is trying to move beyond a crushing defeat in New York, which he is dismissing as merely "a politician winning his home state."

Instead, he is pivoting with a sweeping call to unite the Republican Party by painting himself as the outsider able to capture the imagination of a party searching for leadership.

Already moving on to Pennsylvania, Cruz is saying: "This generation needs to answer a new set of questions. Can we? Should we? Will we?"

Cruz is comparing his candidacy to Ronald Reagan's and John F. Kennedy's, asking the Pennsylvania audience, "Are we still those people, those dreamers and doers?"

The Pennsylvania primary is April 26.