Donald Trump has rolled to a victory in the Arizona Republican primary, capitalizing on his anti-immigration stance — a position that’s long been popular with GOP voters in the state.
With the win, Trump takes all of the state’s 58 delegates to the Republican National Convention.
For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton padded her delegate lead after a win in Arizona’s Democratic presidential primary.
The wins help stretch both front-runners’ leads in the race for convention delegates.
Trump won all 58 delegates in Arizona, giving him a little less than half the delegates allocated so far. That’s still short of the majority needed to clinch the nomination before the party’s national convention this summer.
However, Trump has a path to the nomination if he continues to win states that award all or most of their delegates to the winner.
Republicans were also going to the polls Tuesday in Utah, with 40 delegates at stake. A candidate could win all 40 if he gets more than 50 percent of the vote. Otherwise, delegates are awarded in proportion to the statewide vote.
The AP delegate count:
Trump: 739.
Ted Cruz: 425
John Kasich: 143.
Needed to win the nomination: 1,237.
Meanwhile, with 75 delegates at stake, Arizona is the biggest prize of the night in the Democratic race.
Clinton stands to gain more than half of those delegates — at least 40, compared to at least 16 for rival Bernie Sanders.
That means she will add to her delegate lead of more than 300. She now has 1,203 to Sanders’ 860.
When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton’s overall lead is even wider — 1,670 to Sanders’ 886. It takes 2,383 to win.
Also voting this evening are Idaho and Utah, with a combined 56 delegates at stake.
