Clinton trounces Sanders in New York with boosts from downstate, where Jewish voters concentrate
Published April 19, 2016
Hillary Clinton speaking during her Super Tuesday evening gathering at Stage One at Ice Palace Studios in Miami, Florida, March 1, 2016. (Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillary Clinton clinched a daunting lead over Bernie Sanders in the New York primary, boosted by substantial wins in the New York City area, where much of the state’s Jewish population lives.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump won a resounding win, but Jewish voters may have denied him a total sweep of the state.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, was leading Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont, 58 to 42 percent with 90 percent of the vote counted late Tuesday.
According to exit polls posted by NBC, 12 percent of Democratic voters statewide were Jewish, although the polls did not break the numbers down according to candidate.
Still, Clinton seemed to prevail in districts known to have large Jewish populations. In Kings County, or Brooklyn, Clinton led Sanders 60-40 and in New York County, or Manhattan, she led 66-34.
Clinton and Sanders clashed ahead of the New York primary on Israel, with Sanders challenging her in a debate in Brooklyn last week to show more even-handedness to the Palestinians and to criticize the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Clinton’s win boosted her lead of pledged convention delegates to 1,436 over Sanders’ 1,192 out of 2,383 needed to win. Clinton has the support of an additional 469 “superdelegates,” or top party officials, to Sanders’ 31.
In her victory speech, Clinton sounded a conciliatory note over what has become an increasingly bitter campaign.
“To all the people who supported Senator Sanders, I believe there is much more that unites us than divides us,” she said. Sanders is the first Jewish candidate to win major party state nominating contests.
Trump, the real estate billionaire, trounced his opponents, winning 60 percent to 25 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and 15 percent for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz
The win will rekindle Trump’s hopes that he can win the necessary majority of delegates – 1,237 – to avoid a contested convention. His win in New York on Tuesday brings him to 844 delegates, followed by Cruz, at 543, and just 147 for Kasich.
Still, wariness of Trump among Republican Jews seemed to be evident in the New York City area, and denied him a total sweep of the state’s 95 delegates. Kasich won Trump’s home turf of Manhattan, and Cruz bested Trump in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods like Crown heights and Borough Park in Brooklyn.
Cruz, the most stridently pro-Israel candidate among the Republicans, campaigned hard among the Orthodox, baking matzah last week.
Trump has alienated many Republican Jews by saying at times that he would remain neutral in brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace, and also with his broadsides against minorities, including Hispanics and Muslims.
