Donald Trump Wins Big In New York Republican Primary

Donald Trump won the 2016 New York Republican primary Tuesday with a landslide victory, marking another failure of the "Stop Trump" movement and injecting the billionaire businessman with another tank of momentum as he drives to wrap up the party's presidential nomination.

The race was called within a minute of the 9 p.m. poll closings by MSNBC, CNN and The Associated Press.

Hillary Clinton was also projected a winner Tuesday in her race against Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination.

"Thank you New York! I love you!" Trump tweeted after the vote.

Later, standing before supporters in one of his New York properties, Trump sounded familiar themes, knocking immigrants and promising to bring jobs back to the United States. His tone was different than in past victories, though, with no mention of "Lyin' Ted" but rather references to Sen. Cruz.

Jobs are being sucked out of our states, sucked out of our country and we're not going to let it happen anymore," Trump said after entering the room to an amplified version of "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra "We're going to stop it."

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Republican Primary Results (93% reporting)

Trump: 60.1 percent

Kasich: 25.1 percent

Cruz: 14.7 percent

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Exit polls described by MSNBC suggested Trump's margin of victory could be greater than 30 percent but the real question was whether he'd finish over 50 percent. The news channel projected Kasick would finish second.

Heading in to Tuesday's vote the question was not whether Trump would win but by how wide a margin he would defeat Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Cruz.

Up for grabs in the primary were 95 electoral votes, to be divided proportionally but with the bulk going to whoever — if anybody — exceeds 50 percent in the voting statewide and in individual districts.

Trump held a sizable delegate lead over Cruz and Kasich heading into the voting. He had 744 compared to Cruz's 559 and Kasich's 144.

Trump needs 1,237 delegates sewn up before July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland to avoid a backroom fight. An open convention could swing votes to Kasich, Cruz or another candidate not in the race.

Trump, who was born in Queens and currently lives in Manhattan, had huge turnouts at rallies across the state, most recently in Buffalo on Monday night where he was introduced by Bills coach Rex Ryan.

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• 2016 New York Presidential Primary Results: Voters Get A Say
• New York Democratic Primary Results: Bernie Sanders Needs Upset Win

Cruz and Kasich had done their fair share of campaigning in the Empire State, though it hadn't made much of a dent in Trump's polling lead.

According to a RealClearPolitics average of major New York state polls, Trump held a 30.3-point lead over his GOP rivals heading into Tuesday's voting.

Cruz all but assured himself a loss in New York back in January, when he attacked Trump for his "New York values" at a Republican debate. Kasich, meanwhile, couldn't have looked more awkward while visiting the state, eating his pizza with a fork and stuffing his face with three bowls of pasta in what looked like a spin-off of the Nathan's hotdog eating contest on New York's Coney Island.

Images via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons