James Fisher

The News Journal

The Republican party in Delaware narrowly bested its historic turnout record for primary elections on Tuesday.

Nearly 38 of every 100 registered Republicans voted in Tuesday's GOP presidential primary, a greater turnout rate than the party's ever seen since Delaware moved from caucuses to primaries in 1996. The previous Republican turnout record was set in 2008, when 28 percent of the GOP voted in the primary.

Democrats, with 30 percent turnout, didn't match the record set in their 2008 primary, when Barack Obama's potential to be the country's first black president stirred young voters and minorities to take part and their own turnout was 38 percent. But turnout this year far surpassed the 2000 primary — the previous time Democrats had a primary when there was no Republican president running for re-election — when only 16 percent of the party's voters went to the polls.

The results of yesterday's relatively high-turnout elections, of course, were commanding victories for New York businessman Donald Trump of the GOP and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democrat. Trump notched 60.8 percent of the Republican vote, and Clinton came within a percentage point of matching him on the Democratic side, earning 59.8 percent of her party's ballots.

In the proportional delegate divvying, Clinton won 12 bound delegates Tuesday night and Sanders won nine delegates, based on their vote percentages. Clinton also now has the announced support of six of the 10 Delaware superdelegates in the Democratic party.

But the Republican electorate, poll numbers show, was not on the same page about Donald Trump all throughout the state. Trump won 71 percent of the GOP vote in Sussex County, considered the state's most conservative region, and in Kent County he garnered 65 percent. But in greater New Castle County his margin fell to 51 percent. And within Wilmington's city limits, Trump's support fell all the way to 39 percent.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich narrowly won the Wilmington-only GOP vote with 41 percent, and he outperformed his statewide share in New Castle County as well. Kasich even won one of the 41 election districts, the 4th, by a single vote, besting Trump there 688 votes to 687 votes.

Delaware primary results

But, with most of the state's Republican voters in Sussex and Kent counties, it wasn't nearly enough to win Kasich the state's GOP delegates.

Democrats in northern and southern Delaware were far more unified in their decisions to get behind Clinton; she won 61 percent of the Democratic vote in Sussex County, 59 percent in Kent County, 58 percent in New Castle County and 64 percent in Wilmington.

Trump backers in Delaware said their plan all along was to seek success by driving turnout — one of the reasons Trump held a rally late last week in Harrington attended by an estimated 7,000 people.

"It's fantastic," said Rob Arlett, Trump's Delaware campaign chairman. "It was my personal goal to get 61 percent," a result to match Trump's 60 percent win in his home state of New York. And Trump did, in fact, perform better in Delaware than he did in New York, by a slim 0.4 percent.

Although the GOP bested the Democrats in turnout, the raw vote numbers show about 24,000 more Democrats voted in Delaware Tuesday than Republicans. That's a function of the Democratic Party's sizable registration advantage. For every two registered Republicans in Delaware, there are three Democrats down the street.

"Hopefully we can bring this contest to an end and unite the party so Hillary can turn her sights to defeating Donald Trump in November," Sussex County Democratic Chairman Mitch Crane said. "We haven't had a more qualified candidate for president in a long, long time."

The next hurdle for Trump supporters: influencing the selection of which Republican activists will represent Delaware at the national convention in Cleveland. That delegate-picking happens Saturday morning at the state GOP convention in Dewey Beach, and Trump supporters say they're still trying to discern which proposed delegates support Trump, Cruz and Kasich. If Trump doesn't earn the magic number of 1,237 delegates before the July convention, the GOP's nominating process could go to an anything-goes second ballot for the first time in decades, and state delegates wouldn't have to vote they way the rules made them on the first ballot.

Among the 16 GOP delegates proposed by the party's small executive committee for approval by the entire 341-person convention membership are state Treasurer Ken Simpler; Robert Stout, a Middletown town council member; state Sen. F. Gary Simpson, R-Milford; and Thomas Draper, a Sussex County businessman and president of WBOC-TV's parent company. The party has not publicly released the slate, but it has circulated widely and The News Journal obtained a copy.

After Tuesday's decisive Trump wins in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island, though, there may be little appetite for obstruction left in any state GOP leaders who aren't fond of the candidate.

"GOP voters decided that they are ready for the primary to be over," said John Fluharty, a Kasich supporter and former Delaware GOP executive director, in a Facebook post. "Trump may still fall short of the 1,237, but he'll be close enough that they can swing the needed number of the unbound delegates to get him over the top in Cleveland."

Staff Writer Adam Duvernay contributed to this story. Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.

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