Trump’s big delegate haul

GET OUT THE BROOMS: DONALD TRUMP got the sweep tonight and, perhaps as important, it was an emphatic sweep with sizeable victories.

“I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely,” Trump said.


As POLITICO’s Shane Goldmacher reports, Trump’s victories — while somewhat expected — effectively tightened his grip on the Republican nomination.

Why?

As Goldmacher notes: The GOP race is no longer just about amassing state victories. It is about the arcane slog of accumulating delegates — and Trump is dominating there, too.

His statewide wins in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware netted him 47 delegates. And in Connecticut, Trump was well above 50 percent, with 13 percent of the vote counted, putting him on pace to win all 13 of its statewide delegates. He was far ahead in Rhode Island, likely to win at least 9 of its delegates.

Trump was also expected to scoop up delegates at the congressional district level in the Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut contests.

The five states that voted Tuesday are worth a combined 118 bound delegates. The Associated Press had Trump winning 82 of them — and counting.

Read more at: http://goo.gl/8YFUWc

Welcome to a bonus, post-primary 2016 Blast. No, this wasn’t the Acela primary, but we are always coming to you from the not-so-quiet car. Henry C. Jackson (@henrycjjackson) is here to guide you through the day’s campaign news, so send your tips, complaints and face-melting hot takes to [email protected].

WHAT MATTERS: Here are four more things we’re watching today — and why they matter.

2) PRIMARY, WHAT PRIMARY? Here is one group that DONALD TRUMP’s primary victories did not seem to resonate with: His GOP opponents. TED CRUZ told jokes about the similarities between Trump and HILLARY CLINTON at an event in Indiana. http://goo.gl/19LHDd For his part, JOHN KASICH took to Twitter, not a dais, to say he would be plowing forward. “America deserves a president that will make us proud. John Kasich's fight will continue,” Kasich’s team tweeted. http://goo.gl/GNeMlG Meanwhile, a triumphant Trump all but declared himself the GOP nominee and the “pact” between Kasich and Cruz to focus only on their best states was pretty much in tatters, POLITICO’s Katie Glueck and Kyle Cheney report, as Indiana loyalists to Kasich refused to make way for Cruz. http://goo.gl/eseK86

3) UNITY CANDIDATE: Three sizeable wins — in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland — and a closer victory in Connecticut gave HILLARY CLINTON all she needed to make her election night about Not BERNIE SANDERS. As POLITICO’s Patrick Reis reports, Clinton called for unity and seemed to be in the middle of a full-stride pivot to the general election. “There’s much more that unites us than divides us,” Clinton said, before reciting a list of policy priorities she and Sanders share. “In an election we will have to work hard together to prevail against candidates from the other side.” http://goo.gl/fOSAlJ

4) STILL BERNING: BERNIE SANDERS did not get shut out — a distinct possibility — managing a victory in Rhode Island and a somewhat closer-than-expected race in Connecticut. But the victories neither erased a growing delegate gap with HILLARY CLINTON nor did they solve an apparent disconnect in the Sanders campaign’s messaging. After senior adviser Tad Devine told The New York Times the campaign would reassess what was going on after tonight’s results, the candidate’s spouse, Jane Sanders, promptly said there would be no reassessment. http://goo.gl/5nh85W Like Clinton, his Election Night message was focused on the general election, though more as an argument for why he was the best choice for Democrats. “We are winning Independent votes and some Republican votes as well, and that is a point that I hope the delegates to the Democratic convention fully understand," he said as results began to come in for today's mid-Atlantic primaries. http://goo.gl/P6ejDN

5) CALL IT AN O’MERTA: Ah, MARTIN O’MALLEY. Remember him? The erstwhile governor and banjo player is also a citizen of the state of Maryland and participated in democracy today. And he had a bit of fun with it, teasing that he would reveal his endorsement in a SnapChat video. As POLITICO’s Daniel Strauss reports this was all done with a banjo. Because, sure.

TRAIL MIX: Elsewhere on primary night, DONALD TRUMP gets a delegate win, too. Names are hard. Closing time. David Plouffe and Matt Drudge think they’ve seen enough. And Trump University gets a day in court.

DELEGATING RIGHT: DONALD TRUMP was also on pace to win a loyal delegate slate in Maryland. http://goo.gl/S6tImY

WHAT’S IN A NAME: It was hard to come up with a name for this slate of primaries on what was an important but not quite super day. http://goo.gl/jDmJ6N

FORWARD PLANNING: David Plouffe is pretty sure it’s over, and we’re looking at a HILLARY CLINTON vs. DONALD TRUMP general election. https://goo.gl/Z3P5E3

DRUDGE, TOO: Tonight’s Drudge Report headline also seemed to signal the online news guru’s views: “EliminaTed” it said, with “Ted” in red font. http://goo.gl/mTgOcY

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT: A judge set a hearing for a lawsuit on Trump University for the first day of the Republican convention. http://goo.gl/ecmJcW

MOUNTAINEER CHARGE: BERNIE SANDERS called on West Virginia, a state voting in upcoming primaries, to break its turnout record and vote for him. https://goo.gl/JAegKw (ABC)

WHAT’S NEXT:

Attention shifts to Indiana, where TED CRUZ still believes a victory can deny DONALD TRUMP the delegates he needs to secure the Republican nomination. BERNIE SANDERS also heads to Indiana.

THEY SAID IT: “We not only won. We won big.”

— DONALD TRUMP describing his night.

MAGIC NUMBER: 66,000. That’s how many Indiana Republicans voted before TED CRUZ and JOHN KASICH announced an alliance. One reason it will be difficult to make it work. http://goo.gl/vuY8NP

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There you go — now you’re caught up on the 2016 race. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.