NEW YORK - Front-runner Hillary Clinton swept to victory with ease in Tuesday's New York primary, with Clinton pushing closer to locking up the Democratic nomination. Clinton's healthy double-digit triumph padded her delegate lead over rival Bernie Sanders, depriving him of a crucial opportunity to narrow the margin. Sanders vowed to compete through all of the voting contests, though his odds of overtaking Clinton at this stage in the race are low.

NEW YORK � Front-runner Hillary Clinton swept to victory with ease in Tuesday�s New York primary, with Clinton pushing closer to locking up the Democratic nomination.

Clinton�s healthy double-digit triumph padded her delegate lead over rival Bernie Sanders, depriving him of a crucial opportunity to narrow the margin. Sanders vowed to compete through all of the voting contests, though his odds of overtaking Clinton at this stage in the race are low.

�The race for the nomination is in the home stretch, and victory is in sight,� Clinton declared to cheering supporters.

�We�ve got a shot to victory,� Sanders told The Associated Press. �We have come a very long way in the last 11 months, and we are going to fight this out until the end of the process.�

Sanders spent Tuesday in Pennsylvania. Speaking at a rally in State College, he appeared to predict the win for his rival.

�Virtually the entire New York Democratic establishment is standing with her,� he said.

The fight for New York�s delegate haul consumed the presidential contenders for two weeks, an eternity in the fast-moving White House race. Candidates blanketed every corner of New York, bidding for votes from Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs to the working-class cities and rural enclaves that dot the rest of the state.

With 247 delegates at stake, Clinton picked up at least 104 while Sanders gained at least 85. Many remained to be allocated, pending final vote tallies.

Clinton now has 1,862 delegates to Sanders� 1,161. Those totals include both pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses and superdelegates, the party insiders who can back the candidate of their choice regardless of how their state votes. It takes 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.

Even before the results were in Tuesday, Clinton�s top campaign aides were casting her as the near-certain nominee and urging Sanders to tone down his attacks on the former secretary of state.

The race between Clinton and Sanders turned more tense in New York. They sharply questioned each other�s qualifications for the presidency, then sparred in a debate over her ties to Wall Street and his position on the gunmakers.

While Sanders� supporters in New York were not excited about the prospect of Clinton being elected, 7 in 10 said they would probably or definitely vote for her in the general election, according to exit polls. The surveys were conducted by Edison Research for The AP and television networks.

Clinton spent her final hours of campaigning in New York trying to drive up turnout among women and minorities, her most-ardent supporters. She and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, cast their votes in their adopted home town of Chappaqua.

According to the exit polls, two-thirds of Democratic voters said the contest between Clinton and Sanders has energized the party. But GOP voters held the opposite view, saying their party has been divided by the sparring among front-runner Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.