From Yoshita Singh
New York, Apr 20 (PTI) Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have won the potentially game- changing New York state primary, solidifying their presidential front-runner status after suffering a series of losses recently.
As polls closed at 9 PM last night, media outlets announced that Manhattan billionaire Trump, 69, and former secretary of state Clinton, 68, have won in the state.
Trump's big victory in his home state gave him renewed momentum in the Republican race and pushed him closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
Clinton, the New York senator for eight years, was conformably ahead of her rival Bernie Sanders, 74, winning 59.3 percent of the votes so far, way ahead of 40.8 per cent votes won by Sanders.
With half of the polls in, Trump was way ahead of Senator Ted Cruz and Governor John Katich, winning 61.4 percent of the votes.
Delivering his victory speech, Trump told a crowd of cheering supporters that he will focus on bringing the jobs back from "Mexico and all other countries" and investing in America's military and its veterans.
In the Republican race, the billionaire real estate mogul appeared to be on pace for a massive victory and is likely to sweep most of the 95 delegates up for grabs in New York. For the Democrats, 291 delegates were at stake.
Clinton is leading the overall delegate count with 1307 while Sanders has 1094 delegates. The one who clinches 2383 delegates in all wins the party's nomination.
A total of 1,237 delegates are needed to sew up the Republican nomination at the 2016 GOP National Convention.
Before the New York win, Trump led the total delegate count with 743, followed by Cruz with 543 and Kasich with 144.
