Reactions to the April 19, 2016 New York Primary

ON THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

Bernie 2016 fundraising email
When we started this campaign, we were down almost 50 points in New York — the state where Hillary Clinton was elected to two terms in the U.S. Senate. 

We didn’t get the victory we had hoped for this evening, but what’s important is that it looks like we’re going to win a lot more delegates in New York than any state that voted or caucused before tonight.

So what does that mean? Five important states vote one week from tonight, with more delegates at stake than Hillary Clinton led by coming into tonight. And if we do well next Tuesday, we remain in a position to take the pledged delegate lead when almost 700 delegates are up for grabs on June 7.

As you read this, thousands of supporters are responding to tonight’s results with contributions because they believe we can win. I need to know if I can count on you to add yours.

If everybody who has signed up to support our campaign made a $2.70 contribution tonight, we will have the resources we need to do very well next week and to take the pledged delegate lead on June 7.

From the day we started this campaign, the corporate media counted us out. The political establishment and financial elite organized against us. But every great movement in American history faced many of the same obstacles and eventually won because of a simple, timeless human truth: when people come together, when they stand together even through adversity, they win.

And so will we.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders


Correct the Record

CTR STATEMENT ON HILLARY CLINTON’S NY PRIMARY WIN

Washington, D.C.--Correct the Record President Brad Woodhouse released the following statement in response to Hillary Clinton’s New York primary win.

“The New York Primary was a make-or-break for the Sanders campaign, which indicated at least 27 times they would, could or must win," said Brad Woodhouse, President of Correct the Record. "With a loss tonight, the math for Sanders' path to the nomination is nearly impossible.

“Bernie Sanders is now at a crossroads. He can either return to the positive, issue-oriented campaign he pledged to run that draws a sharp contrast with the Republicans, or he can continue the unfortunate campaign he ran in New York--one of character assassination, false attacks and innuendo that plays into Karl Rove's playbook. Time to choose: is this about scoring cheap shots or winning in November?

"No matter what Senator Sanders decides to do from here, the results of this campaign to date are clear: the majority of voters in Democratic contests across the country have chosen Hillary Clinton’s message of breaking down barriers for all Americans and they trust that she is the best candidate to take on Republicans and win up and down the ballot in November.”


Correct The Record is a strategic research and rapid response team designed to defend Hillary Clinton from baseless attacks.


Democratic National Committee

DNC Chair Statement Following the New York State Primary Contests

Tonight, following the New York State primary contests, where exit polling showed 68 percent of Democratic voters felt their primary had energized the party, while 57 percent of Republican voters said their primary had divided the party, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued the following statement:

"The Democratic Party is proud of our candidates, and it shows every time voters go to the polls.

"I want to congratulate Secretary Clinton for her victory tonight in New York, and both of our Democratic candidates for continuing to run spirited campaigns worthy of the American people. Millions of New Yorkers cast their votes today in both the Democratic and Republican primaries, but there was one crucial difference: whether they voted for Senator Sanders or Secretary Clinton, Democrats voted for a candidate they respect and admire, Republicans are only voting against the candidate they dislike the most. Even Republican party leaders can’t help but hold their noses as they announce their tepid support for their candidates.

"And now, with Donald Trump’s victory tonight over Ted 'New York Values' Cruz, he’s closer than ever to the GOP nomination, which only means Republicans are certainly headed for chaos at their upcoming convention in Cleveland. Republicans have no one to blame but themselves. They set the stage for Dangerous Donald with years of divisive policies and hateful rhetoric, and they will be held accountable come November."

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Republican National Committee

RNC Statement On The New York Primary 

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement on the New York primary:
 
“With record numbers of voters viewing Hillary Clinton unfavorably, New York Democrats moved their least electable candidate a little closer to the finish line. Whether it’s her refusal to release the transcripts of her paid Wall Street speeches, her secret email server that’s triggered an ongoing FBI investigation, or her flip flops on issue after issue, Hillary Clinton has shown herself unwilling to be open and honest with the American people. Too much is at stake in this country to turn it over to someone as dishonest and unethical as she is.
 
“Voters are looking for a new direction after eight years of failure from President Obama, but the paths Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are offering would only drive our country further into the ditch. We can’t afford four more years of stagnant wages, mounting debt, and a lead-from-behind foreign policy. Only a Republican president will get America back on track by strengthening our economy and restoring America’s leadership role in the world.”
 
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ON THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
Cruz for President

Cruz: “America Is at a Point of Choosing”

Calls on Americans to Unite to Usher in New Direction

HOUSTON, Texas – Presidential candidate Ted Cruz tonight delivered remarks calling upon Republicans, conservatives, and all Americans who want to change the direction of our country to unite and set forth a new generation of ideas to propel new jobs and opportunity for all.
 
See remarks below:

Thank you so very much Carly for your incredible friendship and leadership. God bless New York and God bless the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.


I am so excited to share with you what America has learned over the past few months.

And it has nothing to do with a politician tonight winning his home state.

It has everything to do with what we’ve seen in the towns and faces that have been weathered with trouble, joblessness, and fear. It is what we learned looking at the factories that have been shuttered and the hearts that are closing.

We have learned that America is at a point of choosing.

The media will say it is about choosing a president.

But it really isn't. 

Our real choice is personal, and every generation must make the same choice.

Will we continue to live in the past with what we know no longer works, or will we move forward to a new and better place?

The people in state after state have made it clear.  They cry out for a new path.

This is the year of the outsider.

I am an outsider, Bernie Sanders is an outsider.

Both with the same diagnosis, but both with very different paths to healing.

Millions of Americans have chosen one of these outsiders. Our campaigns don't find our fuel in bundlers and special interests, but rather directly from the people.  The wide-eyed youth of any age that haven't given up on the hope that tomorrow can and will be better.

Ronald Reagan and Jack Kennedy were outsiders.

They both represented a whole new vision and vibrancy.  

A new generation of ideas.

Jack Kennedy looked forward instead of back to the first half century of world war.

He knew that America could dream and build if we were set free.

Not tanks for war, but rockets for exploration. 

Reagan looked out - to us – the most powerful force for innovation that the world has ever known:
There we found the new tech pioneers like Bill Gates and a young Steve Jobs.  They had vision and the freedom to build a new world that that at the time only THEY saw and because they were free. They challenged the way and changed the way all of us live, work, and interact.


Now it is our turn.

This generation must first look inward to see who we really are, after years of being beaten down.  
Years of being told we couldn't, shouldn't, or wouldn't.

This generation needs to answer a new set of questions.

Can we? Should we? Will we?

Are we still those people?  

Those dreamers and doers?

Are America's greatest generations in our past?  

Or are our best days yet ahead?   

We must unite the Republican Party because doing so is the first step toward uniting all Americans.
 

The question is not whether all Americans can or will agree on a majority of issues all of the time. 


The question is whether a majority of Americans are hungry to rally around a set of principles larger than any single issue that a politician may use to divide us.
 
Tonight, I’m speaking to you from Philadelphia.  It’s natural, when we talk about our Nation’s earliest days, that we focus our attention on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 


And we can learn a great deal about a path forward by focusing on the passionate disputes and disagreements among our founding fathers -- differences that were put aside only because of the weight and consequence of the foundational principles they sought to proclaim and the price to be paid if they failed to rise to the task.

Today, as Republicans, we agree on a lot.  And sure, areas of lesser agreement exist as well.  But on the fundamental question: are we satisfied with the current direction of our country; we speak with one voice.

I call on you, as JFK did in the 60's.

And as Reagan did in the 80's.

To chart a new American journey forward.

One that isn't led by me or anyone in Washington, but by you.

And millions of others just like you.

One where we still have differences, yet we choose to concentrate on what we have in common.

One that lifts others up and believes in the rights, responsibilities, goodness, and strength of all mankind.

We have so much that binds us together: our families, our work ethic, our ability to dream and build unlike any people in history. But most of all our charity, our love for our fellow men and women and our willingness to sacrifice for those in need. 

Let us unite…on the things that have always made us great.

We are great because we are good.

Because over and over again we have chosen courage in the moments of crisis; freedom in the face of compromise; and hope in the face of challenges that everyone told us could not be overcome.

Our sitting president ran on a slogan that should have been a great first step… 
It promised us, "yes we can."

Now is the time to take that slogan and put it into action.

"Yes we can" was a recognition of the hope that we can and should recover. The problem was that Barack Obama’s prescriptions only led to more elitist control from Washington.  Less freedom for the People.

But now is the time, as Americans, to once again reclaim that hope.

To take another giant leap for mankind.

To speak the words with all the power and might that we can muster and use the words that have changed the world time and again:

The words that the slaves yearned to hear from the American people and Abraham Lincoln when they cried out for freedom.

The words, that Europe and Britain heard when they cried out for help defeating totalitarian evil in the 1940's.

The words that led two men in North Carolina to be the first in flight. 

And half a century later the first man to reach the moon.

And decades later, two men in their garage to come up with Apple.

They are the words that will repair our tattered spirit, lift up our economy and those who are barely making it, they are the words that will vanquish the evil of ISIS. and return the rule of law.

They are the words that when Americans come together and say with conviction - they change the world.

They are the vision of this campaign:

Not yes we can, but now: Yes we will.

We will restore our spirit;

We will free our minds and imagination;

We will create a new and better world;

We will bring back jobs, freedom, and security;

We will find new ways to ignite an energy revolution with more jobs and greater choices;

We will defeat the evil of Islamists and ISIS;

We will live as neighbors, friends, and family in peace once again;

We will heal the sick, feed the poor, and defend the defenseless; 

We will restore our rightful place in the world.

We will do what Americans do best.  

We will live for others – we will change the world through the hope of freedom’s enduring promise.
And our unrelenting spirit.

You can be empowered, and in a digital age it is all the easier for your voice to be heard.  Your choices to govern your work, your education, your future.  If only Washington will get out of the way.

Join me on this journey of less talk and more action because I know you. You may have been knocked down, but America has always been best when she is lying down with her back on the mat and the crowd has given the final count.  It is time for us to get up, shake it off and be who we were destined to be.

Don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise.   

Here is the truth:  You don't need me or any politician.  

But we do need each other, all of us, coming together as one, as We the People, because not only do we say - yes WE can, beginning here and now we pledge to each and every one of us, yes we will.

And now my friends, onward to victory.
 

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Kasich for America

April 19, 2016
 

TO: Interested Parties 

FROM: John Weaver, Chief Strategist 

RE: NY & the Mid-Atlantic Primaries

With less than three months to go until the GOP convention, tonight’s results bring clarity to the Republican nominating contest:

 

1. Gov. Kasich proved that he is best positioned against Donald Trump in the upcoming April 26 states. Ted Cruz’s brand of politics simply won’t play with most voters in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland. 

 

A vote for Cruz in these states is a vote for Trump. And a vote for Cruz or Trump is a vote for Hillary Clinton in November because neither of them can win a general election. 

 

2. Ted Cruz cemented the fact that he is eliminated from securing the nomination outright before Cleveland. Heading into tonight, he needed more than 100% of bound delegates to get the nomination. Now, that number is even higher and things are only going to get worse for him on April 26.

 

3. Donald Trump will not be the nominee – if the Never Trump forces get serious. They weren’t serious in New York and allowed Trump to get over 50 percent in numerous districts where he could have been stopped. Continued lack of engagement by Never Trumpers could allow the Trump campaign to get back on track.

 

4. Donald Trump’s only chance is on the first ballot. After that, a number of his delegates will move to us on the second ballot, and Gov. Kasich will ultimately prevail because he is the only candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton. Gov. Kasich has led Hillary Clinton in FIFTEEN consecutive national general election polls.

 

Bottomline: The next 7 days are absolutely critical and every Republican in the country who wants an open convention and to win the White House should rally around Gov. Kasich in the upcoming April 26 states. It’s now or never to stop Trump and save the Republican Party.


Correct the Record

CTR STATEMENT ON DONALD TRUMP’S NY PRIMARY WIN

Washington, D.C.--Correct the Record President Brad Woodhouse released the following statement in response to Donald Trump’s New York primary win.

"With Donald Trump's victory in New York, the Joker has officially taken hold of Gotham City and has come even closer to securing the Republican nomination,” said Brad Woodhouse, President of Correct The Record. "The 2016 Republican primary may seem like a bad comic book, but unfortunately for the American people the Party of Trump is real, and it’s here to stay.

"The extreme positions of the Republican candidates threaten the diversity that makes America great. Their plans to racially profile neighborhoods and ban Muslims from the United States are down-right dangerous. Thankfully, the American people have a better choice in Hillary Clinton, who has the experience, vision, and preparation needed to take on these extremist Republicans and win the White House.”


Correct The Record is a strategic research and rapid response team designed to defend Hillary Clinton from baseless attacks.