April 19, 2016 New York Primary

OVERVIEW
For Donald Trump, the New York primary came at an opportune time.  His campaign appeared to be in turmoil (Politico on April 5 reported that, "Multiple staffers and advisors left the campaign last month in protest of the way its management was treating its staff.") and his leading challenger Ted Cruz sought to portray his win in the Wisconsin primary as a major turning point in the campaign. 

Trump has been a New York institution for decades, but he did not rest on his laurels.  He waged an active campaign starting on April 6 with a rally in Bethpage on Long Island, and doing half a dozen other rallies around the state in the lead up to the primary.  Cruz had mocked New York values en route to winning the Iowa caucuses, and New York does not have the high concentrations of Christian conservatives that form his base, so his campaign was pretty much a nonstarter here.  He did make a few visits, including most memorably having a turn at making matzah at Chabad Neshama Center’s Model Matzah Bakery in Brighton Beach.  John Kasich put considerable time into New York, but probably drew most attention for eating pizza with a fork during a March 30 stop at Gino's Pizzeria and Restaurant in Queens.

A big event on the Republican calendar was the New York GOP Gala at the Grand Hyatt on April 14, the same evening as the Democratic debate.  All three candidates spoke; it is interesting to read press accounts of apparent audience disinterest during Ted Cruz's speech.

Trump won every county and all New York City boroughs except Manhattan, where Kasich prevailed.  Trump carried 26 of 27 congressional districts.  Kasich carried the 12th CD, which includes the East Side of Manhattan and western Queens and is one of the highest income per capita districts in the country >, by 7,826 (44.3%) to 7,714 (43.7%) and 2,108 (11.9% for Cruz.  Unlike the Democratic electorate, where the vote is roughly split between New York City and the rest of the state, most of the Republican votes come from outside New York City.  (The 15th CD, which encompasses part of the Bronx, tallied just 1,133 votes for the three candidates, plus 90 blank or void, yet it still gets three CD delegates as does every other district).  Overall more than twice as many votes were cast in the Democratic primary. 

The election was not problem-free.  New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer reported that "more than 125,000 voters in Brooklyn were removed from voter rolls and [there were] widespread reports of voters having trouble accessing polling sites and other polling irregularities."  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio cited reports that "voting lists in Brooklyn contain numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists." (+)

New York has a closed primary, meaning independents cannot vote in the party primaries; Common Cause New York calls the system a "closed shut primary" because "the deadline to change or declare party enrollment for presidential primary was wildly early: October 9, 2015 (+)."  Two of Trump's children, Eric and Ivanka, were registered as unaffiliated and missed this deadline so they could not vote for their father in the Republican primary.

Unlike the Democratic ballot which had the names of the candidates for president as well as their congressional district delegates, the Republican ballot just featured the candidates' names.  New Yorkers will have multiple opportunities to vote this year; in addition to the April 19 presidential primary, the federal primary election is on June 28 and state and local primary elections occur on Sept. 15. 

(see: Campaign Activity)

REACTIONS
Cruz for President
Kasich for America
Correct the Record (pro-Clinton)

DELEGATES
CD delegates and alternates determined by CD level primary results; "at-large delegates are elected by the state committee and apportioned to presidential candidates based upon the statewide results of the presidential primary."

National delegate allocation:  Trump 89, Kasich 6.

Delegates