New York Primary Winners: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Cruise to Victory

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton easily won Tuesday's New York presidential primaries, drawing the two frontrunners ever closer to facing against each other in the 2016 general election for president.

In what must have been some kind of record, Trump was declared the winner on the Republican side within a minute of the 9 p.m. poll closings. The billionaire businessman had 60 percent of the vote with nearly all election districts reporting Tuesday night.

It's as much a victory for Trump as it is a huge loss for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Republican Primary (94 percent of election districts reporting)

Trump: 60 percent

Kasich: 25 percent

Cruz: 15 percent

Democratic Primary (94 percent of election districts reporting)

Clinton: 58 percent

Sanders: 42 percent

Cruz wasn't expected to do well with New Yorkers who believe "New York values" are something to be proud of, but the senator was absolutely crushed on Tuesday, receiving about 15 percent of the vote. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said his second-place finish showed he is the best Republican alternative to Trump.

Trump wasted no time thanking his supporters and promising to take the fight to Pennsylvania and the other states holding primaries next week.

"Thank you New York! I love you!" Trump tweeted within minutes of polls closing.

Later, standing before supporters in one of his New York properties, Trump sounded familiar themes, knocking immigrants and promising to bring jobs back to the United States. His tone was different than in past victories, though, with no mention of "Lyin' Ted" but rather references to Sen. Cruz.

See Also: 2016 New York Republican Presidential Primary Results

See Also: 2016 New York Democratic Presidential Primary Results

"Jobs are being sucked out of our states, sucked out of our country and we're not going to let it happen anymore," Trump said after entering the room to an amplified version of "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra "We're going to stop it."

On the Democratic side, exit polls released earlier Tuesday showed Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders neck-and-neck in New York, but those polls were way off.

With 94 percent of election districts reporting Tuesday night, Clinton was leading Sanders 58-42 percent.

Speaking in front of supporters at the Sheraton Times Square Tuesday night, Clinton said her victory in her adopted home state, where she served two terms as a U.S. senator, was "personal."

"New Yorkers, you've always had my back — and I've always tried to have yours," she said. "Today, we did it again."

Sanders's supporters raised a ruckus Tuesday about faulty opening times and missing voter names at Brooklyn polling stations — prompting the New York City mayor and comptroller to call for an investigation into the city's Board of Elections.

It's unclear how Tuesday's in-limbo ballots might factor into the final New York tally, once all is said and done. But Sanders desperately needed a clear win over Clinton — or at least a tie — in New York to charge ahead in the primaries.

"The race for the Democratic nomination is on the home stretch, and victory is in sight," Clinton said in her New York victory speech.

To Sanders's supporters, the former first lady said, "There is much more that unites us than divides us."

Clinton turned her attention to Trump and Cruz on her Twitter account shortly after her speech:

Sanders was on plane back to his Vermont home before polls closed in New York.

“Some three million New Yorkers were unable to vote today because they were registered as independents,” Sanders said, criticizing the state's closed primary, according to the New York Times. “That makes no sense to me.”

Several voters on Long Island told Patch they voted for a particular candidate Tuesday merely to keep the ones they disliked most out of office.

Susan Barnes, voting in Southold, said her main reason for voting for Kasich was to "take votes away from the other two candidates." Greenport resident Mark Droskoski said there was only one choice in his eyes — Trump. "The world is on fire. I want to see someone go in there who can fix things."

Tuesday's voting was not without its controversy.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has called on city Board of Elections to reverse a reported purge of "entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting list."

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced an audit of New York City's Board of Elections, NBC News reported. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the largest number of complaints to the office's voter hotline came from Brooklyn.

New Yorkers weren't used to having their primary vote count. The polling place at Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Poughkeepsie was busy at mid-afternoon with a steady stream of cars going in and out of the parking lot, and people on foot, including moms pushing baby strollers, coming in to vote.

The same was true at the Putnam County Board of Elections, which houses polling places for several districts.

"I think it's exciting this year because the races are so close, and people are looking for newer candidates," said Richard Hill, a 55-year-old Carmel resident and Bernie Sanders supporter. "I think everybody has an opinion this year."

"I can't remember the last time New York mattered in a single presidential primary, much less two," said Republican consultant William F.B. O'Reilly. "The stakes are significant on both sides of the aisle. Bernie Sanders could get a huge momentum boost with a tighter-than-expected run here, and both John Kasich and Ted Cruz may be able to walk away with some delegates in Donald Trump's home state."

Trump cast his ballot at Central Synagogue in Manhattan Tuesday morning.

He was back in the city to vote after holding a rally in Buffalo, N.Y., where his most memorable line was when he referred to the 9/11 terror attacks as “7/11.” Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson told CNN that Trump misspoke.

Hillary and Bill Clinton voted at Douglas G. Grafflin Elementary School in Chappaqua this morning. They've lived in the upscale Westchester County hamlet since 1999.

Inside, the Clintons talked with Chappaqua school officials including Superintendent Lyn McCay, according to the Daily Voice. Afterward, Clinton spent a few minutes with a crowd of well-wishers outside.

For the Democrats, the electoral map isn't settled, but Clinton's lead, particularly among super-delegates, is formidable. And given that the 291 party delegates at stake Tuesday will be awarded proportionately, even a surprise narrow victory by Sanders wouldn't have meaningfully altered the race.

The candidates entered Tuesday's New York primary with Clinton leading in pledged delegates, 1,307 to 1,087, and in super-delegates, 469-31.

After sweeping the Deep South by landslide margins, Clinton has had trouble pulling away from the Vermont senator, who has served as a beacon for young people who have been driving change in the Democratic party much the same way uneducated white people have been flocking to Trump and altering the GOP.

Sanders, though, for all the excitement at rallies around the country, has been able to do little more than celebrate a string of victories in mostly small states, which has done little to narrow the delegate gap.

Tuesday's Democratic primary, though, was a Home v. Home match of sort. Clinton served two terms as New York's U.S. senator and Sanders, as voters are reminded every time he speaks, was born in Brooklyn.

A loss by Clinton would have been an embarrassment to her campaign heading into next week's primaries in delegate-rich Pennsylvania and Maryland before the race hits several more large states, including New Jersey and California.

Trump is running against himself as much as anybody. Or, maybe, he's running by himself against everybody.

Either way, neither the senator from Texas nor the governor from Ohio can beat him in the delegate count, not with Trump holding 755 of the 1,237 delegates, prior to the New York primary, needed to clinch the nomination before the party's national convention in Cleveland in July.

So, winning...no. Defeating him...maybe.

The press has been on for weeks now to slow Trump from clinching. Party leaders, according to this game plan, would lead and orchestrate the Anyone-But-Trump faction of the party in a brokered convention.

But Trump's resounding victory on Tuesday will certainly make it that much harder to stop him.

"The only things between him and his claim in Cleveland would be an act of stunning self-sabotage before the Republicans gather—or the extremely remote chance that the party turns to Cruz if Trump falls shy of the required delegate count," Matthew Cooper wrote for Newsweek.