Donald Trump
Donald TrumpTrump Jr., Kushner, Manafort met Kremlin-linked lawyer last year: report Trump Jr. gets in Twitter war with GOP strategist Trump Jr. shares video of president shooting down 'CNN' in fighter jet MORE leads Ted Cruz
Ted CruzMcConnell assures White House he’s not changing strategy on ObamaCare repeal: report GOP pessimism rising on ObamaCare repeal Conservative warns McConnell to not give up on ObamaCare repeal MORE by 16 points in Pennsylvania, according to a new poll.
There are 71 delegates up for grabs in Pennsylvania, making it the largest prize of the five states that will vote on April 26.
However, even if Trump holds his lead into election day, he’ll only secure 17 delegates based on the statewide vote.
The remaining 54 delegates are elected directly by voters and not bound to the popular vote. The campaigns are maneuvering behind the scenes to get their supporters elected, and so far this cycle Cruz has proven best at this.
“It looks like Trump should be able to bank the 17 statewide delegates in Pennsylvania,” said Monmouth pollster Patrick Murray. “The real question is how the directly elected district delegates will vote at the convention in July.”
Regardless, Trump is poised for big two big weeks in late April that could move him significantly closer to the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Trump is expected to take the lion’s share of New York’s 95 delegates at the state’s primary next Tuesday.
Pennsylvania is one of five states – Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island are also voting - that will vote on April 26, and Trump should be competitive in all of them.
A Monmouth University survey released Wednesday found Trump running strong enough to sweep all of Maryland’s 38 delegates.
Still, a lot could change over the next few weeks. The survey of Pennsylvania found that 56 percent of voters have not completely decided on their final choice.
The Monmouth University survey of 303 likely Republican voters in Pennsylvania was conducted between April 10 and April 12 and has a 5.6 percentage point margin of error.
