US election 2016: Primaries being held in five states

World Today

Results came in from the five U.S. states holding presidential primary elections.

The Republican and Democratic front-runners are expected to consolidate their leads.

In years, past these states received very little attention from the candidates because by this time in the election cycle the nominees had already been decided.

CCTV America’s Jessica Stone reports from a polling station in the state of Maryland.

If New York gave Hillary Clinton a decisive lead over Senator Bernie Sanders, a win for her in Tuesday’s primaries could make Sander’s path to the democratic nomination impossible. Clinton leads Sanders in the polls across all five Northeastern states and Pennsylvania is the biggest prize.

Sanders is already fielding questions about whether he’ll drop out of the race and throw his support behind Clinton should he lose.

Sanders supporters aren’t counting him out yet, but democratic voters clearly want a party united behind one candidate come November.

Maryland is the biggest prize for the Republicans where record voter turnout for both parties is expected.

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump was ahead of Ohio Governor John Kasich and Senator Ted Cruz across all five primary states.

A win for Trump completely blocks both Kasich and Cruz from the nomination.

But Trump doesn’t have a clear path either. On Monday, his opponents teamed up to slow his momentum even further. The deal seemed to give Trump renewed fuel for an accusations that the U.S. political system is rigged.


Jason Boxt on US election 2016

CCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke to Jason Boxt, managing director of the Glover Park Group.