By: Maureen Meosky
The New York Primary election was held on April 19, yielding victory for candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Clinton winning despite the sizable population of Bernie Sanders supporters in the state of New York.
Although Clinton won the democratic vote, Bernie Sanders’ strong campaigning in New York put up a tough fight. Sanders had, without a doubt, the strongest population of young voters in the primary; 82% of those who voted for him were younger than 25 years old. Despite this, Sanders wasn’t ever by-and-large considered a frontrunner in this primary – even 40% of his own voters believed that Clinton would ultimately become the democratic nominee.
For Hillary Clinton, the female vote was naturally a strong force in her campaign, and the female voice proved itself for Hillary in the election, as 61% of those who voted for Clinton were female. The population group that showed the most contrast between Clinton and Sanders, however, was the non-white vote. In New York, Clinton got 67% of the non-white vote, beating Sanders 3:1 in the support of African American voters. Another contributing factor to Clinton’s win was, ironically, the trust of the people: 59% of voters said that Clinton would be the best candidate to determine a new gun-handling policy.
On the Republican side of the primary, Donald Trump won by a landslide at 60% of the Republican voters, beating John Kasich at 25% and Ted Cruz, at a mere 14.5%. Contributing factors to both Trump’s and Kasich’s voting numbers were the fact that they were the two main candidates for voters who decided at the last minute; Trump gained 47% of this population while Kasich came close with 40%. The vast majority of Cruz’s voters were the 24% of Republicans who label themselves as “very conservative,” the same percentage identifying as Evangelical Christians. One thing that many voters agree on is that this election has severely divided the Republican party; this claim was agreed with by 60% of that same party alone.
Despite Trump’s vast victory in Republican New York, the state has still proven to be, in this election, much more strongly democratic. Even 35% of voters from Trump’s own Republican party stated that a Trump presidency would scare them. As CBS News phrased it, “There are significantly higher levels of negative feelings than voters expressed for either Trump or Kasich.” So, regardless of Donald Trump’s win in New York, Clinton still appears to be the most favored presidential candidate for the state.
