Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both scored convincing victories on Tuesday night, with the Republican presidential front-runner sweeping the primaries in all five Northeastern states—Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island—and his Democratic counterpart winning in four of five of these same states.
Trump had the more convincing performance as he won landslides of more than 30 percentage points over his rivals, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, the New York Times reports.
The New York billionaire also received more than half the vote in every state, after months of winning primaries by only pluralities, the Times says.
Trump scooped 105 new delegates after Tuesday night's primaries, with Kasich getting 5 and Cruz, 1.
Trump now has a total of 949 delegates, getting even closer to the 1,237 threshold for clinching the Republican presidential nomination. Cruz remains far behind with 544 delegates with Kasich having only 153.
Cruz is now under mounting pressure to beat Trump in Indiana's primary next week, which could be the last real chance for Cruz and Kasich to stop Trump's march to the nomination, according to the New York Times. Cruz and Kasich earlier formed an alliance to prevent a Trump victory in Indiana, but it has yet to show signs of working.
Indiana will hold its primary on May 3, with the winner-take-all state offering 57 Republican delegates.
Trump said his victories in Tuesday's primaries all but wrapped up the Republican contest.
"When the boxer knocks out the other boxer, you don't have to wait around for a decision," Trump said at an election-night appearance before supporters at Trump Tower in New York. "As far as I'm concerned, it's over," he added.
Clinton also felt the same way with regards to the Democratic presidential race. She promised to heal the party's wounds after a long nomination fight, telling Sanders supporters that "there is much more that unites us than divides us."
Sanders said he plans to reassess his candidacy on Wednesday and decide whether to adjust his strategy if Clinton's delegate lead appears all but insurmountable.
Clinton dominated the Democratic contests in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania narrowly won in Connecticut, but ceded Rhode Island to Sanders.
Clinton won 194 new delegates after Tuesday night's primaries while Sanders collected 129. As of Wednesday, Clinton has a total of 1,640 delegates to Sanders' 1,331 as she moved even closer to the 2,383 threshold to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton now has 88 percent of the delegates she needs to become the first woman nominated by a major political party.
