Donald Trump was declared the winner of the Republican primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island shortly after polls closed Tuesday.
Multiple outlets called the races in Connecticut, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in favor of the GOP frontrunner just after 8 P.M. EST Tuesday evening. The races in Delaware and Rhode Island were both initially too early to call, though Trump was declared the winner in both states about a half hour after polls closed.
Trump swept all five primary races on Tuesday, a significant win for his unconventional campaign.
The business mogul was the clear favorite going into the so-called "Acela primary," named for the train service that connects the five states voting in Tuesday’s contests.
Trump held double digit leads in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island over competitors Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich according to surveys leading up to the primary contests. While polling out of Delaware, the fifth state voting, has been sparse, a a Gravis poll released this month had Trump winning more than half of the vote there.
At stake in the Republican primaries Tuesday were 172 delegates. Trump has led his competitors in delegates since primary voting began in February. Cruz has recorded a number of significant wins, including his home state of Texas, though he trailed Trump by about 300 delegates going into Tuesday’s voting. Kasich, in contrast, has won one state, his home state of Ohio.
Kasich has been competitive in only a few primaries, including Vermont and New Hampshire, and many have wondered why the Ohio governor has remained in the race.
The Kasich and Cruz campaigns announced Sunday that they would begin coordinating to stop Trump in remaining primary states. The campaigns issued separate statements Sunday night indicating that Cruz would focus efforts on Indiana and Kasich on Oregon and New Mexico, each clearing the way for the other to win contests in states where they are competitive.
The objective of the plan is to deny Trump the 1,237 delegates he needs to capture the nomination outright, which would spur a brokered convention in July that could deliver the nomination to someone else.
Trump called the coordination between Cruz "desperate" and "sad," describing it as indicative of their weakness.
"Lyin' Ted Cruz and 1 for 38 Kasich are unable to beat me on their own so they have to team up (collusion) in a two on one. Shows weakness!" he wrote on Twitter Sunday.
Trump later took aim at Kasich’s "disgusting" eating habits on the campaign trail in Rhode Island on Monday.
While Trump has amassed considerable support since he launched his campaign last summer, the business mogul has been rejected by a number of influential Republicans, including 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Trump has been criticized for a number of controversial statements and policy positions, such as his support for some torture techniques, criticism of NATO, and proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from traveling to the United States.