If Donald Trump is to win the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the GOP nomination, he will have to do well in every one of the eastern states' primaries and in Pennsylvania, says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Tuesday. Sabato also said if John Kasich expects to stay in the race, he will have to do well in Pennsylvania,
"He better, if he wants to keep, even stay in the headlines much less staying in the race," Sabato said of Kasich's chances in Pennsylvania on
Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "He could potentially finish second there. It could be his kind of state."
The Pennsylvania race is on the same day as the primaries in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland, noted Sabato.
Meanwhile, he expected Trump to have a sweep or at least a near-sweep in Tuesday's New York primaries, and said the real estate billionaire needs the delegates, "given that he's bleeding delegates in a lot of other places around the country."
As far as Ted Cruz, Trump's nearest rival, he's been conducting a ground game that's been winning delegates. Trump, though, is ahead in the New England states' polls and Sabato said he does not expect Cruz to win in California, although he could pick up "quite a few" delegates.
Sabato said he has noticed a change in Trump in recent weeks, such as staying off the Sunday morning talk shows for two weeks in a row.
"You can change, but the question is, is he changing fast enough?" said Sabato. "I think it's a really close call and the author of "The Art of the Deal" has to put his deal making skills on display with some of those unpledged delegates. I don't think he can get to 1,237 without at least some unpledged delegates."
And, he does not agree with Trump that Cruz's campaign has been stealing delegates, but rather, "they're using the process and the rules as they exist."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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