With under a month and half left of the primaries, April 26th marked one of the last “Super Tuesdays”. In other words, this was one of the last opportunities for the challengers to strike a blow against the front-runners. And this, of course, leaves the questions, who won? Who lost? And what do these results mean?

Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump

The Winners: There were two winners on this Super Tuesday, also called the Acela Primary (named after Amtrak’s Acela express train that runs through the five states that are hosting the primaries). In the Republican race, Donald Trump won all five states comfortably and further established himself as the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination for president. Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton won four out of five states. Although, these victories were with a lesser margin than Trump’s wins, Clinton  also established herself as the favorite for the Democratic nomination (see results from all five states in both races at the bottom of this page).

Bernie Sanders
John Kasich
Ted Cruz

The Losers: The losers of the Acela Primary were all three challengers. In the GOP race, this were John Kasich (who did pick up the most second places) and Ted Cruz. Both of them are now so far behind Trump that they have no mathematical chance of winning the nomination before the Republican convention in July. In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders only managed to win the Rhode Island Primary and he is falling even further behind Clinton in the delegate count.

What do these results mean? In the Democratic race, the results from the Acela Primary diminishes Bernie Sanders’ chances of catching up to Hillary Clinton considerably. With fewer and fewer primaries (and delegates) left to win in order to close the gap, Sanders is running out of time. Clinton, on the other hand, is looking more and more likely to win the nomination. Among the GOP candidates, Donald Trump will use the results to build upon his lead, which means that he without a doubt will go into the Republican National Convention in July with the most delegates. However, the question is whether or not he will reach the 1237 delegates he needs to win the nomination before the convention. Cruz and Kasich are in an unwilling and uncommon alliance to gather enough delegates between them, so that Trump will not receive the magic number of delegates. If they succeed, then it might become a contested or brokered convention, which you can read more about here. In any case, Clinton and Trump looks like they will be the ones going head to head in the general election. However, the race is not over yet. The month of May will feature a few primaries before the last big Super Tuesday on June 7, which contains primaries in California and five other states. But, as mentioned, the Republicans might have to wait longer than to find their nominee.

The Numbers*:

The Democratic race:

Connecticut:

  1. Hillary Clinton 52%
  2. Bernie Sanders 47%

Delaware:

  1. Hillary Clinton 60%
  2. Bernie Sanders 39%

Maryland:

  1. Hillary Clinton 63%
  2. Bernie Sanders 33%

Pennsylvania:

  1. Hillary Clinton 56%
  2. Bernie Sanders 44%

Rhode Island:

  1. Bernie Sanders 55%
  2. Hillary Clinton 43%

The Republican race:

Connecticut:

  1. Donald Trump 58%
  2. John Kasich 29%
  3. Ted Cruz 12%

Delaware:

  1. Donald Trump 61%
  2. John Kasich 20%
  3. Ted Cruz 16%

Maryland:

  1. Donald Trump 54%
  2. John Kasich 23%
  3. Ted Cruz 19%

Pennsylvania:

  1. Donald Trump 57%
  2. Ted Cruz 22%
  3. John Kasich 19%

Rhode Island:

  1. Donald Trump 64%
  2. John Kasich 24%
  3. Ted Cruz 10%

*Numbers taken from CNN’s estimates.

Want to read more about the candidates? Head on over to the candidates’ page.

(Photo credit: Wikimedia & Gage Skidmore)