The Campaign Trail 2016: Trump seals the deal

Washington State held their presidential primary on May 24^th, for both the Republican and Democratic parties. The Republican party is the only one that the day counted for though. For the Democrats, the primary is just a beauty pageant, this is because the Washington State Democrats pick their Democratic delegate dispersion through caucuses that they held on March 26^th. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic caucuses. The Washington State Republicans pick their Republican delegate dispersion through a primary, that had 44 delegates up for grabs. Democrats can vote in the primary for Democratic candidates but all results are unbound since their delegates were bound by the previous caucuses.

Billionaire Donald Trump was unopposed in the Republican primary in Washington State since all of his rivals have suspended their campaigns. Trump collected 75.8 percent of the vote and has collected 40 of the 44 delegates so far. With the Washington State win, Trump was up to 1,229 delegates, just short of the 1,237 required total to clinch the Republican presidential nomination. Since the Washington State primary, through Republican superdelegates – yes the Republican party has superdelegates as well – Trump is now up to 1,239 delegates, over the requirement to win the nomination.

The final Republican presidential nomination contests are today in California (proportional), Montana (winner take all), New Jersey (winner take all), New Mexico (proportional), and South Dakota (winner take all). The Democrats have contests in the same states today as well as North Dakota. Despite winning the Republican presidential nomination already, Trump still needs to perform well in today's contests. Low percentage wins, or even worse loses to candidates that have suspended their campaigns, would give ammunition for his opponents the former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, the presidential and vice presidential team for the Libertarian party, and former New York Senator Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The next edition of The Campaign Trail 2016 will come out after today's results are completed.