Update: The Associated Press has projected Donald Trump is the winner of the Republican primary, and Hillary Clinton is the winner of the Democratic primary.
Update: The breakdown for Clinton:
Hillary Clinton WINS Maryland Primary https://t.co/lDvkgxX48N How HRC WON #MDPrimary #ImWithHer #UniteBlue #TNTvote pic.twitter.com/8pPZgxTBzt
— Brook Bufa (@jupiter896) April 27, 2016
Original Post: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hold significant double-digit leads among their respective fields going into today’s primary contests in Maryland, making victories for the two frontrunners in the Old Line State all but certain.
Trump is up 21 points on average, according to RCP, while Clinton’s ahead by 24 points on average.
In the Democratic primary there are 118 delegates up for grabs—the second biggest prize of the night. Twenty-three of those are superdelegates. Since delegates are allocated proportionally in Democratic contests, there's a chance Sanders could walk away with less than a third of them.
On the Republican side there are 38 delegates at play. Bustle breaks it down:
As with many other states, Maryland awards its Republican delegates in a couple different ways, both of which include a winner-take-all component. There are three different types: at-large delegates, Republican National Committee (RNC) members, and congressional district delegates. The state has three RNC member delegates (like every other state), 11 at-large, and 24 congressional district delegates.
The RNC members and the at-larges (14 in all) will go to whichever candidate wins a plurality of the statewide vote on Tuesday. Unlike in some states, a candidate will not need to win a majority (over 50 percent) of the vote, but just more than any other candidate, to get this chunk. As for the congressional district delegates, there are three for each of the state's eight districts. All three of a district's delegates will be awarded to the candidate who wins the plurality (again, not necessarily the majority) of the vote within the district.
This method of allocation makes it less likely, though not impossible, that any one candidate will get a clean sweep of all the state's delegates.
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Turnout in Maryland is expected to be high, as there’s also a Senate race between Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Donna Edwards for Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s seat, who’s retiring at the end of her term. Additionally, there are two primaries in U.S. House districts.
Polls close at 8 p.m.
Townhall will have live coverage of all of Tuesday’s primaries so stay tuned for updates.
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