Donald Trump Wins Connecticut Republican Primary

Donald Trump won Connecticut's Republican primary on Tuesday, adding to his string of victories in the Northeast and bringing him one step closer to the GOP's presidential nomination.

Trump finished ahead of Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The former reality TV star needed to do well in the Nutmeg State to hold on to a chance of securing a majority of delegates before July's Republican National Convention. He also swept the rest of his Tuesday primary contests, winning in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Connecticut, which awards 28 delegates total, gives 13 statewide delegates outright to any candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote. The state also awards three delegates to the winners of each of its five congressional districts. Since the state's congressional districts are demographically similar, candidates who perform well statewide often also win in each of the districts.

Trump had 845 delegates going into Tuesday's contests; he needs 1,237 to secure the GOP nomination on the first ballot at the convention.

Trump's Connecticut triumph was not really in doubt. He dominated the primaries in neighboring New York and Massachusetts and was expected to do well in Rhode Island, which also held its primary Tuesday. The only four polls of Connecticut this month all showed him with a comfortable lead of 20 or more points.

Neither Kasich nor Cruz has any realistic hope of securing a majority of delegates before the Republican convention. Their only chance is to wrest the nomination from Trump at a contested convention.

Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.