GHENT–Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton won their parties’ primary elections statewide Tuesday by considerable margins. But while Mr. Trump also won big in Columbia County, Ms. Clinton polled behind her opponent, Bernie Sanders, among county Democrats.
Mr. Trump had more than twice as many votes as his closest competitor, John Kasich in the unofficial results. Ted Cruz was in third place and Ben Carson, who was still on the ballot although he withdrew from the race more than a month ago, was last.
Democrats voted for both the candidates and for delegates to support them at the convention, and the delegate counts tracked the direct votes in the preliminary results. With all districts reporting in the county, Mr. Sanders was leading Ms. Clinton in Columbia County by 3,302 to 2,481.
The Times Union reported that with 247 delegates statewide at stake, Ms. Clinton will pick up at least 104, while Mr. Sanders will gain at least 85. Many remain to be allocated, pending final vote tallies.
Based on primaries and caucuses to date, Ms. Clinton now has 1,393 delegates to Mr. Sanders’ 1,130. But when superdelegates–party officials who can back any candidate–are counted, Ms. Clinton’s lead is 1,862 to 1,161.
With all local 52 districts reporting in the GOP primary, Mr. Trump had 2,522 votes, Mr. Kasich 1,194, Mr. Cruz 684 and Mr. Carson 56.
The Times Union said that that Mr. Trump collected at least 84 of the 95 delegates at stake in the statewide race. Mr. Kasich won at least 2 and nine delegates are undecided.
The New York Times reported that with 93% districts reporting statewide, Mr. Trump had garnered over 60% of the Republican vote. At that point Ms. Clinton had won almost 58% of the Democratic vote.
The results are unofficial until absentee votes are counted.