Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump did not appear to be discouraged by his big loss to Ted Cruz in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary as he spoke to an enthusiastic crowd Wednesday outside New York City.
New York is Trump's home state, and polls ahead of the important April 19 primary give him a huge lead over Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Trump mocked Cruz during the rally on Long Island, saying only about 100 people turned out in The Bronx to hear Cruz speak Wednesday, while about 20,000 came to hear Trump. There also was a group of protesters outside the venue where Trump spoke.
Several protesters also greeted Cruz, who has said voters are tired of "New York values." Although Cruz says that remark is directed toward liberal politicians, many New Yorkers see it as an insult.
After winning Wisconsin by a landslide Tuesday night and getting all of its 42 delegates, Cruz called it a "turning point" in the Republican race.
But he still badly trails Trump in the all-important delegate count. Cruz would have to take nearly 90 percent of the remaining available delegates to claim the Republican nomination.
Trump also has the difficult task of needing to win 60 percent of those delegates to take the nomination, making it more and more likely that the Republican convention in July will be a brokered convention — one in which no candidate has enough delegates when the gathering opens.
Republicans have not had a brokered convention since 1976, when neither incumbent President Gerald Ford nor his main challenger, Ronald Reagan, had enough delegates to win the nomination on the first round of voting.
For the Democrats, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin. He has topped Clinton in six of the last seven Democratic primaries or caucuses.
But Clinton still has what may be an insurmountable lead over Sanders in the number of delegates. Sanders is appealing to young voters in the remaining primaries to help him close the gap.
