The primary in New York: who was supported by Russian-speaking residents

Фото: Depositphotos

On April 19, primaries were held in New York State - party elections of delegates who at national conventions will determine a single candidate from the Democratic and Republican parties. New York's primaries are closed, meaning only pre-registered voters could participate.

The decisive battle

On the eve of the primaries, public opinion polls confirmed the leading position of the Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Candidates themselves on the last day before the primaries tried to meet with as many voters as possible. Hillary Clinton ate ice cream in the East Village (New York) and gave a speech at a hotel in the city. Bernie Sanders has campaigned in Long Island City. Donald Trump flew to Buffalo, and Ted Cruz appeared in the TV program Good Morning America.

As a result, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were able to win a landslide victory in the primaries of their parties in New York State. As of 11:00 am New York time, the counting of votes had not yet been completed, but the remaining fractions of percent will no longer affect the determination of the winners. Almost 59% of voters voted for Hillary Clinton - she was significantly ahead of her opponent Bernie Sanders with his 42%. Donald Trump received 60,5% of the popular vote, more than doubling his rivals. Thus, John Kasich received 25%, and Ted Cruz - 14,4%.

Thus, Trump received the votes of 89 delegates and, in general, has so far enlisted the support of 845 delegates from the necessary 1237 nominee from the Republican Party. If Trump gathers the right number of delegates before the National Convention of the Republicans is held in July, he will automatically become the single party candidate.

Victory in New York also allowed Hillary Clinton to significantly break away from Bernie Sanders. She received the votes of 139 delegates after the primaries in New York and now overtakes her rival by almost one and a half times. Clinton currently has the support of 1893 delegates, but in order to become the only Democratic candidate, she needs to collect all the 2383 votes of the delegates. For her, this is now a practically resolved issue, although Sanders, having only 1180 delegates left, said that he would still go to the end.

Russian influence

The state of New York is home to a large Russian-speaking diaspora. Only in one city in New York, the number of Russian speakers reaches 600 thousands. ForumDaily visited one of the polling stations in the Brighton Beach area of ​​Brooklyn, which is considered the “most Russian” district of the city. We tried to find out how the Russian-speaking residents of New York voted.

The polling station in the area of ​​Brighton Beach, most of which are Russian-speaking residents. Photo: Olga Boyarintseva

Olga, who has lived in Brooklyn for 23 years, voted for Donald Trump. He explains his decision this way: “Although Trump is not particularly polite, I like him - he says everything to the point, and he does not have excessive political correctness.”

Yevgeny Strupinsky urges everyone not to be afraid of socialism and to vote for Sanders. Photo: Olga Boyarintseva

Evgeny Strupinsky, a lawyer from Bay Ridge (Brooklyn), voted for Bernie Sanders. Yevgeny believes that one should not be afraid of Western socialism, since it looks like Soviet socialism except by its name.

Gennady, a 45-year-old Brooklyn resident, supports Donald Trump for a variety of reasons. “First of all,” explains Gennady, “Trump is an excellent businessman who was able to create a huge successful company, and his experience and knowledge will help make America a great successful country again. Secondly, he is the only candidate who has the courage to carry out global reforms and deep changes in all systems of the state. And this is necessary, because now America is simply rotting in all sectors. Thirdly, I am impressed by his strong and independent personality.”

Blogger Levik, well-known on the LiveJournal social network, who lives in New York and works at Google, gave his vote to Hillary Clinton, although he had been choosing between her and Bernie Sanders for a long time: “To be honest, I deeply like Sanders’ positions and personality, Most likely he is closer to me in spirit than Clinton. But I think that even if he wins, he will not be a good president. The role of the US president is to negotiate, and the uncompromising Sanders will not want to do this. Now the Republicans have a majority in both houses of Congress, and there is simply no way a person as principled and uncompromising as Sanders will be able to implement his ideas, no matter how correct they may be. Integrity, which is extremely good in congressmen and senators, does not work in a president who must lead two halves of a divided country. So my choice is Hillary. She has experience and knowledge behind her, and her plans are not so ambitious, but will still move the country in the right direction.”

The next round of primaries will take place on April 26 in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.