Story highlights
Trump avoided predicting a big primary win
Trump also briefly addressed his recent string of decisions to reorganize his campaign
Donald Trump on Tuesday voted for himself for the first time in his life.
The Republican front-runner cast his ballot Tuesday morning in the New York Republican primary, making what he called an “easy decision” and a “great honor” at a polling place just a few blocks away from Trump Tower.
“It’s a proud moment. It’s a great moment. And who would’ve thought? It’s just an honor,” Trump told reporters as he returned to Trump Tower, where he had announced his candidacy 10 months and three days earlier.
Trump swooped through the synagogue-turned-polling-place in all of about twelve minutes as the characteristic horde of reporters and cameras chased the candidate in an action sequence emblematic of the billionaire’s media-centric campaign.
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Outside, onlookers gripped their cell phones to snap a glimpse of their fellow New Yorker and shouted “hello” to a man they know as “Donald.” And as Trump’s motorcade barreled through midtown Manhattan traffic, the van carrying a pool of reporters sideswiped a taxi.
Trump, who is up by double-digits over his primary opponents in the latest Empire State polls, avoided predicting a big primary win as he had on the day he lost the Wisconsin primary to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
“I think I’m gonna do well. I mean, we’ll see. Who knows, I mean, it’s politics,” Trump said. “We feel really good.”
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Trump needs to clinch more than 50% of the vote statewide and in each of New York’s 27 congressional districts to sweep the state’s 95 delegates.
Trump declined to say whether he would meet the threshold, saying, “We’re gonna know today sometime.”
Trump, who in the last 24 hours finally began knocking Cruz over his vote against a 9/11 first responders aid bill and federal relief funds for Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York and the East Coast, told CNN Tuesday morning that he only raised the issue in the final leg of his New York campaign “because it’s a very negative thought.”
“I like being positive. He gave very, very little back to New York. And it’s a shame,” Trump said of Cruz.
Trump has also knocked Cruz over the Texas senator’s dig at Trump’s “New York values” throughout his two weeks of campaigning in New York.
Trump also briefly addressed his recent string of decisions to reorganize his campaign and bring on a pair of seasoned Republican strategists who are taking on larger roles in preparing the campaign for the upcoming primary contests.
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Trump’s national field director Stuart Jolly told CNN he resigned Monday after Trump hired Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s former campaign manager Rick Wiley as national political director, a move that would have diminished Jolly’s role in organizing the campaign’s ground operation.
But Trump, all smiles for the cameras on election day in his home state, said his campaign’s reorganization is moving forward without a hitch.
“It’s going great. Very smooth. Very good,” Trump said.