After Trump’s NY win, Cruz now officially can’t clinch with pledged delegates

Donald Trump just made it impossible for Ted Cruz to clinch the GOP nomination.

Results in New York's primary mean it is now mathematically impossible for Cruz to clinch nomination based on pledged delegates.

In order to maintain the slim, infinitesimal hope that he might be able to clinch the Republican nomination by winning pledged delegates, Ted Cruz needed to win at least a handful of delegates in New York. He didn’t. He now joins John Kasich (and every other Republican who once ran) in the category of “people who can’t clinch the nomination on pledged delegates.” Of the 17 Republicans that started the race, only one candidate isn’t in that box: Donald Trump.

Trump’s challenge hasn't been Kasich or Cruz for a while; he’s battling against 1,237, the number of pledged delegates he needs to clinch before the convention. And in that race, every delegate counts.