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U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz arrives at his Wisconsin primary night rally in Milwaukee, April 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young

UPDATE: 11:12 p.m. EDT — Ohio Gov. John Kasich indicated Tuesday night that he was in the Republican presidential race for the long haul despite placing a distant third place in the Wisconsin primary out of the three GOP candidates. "Tonight's results will solidify the fact that no candidate will reach Cleveland with 1,237 bound delegates," John Weaver, Kasich's strategist, wrote in a memo, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Kasich has faced repeated calls from his rival candidates Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and New York billionaire Donald Trump to drop out of the race. Trump claimed Monday that Kasich was "taking my votes."

UPDATE: 11:12 p.m. EDT — With more than 60 percent of Wisconsin voting precincts reporting their primary results Tuesday night, Vermont Bernie Sanders was registering nearly 57 percent of support from Democratic voters. Rival candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was following with nearly 44 percent, the Washington Post reported.

Clinton appeared gracious in defeat and offered her congratulations to Sanders before she encouraged her supporters to push "Forward!"

For Republicans, 60 percent of the precincts were accounted for, showing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 50 percent support. Donald Trump, who still leads the overall delegate count for Republican candidates, had 33.1 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich was bringing up the rear with 14.5 percent.

UPDATE: 10:52 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump was far from conciliatory in his post-primary communication, continuing to call the Wisconsin GOP primary winner "Lyin' Ted Cruz" while insisting the Texas senator was participating in illegal practices and conducting "false advertising" while "coordinating with his own Super PACs."

Trump went on to call Cruz "a puppet" and a "Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination."

UPDATE: 10:22 p.m. EDT — "Momentum" was the main theme in Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' victory speech Tuesday night after it was announced that he had won Wisconsin's Democratic primary. It is that same "momentum," he said, that is propelling his presidential campaign to an increasing number of primary and caucus victories over rival candidate Hillary Clinton.

Sanders, who is playing catch-up to Clinton, quickly pivoted his message to show how he was in a better position than the former secretary of state to beat Republican front-runner Donald Trump in a general election.

“We are defeating Donald Trump by very significant numbers,” Sanders said, speaking in Laramie, Wyoming. "In almost every instance in national polls and state polls, our margin over Trump is wider than Secretary Clinton's. ... With the victory in Wisconsin tonight … we have no won seven out of eight of the last caucuses and primaries. And we have won almost all of them with overwhelming landslide numbers."

Sanders went on to reiterate some of the most prominent themes of his campaign, including targeting the country's financial sector.

"In a time in contemporary politics, when every candidate has super PACs, we have said no to the millionaires who fund those super PACs. And what we have done is, in an unprecedented manner in American history, we have up to this point in the campaign received over 6 million individual campaign contributions," Sanders said. "We have decided that we do not represent the billionaire class, we do not represent Wall Street … and we do not want their money."

UPDATE: 9:50 p.m. EDT — "God bless the great state of Wisconsin," Ted Cruz said as he took the stage in Milwaukee to deliver his victory speech after winning the state's GOP presidential primary and besting rival candidates Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Cruz took aim at the media, who he said reported Wisconsin was Trump's state to lose, before crediting Wisconsin voters for their support.

"Just how significant is tonight?" Cruz asked? "Well, just today our campaign has raised over $2 million," he reveled before announcing he's received "over 1.3 million contributions."

He added: "In the coming days, we are likely to have gained over 100 delegates over Donald Trump. As a reuslt of tonight, as a result of the people of Wisconsin defying the pundits, I am more and more convinced that our campaign is going to earn the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination."

Data curated by InsideGov
"We are winning because we're uniting the Republican party," Cruz added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has expressed contempt for his Senate colleague but turned Cruz supporter in order to block Trump, tweeted his happiness about the result.

UPDATE: 9:45 p.m. EDT -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has won Wisconsin's Republican primary, CNN reported. It also reported that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race.

UPDATE: 9:04 p.m. EDT — CNN has released exit poll percentages from the Wisconsin primary, and the news station's early results were consistent with most advance polling. On the Republican side, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz led with 47 percent, followed by Donald Trump with 36 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich trailed both with 14 percent.

For Democrats, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders led with 55 percent and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton registered 44 percent. The actual election results may be different, news anchor Wolf Blitzer said, warning viewers the numbers were simply estimates and were not official.

UPDATE: 8:33 p.m. EDT — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican front-runner Donald Trump were prepared for defeat in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, the Washington Post reported. However, if Trump wins, "the contest is over," Karl Rove told Politico on Tuesday. Wisconsin's open primary process could prove to be the difference for the New York billionaire, Rove said.

“Trump has done slightly better in states where there is an open primary, where Democrats and independents can come in and vote, and has done slightly worse in states that have a closed primary, where only registered Republicans can vote,” he added.

Meanwhile, exit polling Tuesday provided a brief glimpse into the collective mind of Wisconsin's Republican voters. Trade with other countries is detrimental to the employment landscape in the U.S., according to more than half of the voting bloc, CBS News reported. In addition, government spending is also a major factor for Republican voters.

UPDATE: 8:15 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump will galvanize his supporters to confront delegates who do not support him if he doesn't win the Republican presidential nomination, his political strategist said Tuesday. Aside from planning protests, Trump will find out where so-called free agent delegates are staying and send his supporters there, the Oregonian reported.

"We will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal," Roger Stone said during a radio interview. "If you're from Pennsylvania, we'll tell you who the culprits (Pennsylvania delegates) are. We urge you to visit their hotel and find them. You have a right to discuss this, if you voted in the Pennsylvania primary, for example, and your votes are being disallowed."

UPDATE: 7:47 p.m. EDT — Mexico has replaced its ambassador to the U.S. in a move that seems to be in response to Republican front-runner Donald Trump's anti-immigration proposals, including his call to build a wall along the southern border of the U.S. in an effort to stem the number of undocumented immigrants illegally crossing into the U.S.

Carlos Manuel Sada Solana has been named to replace Miguel Basañez Ebergenyi, who was the ambassador for just seven months, the Los Angeles Times reported.

UPDATE: 7:07 p.m. EDT — There may be record turnout Tuesday for Wisconsin's presidential primary, voting officials said. The executive director of the Milwaukee Elections Commission said this spring election is expected to register numbers well in excess of past spring elections going back decades, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“We’ve also had a number of new people register to vote,” Liz Kocjan, chief polling inspector at a location in the town of Caledonia, told the Racine County Eye.

Donald Trump may be responsible for that apparent rise in voters, as exit poll data showed the New York businessman's candidacy evoked more "excitement" than those of his two rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. About 25 percent of voters said Trump's bid is exciting, compared to 15 percent each for Cruz and Kasich, reported the Associated Press.

Trump's candidacy also inspires fear, with about 40 percent of voters saying they're worried about what the front-runner's presidential policies would look like if they ever got enacted.

UPDATE: 6:34 p.m. EDT — Wisconsin voters are apparently even more committed to their respective party's core principles, according to exit poll data Tuesday from those who cast ballots in the state's primary, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Compared to the Wisconsin primaries from four years ago, Democrats and Republicans are even more liberal and more conservative, respectively, than they were during the previous national election cycle.

About 75 percent of Republican voters Tuesday identified with right-wing politics compared to 61 percent in 2012. Conversely, about 66 percent of Democratic primary voters Tuesday called themselves liberal. In 2012, that percentage was at 46.

UPDATE: 6:20 p.m. EDT -- Donald Trump broke no rules while campaigning Tuesday outside a polling place in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a state government official ruled, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

"The Waukesha city clerk checked with the election inspectors who told her that Mr. Trump did not enter the polling place and remained outside the 100 foot zone where electioneering is prohibited," said Michael Haas, elections administrator for the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board. "There was apparently a miscommunication with our office earlier in the day when we talked to the city clerk. A voter claimed that (Trump) was inside but the city clerk did not state that."

UPDATE: 5:51 p.m. EDT — The vast majority of Wisconsin voters say that the U.S. economy is the most important issue the next president will have to grapple with, according to exit poll data as reported by the Associated Press. Almost 75 percent of Democratic voters expressed fear for the future of the country's economy, while at least 90 percent of registered Republicans expressed a similar sentiment.

UPDATE: 5:44 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders' lead in Wisconsin is not limited to primary polling. While the Vermont senator enjoys a very narrow lead in the polls over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he is dominating in internet searches, claiming 70 percent of online queries in Wisconsin, according to Google Trends.

As of Tuesday morning, Sanders was holding onto a single-digit polling lead over Clinton, 49 percent to 46 percent, reported the Huffington Post.

UPDATE: 5:13 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump has been trailing rival presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the primary polling in Wisconsin, but the front-runner Republican White House hopeful has apparently also been lagging in another department: internet searches for the Dairy State primary.

Google Trends posted a Twitter update accompanied by a graphic showing Trump's Google search supremacy in every U.S. state but Wisconsin. Cruz has taken top honors for ranking in online searches for the Wisconsin primary. Ohio Gov. John Kasich didn't even register, according to the graphic.

UPDATE: 4:33 p.m. EDT — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders reiterated Tuesday his opposition to the Panama Free Trade Agreement while highlighting what he says is then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s support of it, saying in part that “Children should not go hungry while billionaires use offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.”

Sanders warned in 2011 that Panama was a so-called tax haven that allowed individuals and companies to evade taxes and launder money, but the Panama Free Trade Agreement was still signed by U.S. President Barack Obama.

"Panama’s entire annual economic output is only $26.7 billion a year, or about two-tenths of one percent of the U.S. economy," Sanders said at the time. "No-one can legitimately make the claim that approving this free trade agreement will significantly increase American jobs. Then, why would we be considering a stand-alone free trade agreement with this country?"

UPDATE: 4:02 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump is being investigated by the state of Wisconsin for allegedly greeting voters Tuesday outside a polling place Tuesday, in violation of state law, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The alleged indiscretion has invited the scrutiny of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.

A video that has since been deleted purportedly shows the Republican front-runner presidential candidate at the Waukesha Fire Station No. 5, where he was apparently closer than the 100-feet perimeter that candidates must not cross. Photography company Getty Images captured photos of Trump at the location in question.

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to voters and supporters outside a polling place at the Waukesha Fire Department in Wisconsin, April 5, 2016. Scott Olson/Getty Images

UPDATE: 3:12 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump disapproves of Ford Motor Co.'s planned expansion into Mexico, and he is not mincing his words to express his sentiment. The U.S. automotive stalwart's move to build a manufacturing plant in Mexico "is an absolute disgrace," the Republican presidential front-runner said Tuesday, hours after Ford announced it would be investing $1.6 billion to build the San Luis Potosi facility, Reuters reported.

Trump has not made his disdain for Mexico a secret, especially as it pertains to the southern U.S. border between the two countries. The New York businessman has proposed building a controversial wall to stem the flow of undocumented immigrants coming into the U.S. His plan has been greeted with anger and skepticism, but also support from Trump's fans.

UPDATE: 3:12 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders' name will be added to the ballots for Washington, D.C., Democratic presidential primary after all, according to the local NBC News affiliate. The Vermont senator's inclusion in the nation's capital city's vote was in jeopardy after the Democratic Party filed the necessary applications after the deadline. Sanders' status was called into question after a Democratic voter challenged the senator's inclusion based on the late registration. But the District Board of Elections announced Tuesday that Sanders would be on the ballot, something that his campaign never doubted would happen.

"We did what D.C. law requires in order to get Bernie on the ballot, and we are confident he will be on the ballot," a Sanders spokesperson said Monday.

UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump supporters in Wisconsin said they will continue to back the New York business mogul after a rough week where his campaign saw its poll numbers take a hit after he discussed banning abortions and punishing women who have them.

Gianni Juedes, 28, of Pewaukee said Trump is an independent candidate who talks frankly. "I don't find anything he said offensive or appalling," Juedes told the Los Angeles Times. "He's not bought by everybody else," Juedes said.

Tom Podziemski, 67, of Greenfield, a Milwaukee suburb, said the country needs someone "who everyone thinks is nuts." "He's the person who will tell everybody to buzz off," Podziemski said. "Trump is not the establishment's mouthpiece. He tells it like it is."

Trump is expected to lose Wisconsin on Tuesday to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

UPDATE: 1:45 p.m. EDT — Hillary Clinton said conservative women could “absolutely” still be a feminist and oppose abortion rights. The statement came Tuesday during a friendly interview on ABC’s “The View" as Clinton has stepped up efforts to reach out to female voters.

“I respect the opinions and beliefs of every woman," she said. "The reason why being pro choice is the right way to go is because it is a choice, and hopefully a choice that is rooted in the thoughtfulness and the care that women bring to this decision. So of course you can be a feminist and be pro-life."

She named her favorite musicians, including Katy Perry, Demi Lovato and Adele, and claimed her celebrity crush was George Clooney, Politico reported.

UPDATE: 1:25 p.m. EDT — President Barack Obama dismissed Donald Trump's plan to force Mexico to build a border wall Tuesday, telling the GOP front-runner, "Good luck with that.” Obama addressed reporters' questions during a White House press conference hours after Trump released his border plan Tuesday, noting that world leaders expect serious solutions from U.S. presidents.

“They don’t expect half-baked notions coming out of the White House,” Obama said. “We can’t afford that.”

UPDATE: 1:05 p.m. EDT — Wisconsin’s tough voter identification law could see long lines and reports of voter disenfranchisement Tuesday when the state holds its first high-turnout election since the law went into effect. Under the law, voters can't use expired driver’s licenses or passports, out-of-state licenses or other commonly used forms of ID.

Jenni Dye, research director with the One Wisconsin Institute, said voters have already complained about the process to obtain compliant IDs. “People have been rejected for a number of reasons. In some cases, a misspelling of someone’s name is preventing people from voting,” she told the Guardian.

Voter ID Laws by State | InsideGov

UPDATE: 12:15 p.m. EDT — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has spent almost $1 million more than rival Hillary Clinton ahead of Tuesday's vote to make sure voters hear his message on Wisconsin's airwaves. Since March 22, Sanders' campaign has spent $2.4 million on television and radio ads, while Clinton has spent just $1.43 million on air time, CBS News reported.

UPDATE: 11:45 a.m. EDT — Hillary Clinton is prepared to lose Wisconsin and is looking ahead to contests in New York and other, more diverse states where her coalition of black and Latino voters could help her collect another win. She urged supporters to help her campaign compete with Bernie Sanders on Tuesday in a fundraising email that quickly pivoted to the New York Democratic primary April 19. The email read:

"For weeks, this team has been knocking on doors, calling voters and making sure that folks in Wisconsin know what Team Hillary is all about — but the truth is, we were outraised and outspent last month, and we could very well lose the Wisconsin primary tonight. You've been in Hillary's corner since Day One, and I can't thank you enough for that. If we can stay focused and stick to our plan, the nomination is in our grasp. Coming off a string of losses, our commitment to fighting for every last vote and every last delegate is going to matter more than ever. Chip in to help Hillary fight in New York, Pennsylvania and every other state still to vote in this primary election."

UPDATE: 11:20 a.m. EDT — GOP front-runner Donald Trump detailed Tuesday his plan to force Mexico to build a 1,000-mile wall along the United States border after some Mexican leaders called the proposal laughable.

Part of his plan is to cancel visas and increase fees if Mexico doesn't agree, his campaign said. "Even a small increase in visa fees would pay for the wall," Trump's campaign noted in a memo Tuesday. "This includes fees on border crossing cards, of which more than 1 million are issued a year. The border crossing card is also one of the greatest sources of illegal immigration into the United States, via overstays. Mexico is also the single largest recipient of U.S. green cards, which confer a path to U.S. citizenship. Again, we have the leverage, so Mexico will back down."

The conclusion reads: "Mexico has taken advantage of us in another way as well: Gangs, drug traffickers and cartels have freely exploited our open borders and committed vast numbers of crimes inside the United States. The United States has borne the extraordinary daily cost of this criminal activity, including the cost of trials and incarcerations. Not to mention the even greater human cost. We have the moral high ground here, and all the leverage. It is time we use it in order to Make America Great Again."

UPDATE: 10:45 a.m. EDT — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders planned to greet supporters Tuesday in Laramie, Wyoming, before polls closed in the state. Sanders was expected to discuss “getting big money out of politics, his plan to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, combating climate change and ensuring universal health care," according to his campaign, the Guardian reported.

UPDATE: 10:20 a.m. EDT — Polls opened at 8 a.m. EDT in Wisconsin on Tuesday, and underdogs Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders were expected to win big, according to polls. Part of the reason why GOP front-runner Donald Trump isn't expected to perform well in Wisconsin is because he is largely perceived as not nice.

The “old Germanic ancestry still prevails very much. People are nice,” said former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who’s supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the Atlantic reported. “They take their politics very seriously. They don't like insults. They don't like people to take advantage by being hypercritical. There's still a niceness here that hasn't completely worn off."

UPDATE: 9:29 a.m. EDT — Donald Trump could win the GOP presidential nomination with the help of Wisconsin voters, Karl Rove said Tuesday. “If he wins Wisconsin, the contest is over,” the former George W. Bush White House aide and Fox News contributor said, according to Politico. “If not, it’s gonna go on, and the math becomes somewhat more difficult.”

Votes for Donald Trump by Primary State | InsideGov

UPDATE: 8:45 a.m. EDT — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz needs to win Wisconsin to stop Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination. Trump is ahead in the polls in several future presidential nominating contests, while Cruz is leading in Wisconsin.

“Others outside of the state are looking to Wisconsin, saying, ‘We need you guys to plant the flag and pivot away from Trump and to Cruz,” Matt Batzel, national executive director of American Majority, a Wisconsin-based conservative group that trains activists, told Roll Call. “And this is our last hope. If Wisconsin doesn’t do it, the math just becomes impossible.”

Ted Cruz Presidential Candidate Profile | InsideGov

UPDATE: 8:05 a.m. EDT — Donald Trump's campaign released a video Tuesday urging Wisconsin voters to back his candidacy called "The Real Donald Trump Story." A summary reads: "Never mind the lies and distortion of the corrupt Liberal Media. This time, the American People will follow the truth." It features Trump walking out of his helicopter and spending time with his family amid images that suggest the nation faces grave economic troubles.

UPDATE: 7:10 a.m. EDT — It's a popular question in politics: which candidate would you vote for based on whom you would drink a beer with? The Associated Press poised the question to Wisconsin voters and got some colorful answers.

Catherine LeRose, 50, a cook at a bar who supports Hillary Clinton, wouldn't drink with Donald Trump. “I would never drink a beer with him. I would pour a beer on his head," she said.

Dan Gremonprez, 65, of West Bend, a retired engineer, wouldn't hang out with Clinton. He said: “God, no. She sounds fake.”

Andy Jamesch, a 45-year-old former factory worker who also cooks at the bar, is less picky. “I will pretty much drink with anybody," he told the AP.

The beer test matters, the AP pointed out, because voters often won't vote for someone they don't like. A recent national poll from Quinnipiac University asked voters about negative favorability ratings. Clinton was viewed unfavorably by 56 percent of voters overall, while Trump wasn't widely liked by 61 percent of those polled.

UPDATE: 6:12 a.m. EDT — Donald Trump has a steep hill to climb with female voters in Tuesday's Republican primary. A poll conducted March 28-30 by the Fox Business Network shows the outspoken businessman with 27 percent support among female voters, compared with Ted Cruz's 47 percent. Another recent New York Times/CBS poll showed women viewing him unfavorably by more than 3 to 1.

In an apparent acknowledgement of his troubles winning support from female voters, Trump has enlisted the help of his wife, Melania, on the campaign trail to shore up support among women.

Melania, who until now has been reluctant to get involved in the campaign, and according to the New York Times did not want her husband to run for president, appeared at a rally Monday in Milwaukee.

"No matter who you are, a man or a woman, he treats everyone equal," she said during a brief speech at the rally.

UPDATE: 5:10 a.m. EDT — Donald Trump railed against the “unfair” treatment he says he has received from an array of forces, while addressing supporters at a rally in Wisconsin Monday night, ahead of the state's crucial primary election Tuesday.

The controversial mogul lashed out at the Republican establishment, saying that moves by party grandees to deny him the nomination were corrupt.

“We’re dealing with a corrupt system. We’re dealing with a system that is not fair,” Reuters quoted him as saying. He also lashed out at what he termed a hostile media, and Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, who has backed Ted Cruz for the GOP nomination. Trump also branded Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s continued presence in the race “unfair.”

Original story:

Donald Trump rallied to turn around a bad week in Wisconsin on Tuesday as the state held primary elections that could determine whether Republicans will head to a contested convention and if Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will be able to hang on in the Democratic presidential race.

Trump is trailing behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by 10 percentage points, while Sanders was ahead of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton by 4 points. Trump, who fumbled in recent days after saying he would punish women for having abortions if the medical procedure were outlawed and after threatening Cruz's wife, needs to add to his total delegate count to win the Republican nomination and avoid a contested convention in July. There is a 1,237-delegate threshold to win the nomination outright, and Trump has a 275-delegate lead over Cruz, with 750.

"If he would win Wisconsin he likely gets it; if he loses Wisconsin he likely doesn't," ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd said. "It's still possible, but much more difficult."

There are 42 delegates up for grabs for Republicans. At an event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Trump urged voters Monday to deliver him the GOP presidential nomination. "If we do well here, folks, it’s over. If we don’t win here, it’s not over, but wouldn’t you like to take the credit?" he said.

There are a total of 96 delegates available for Democrats, including 10 superdelegates, who are not bound by how voters cast their ballots. "On the Democratic side, it's important because if Bernie Sanders wins [Wisconsin], he's won six out of the last seven states," Dowd said. "I don't think Hillary loses the nomination because of a loss in Wisconsin, but it complicates her life greatly. ... It continues his momentum, and it forces her to rely on superdelegates."

In a memo sent out to supporters Monday night, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook shrugged off Sanders' claims of momentum.

“Hillary Clinton has built a nearly insurmountable lead among both delegates and actual voters,” he wrote. “Contrary to the claims of the Sanders campaign, in measure after measure, Clinton has shown the broadest support of any candidate currently running for president. We know that the misleading spin will continue, but we wanted you to know the facts about the real state of the Democratic primary," Mook wrote.

Sanders has vowed to take on the former secretary of state despite her massive delegate lead. He has looked ahead to the New York primary on April 19 as another potential victory for his campaign, but Clinton holds a 255-delegate lead over Sanders.

“If we win here, we’re going to have a bounce going into New York state, where I think we can win,” Sanders told supporters in Wisconsin this week. “If we win in New York state — between you and me, I don’t want to get Hillary Clinton more nervous than she already is, so don’t tell her this — but I think if we win here, we win in New York state, we’re on our way to the White House.”