Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were each looking for a convincing five-state romp Tuesday that would quiet skeptics and marginalize stubborn rivals.
He pulled it off. She fell slightly short.
But they both collected enough delegates to make an increasingly compelling case that their party's nomination is finally in reach. The key takeaways from Tuesday's East Coast primaries:
Trump Is Winning, and Winning Big
Trump's past six victories have been veritable blowouts in which he has routinely collected a convincing majority of the vote despite a three-candidate field.
Tuesday night represented a new high-water mark for his candidacy and a dour milestone for his rivals: Trump won an average of 59 percent of the Republican vote in the five states, and his average margin of victory was 35 percentage points.
With decisive wins like that, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio will have a much harder time arguing that Trump lacks the broad support of his party at this summer's Republican convention, quite possibly their last chance to stop his march to the nomination.
The Stop Trump Movement Cant
The anyone-but-Trump brigade is failing, miserably and predictably. Trump's commanding victories across five states lay bare an inconvenient but long-held truth in politics: It is far harder to organize against a candidate than it is to campaign forone. Voters want to believe in something, and they want to vote for someone. They are far less likely to coordinate, en masse, to stop something.
The disorganization and slim budget of the anti-Trump movement is not helping. The groups spent around $500,000 to halt Trump's momentum in Tuesday's five-state East Coast primaries — a relative pittance. They may be holding their fire until the contests in Indiana, Nebraska and California, but by then, the Republican race may be all but over.
Sorry, Sanders, Clinton Isnt a Regional Candidate
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont recently tried to portray his rival's success as a fleeting, regional phenomenon: Clinton, he said during a Democratic debate this month, owned the comparatively conservative electorate of the "Deep South."
Tuesday's results proved him wrong. Clinton swept some of the biggest electoral prizes in the East: Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania (not to mention Delaware).
But her defeat in Rhode Island will sting somewhat because it feeds Sanders' argument that so long as he is winning (even small states), he should remain in the Democratic race.
Cruz Is a Fish Out of Water on the East Coast
It is hard to win states you ignore.
The senator from Texas all but gave up on Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States, dipping his ostrich-booted toe — briefly — into Maryland and Pennsylvania before fleeing to Indiana, the next heartland state to hold a primary.
On Tuesday, he lost all five states, delivering his concession speech well before polls had closed. His dual message of conservative purity and religious faith was always an unnatural fit for the region. And his fate seemed sealed a week ago when he finished a distant third in New York, home to the values he has repeatedly maligned.
His wounded campaign, desperate to deprive Trump of 1,237 delegates, is now banking on wins in Indiana and Nebraska — "more favorable terrain," as he called it Tuesday night.
Sanders Cant Close in Cities
Sanders cannot crack the code in Democratic-controlled cities, a long-standing vulnerability that haunted him on Tuesday. Take Pennsylvania, where Clinton crushed him in Philadelphia County, 63 percent to 37 percent. In Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, Clinton beat him 55 percent to 44 percent.
Why is Sanders losing these urban centers? Because they are home to reliable Clinton constituencies: black and Hispanic voters, partisan Democrats, and older women, all of whom would be essential to a successful general election candidacy.
Make That 1 for 46
If Kasich cannot win a reliably moderate, blue-blooded New England state like Connecticut, where exactly can he win?
His inability to compete with Trump in the very states whose demographic compositions (centrist) and political traditions (polite) undermine his rationale for staying in the race. Trump obliterated Kasich in Connecticut, more than doubling his vote total.
Trump's schoolyard taunts can sound puerile ("We call him one-for-41," he quips of Kasich's losing record). But the front-runner has a point: Kasich has not won a primary since March 15, when he clinched his home state, Ohio. (Kasich even lost Pennsylvania, where he was born and his brother still resides.) And he still has fewer delegates than Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is no longer in the race.
It is not clear when, or if, Kasich will win a primary again this year. "Why is he here?" Trump asked wryly Tuesday night.