If there’s one demographic that should favor Ted Cruz in New York, it’s the Jewish vote. With one opponent who has a family history of anti-Semitic views and another opponent that is irrelevant, it behooves Cruz to work with the pro-Israel voters in the state to act as a firewall against Donald Trump getting a majority.
New York works on a 50% winner-take-all for the state as well as each of the 27 congressional districts. If Trump can get over 50% of the vote, he gets all 14 state delegates. The same holds true for the three delegates in each district; if he has a majority in the district, he gets all three delegates.
Cruz hopes that there are enough anti-Trump Republicans in this closed primary to be able to prevent as many majorities as possible. The statewide majority is the big one, of course, but it’s also the most likely. With the New York City area accounting for over half of the congressional districts, it’s very possible for Trump to get his majority and walk away with nearly all of the 95 delegates in the state.
For help, Cruz is trying to build a pro-Israel coalition to support him:
[THEGUARDIAN] Ted Cruz woos pro-Israel coalition as backers seek to build on momentum: Pro-Cruz Super Pac and … https://t.co/nMygoEqwVv
— Newszilla (@newszilla) April 10, 2016
This is the last huge state with bound delegates until the June 7 finale in California. Cruz would love to keep Trump under 70 delegates in his home state to make the likelihood of an open convention much higher.