YNN.com

Ithaca / Cortland

Change region

  65º

You are not signed in  |  Sign in here  |  Help

You're viewing a lite version of ynn.com

Time Warner Cable customers: Sign in with your TWC ID for video access.

Get my TWC ID. | Get TWC service. | Read the FAQ.

Updated 04/24/2012 10:54 PM

Romney wins New York

By: Josh Robin

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney took home all five primaries, including our very own Empire State. YNN's Josh Robin has more on Tuesday night's somewhat expected wins.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

NEW YORK STATE – Mitt Romney says he's the nominee.

"After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and not a few long nights, I can say with confidence and gratitude that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility. And, together, we will win on November 6th!" Romney said.

By all accounts, the former Massachusetts governor will be the nominee by then. But according to his party's rules, as of now, he's still short hundreds of delegates, even as Tuesday's wins netted him a slew of support. He captured New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware, which was the only state where it got a little competitive.

Newt Gingrich campaigned aggressively in the First State. He didn't quit the race Tuesday, but basically said it would think about it.

"The next few days, we're going to look realistically where we're at. We have worked very, very hard, we had a lot of support from an amazing number of people," Gingrich said.

Tuesday's primaries were also the first without Rick Santorum as an active competitor. The conservative dropped out earlier this month and lost his home state of Pennsylvania.

Still in the race, Ron Paul is running largely a symbolic candidacy.

As for his own campaign, Romney spoke not from one of the states voting Tuesday, but from New Hampshire, which President Obama won in 2008, but could be in play this time.

"Four years ago, Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?" Romney asked.

His likely November rival was in a pair of potential tossups, North Carolina and then Colorado. The topic was student loans. But the president's subtext was talking about America's haves and have nots to emphasize that Romney is clearly the former and can't possibly know what it's like to be middle class.

Obama said, “I don't want this to be a country where a shrinking number of Americans are doing really, really well, but a growing number of people are just struggling to get by. That's not my idea of America."

The next republican contests are May 8th in Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia. Even if Romney wins all three, he still has to collect even more delegates before he can say he's actually captured the nomination. The earliest he's seen as being able to do that is not until the end of May.