NEW YORK - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is poised for a thumping victory in New York - his home state - primary on Tuesday.
Trump is dominating the polls with a double-digit lead over his rivals, US Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich. The billionaire businessman could pick up close to all of the 95 delegates at stake in the state, where he is especially popular among voters in upstate and rural regions.
"We have to win by big numbers!" Trump told thousands of cheering supporters Sunday at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York, later urging voters to give him a "landslide."
While he retains a large lead over Ted Cruz in Republican delegates overall, Trump wants the Empire State to offset gains that the Texas senator has made in state conventions in recent weeks.
Also seeking to rally from an April 5 loss to Cruz in the Wisconsin primary, Trump has campaigned in New York by attacking the delegate selection process as a "corrupt" and "rigged" effort to "steal" the nomination from him.
"Lying Ted Cruz can't get votes (I am millions ahead of him) so he has to get his delegates from the Republican bosses," Trump tweeted. "It won't work!"
Trump's opponents, Cruz and Kasich, have all but conceded the popular vote to Trump in New York, though each is looking to pick off a few delegates as part of their effort to deny him a first ballot win at the July convention in Cleveland.
Cruz picked up 14 delegates in Wyoming during a state convention this weekend, telling supporters there that Trump would lose a general election badly to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Kasich, who plans to spend New York primary night in Maryland, which holds its primary April 26, said the delegate selection rules are clear, involving state conventions as well as primaries and caucuses, and Trump should stop whining about them.
"I mean, come on," Kasich told CNN's State of the Union. "Act like you're a professional, be a pro.”
During his rally Sunday in the heart of the Hudson Valley, Trump said he would beat the "crooked" Clinton easily, and also bashed Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. ("I refuse to vote for a communist.")
Trump currently has 744 delegates to Cruz's 559, according to the Associated Press, followed by ex-candidate Marco Rubio (171) and Kasich (144).
There are complexities involved in acquiring New York's 95 delegates.
Trump will need to top 50% statewide in order to claim all 14 available at-large delegates; otherwise, Cruz and Kasich will get a share if they top 20%.
New York's 27 congressional districts offer three delegates each. Trump must win more than 50% of the vote in each district to claim all of those delegates. If he gets less than half in any particular district, the second place finisher in that district picks up a delegate.
"The real issue is whether he gets over the 50% mark in every congressional district," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Poll, which gives Trump a big edge in the popular vote.
Murray pointed out that more than half of the state's congressional districts are located in the heavily Democratic New York City area, and those districts tend to have low turnout in GOP primaries. Has Trump's get-out-the-vote effort targeted low-turnout areas? "It's so hard to tell." Murray said.
Cruz and Kasich are seeking to block Trump from winning the 1,237 delegates he needs to claim victory on the first ballot, setting up a contested convention to begin in Cleveland on July 18.
Certainly Trump supporters, many of whom waited for hours along Poughkeepsie's Main Street to get into Sunday's rally, expect a big win home field win on Tuesday."If he does win handily in New York, that will get the Trump train rolling," said Kathleen Holback, a retired budget manager who lives in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.
Trump had a notably busy Sunday, starting in Staten Island to accept an award from the head of the New York Veteran Police Association. He then spoke at a Richmond County Republican Lincoln Day Lunch and took a tour of the New York Military Academy before heading to Poughkeepsie.
Born in Queens, Trump himself has long been a fixture of New York City. For decades, Trump's playboy lifestyle and multiple weddings and divorces were favorite features in the city's tabloids. Trump flirted in the past with running for New York City mayor.
He has garnered the support of at least one prominent local Republican - former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said he plans to vote for his long-time friend.
But other Republican leaders have steered clear. Former Governor George Pataki, who briefly ran for president this cycle, endorsed Kasich; Michael Bloomberg, the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent former mayor has denounced Trump aggressively and considered running as an independent against him.
Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidates, urged caution Monday against interpreting polls showing him trailing his rival Hillary Clinton in New York. His argument: We've been here before.
"Those are the public polls. The bottom line is, let's look at the real poll tomorrow," the senator told NBC's "Today." "Generally speaking, polling has underestimated how we do in elections."
Sanders noted that his campaign was down by as many as 25 points in Michigan before it pulled off the upset victory on March 8.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls of likely voters in New York's April 19 Democratic primary, Clinton leads Sanders by nearly 13 percentage points, and there's no sign that he's closing the gap.
"The main point is, I think, we have a message that's resonating all over this country," Sanders said. "We have enthusiasm. We have energy. People understand it's too late for establishment politics and economics. They want real change in the country. They want leadership to stand up to the billionaire class. That’s what we are providing."
Sanders also reiterated his support for legislation that would allow United States courts to determine if foreign countries or entities are responsible for the 9/11 attacks, such as Saudi Arabia, and subsequently permit the families of the victims to sue the Saudi government. While acknowledging the current administration's concern that such action could open Americans to legal action from other national entities, Sanders stressed the importance of a full investigation, as well as the release of classified information related to the 9/11 Commission Report.