The Trail 2016: Acela primaries to reverberate down ballot

by Jonathan Easley - 04/26/16 5:33 PM ET

Welcome to THE TRAIL 2016, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.

Today’s polls are set to close at 8 p.m. in five primary states across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are poised for big nights. The only question is how many delegates each will add to their already substantial leads.

The Hill’s Jonathan Easley has the five things you should watch for as votes are counted in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

But it’s not just at the top of the ticket where we’ll get some clarity on Tuesday night.

The Hill’s Mike Lillis reports that Democratic voters will also the fates of two of the party’s most promising stars in Maryland, Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Donna Edwards (D-Md.) who are facing off for the right to run to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

And in Pennsylvania, The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports that Democrats will decide on a challenger to go against incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) — former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who has long been a thorn in the side of the Democratic establishment, or Katie McGinty, a former gubernatorial chief of staff who has the backing of the White House.

Stay with The Hill all night for breaking news updates on all of the presidential and Senate races. Come back in the morning for winners and losers, and a look ahead at the pitfalls of the alliance between Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

RACE TO 1600 PENN

TENSIONS LINGER: The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Jordan Fabian report: There is still some animus between Vice President Biden and supporters of Hillary Clinton months after the vice president passed on a presidential run.

UNSOLICITED ADVICE: The Hill’s Elliot Smilowitz reports: Donald Trump thinks Bernie Sanders has been treated badly by the Democratic party and should run as an independent. Sanders’s wife, Jane Sanders responded, saying it’s not going to happen.

THE MATH: The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid doesn’t see a path to the nomination for Sanders, but stopped short of calling for him to drop out.

SHENANIGANS: The Hill’s Neetzan Zimmerman reports: Hillary Clinton’s supporters have been accused of taking down pro-Bernie Sanders Facebook pages and replacing them with porn.

VEEPSTAKES PART 1: The Hill’s Elliot Smilowitz reports: Bernie Sanders floated Sen. Elizabeth Warren as a potential running mate if he’s the nominee.

VEEPSTAKES PART II: The Hill’s Scott Wong reports: The Cruz and Kasich campaigns are weighing whether they should gamble by announcing running mates before the GOP convention.

ROCKY START: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: The alliance between Cruz and Kasich is not off to a great start. Now, The Hill’s Niall Stanage reports that one of Kasich’s campaign officials in Indiana said the candidates shouldn’t tell voters how to vote.

WON’T MATTER: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Donald Trump said the alliance between rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich is a ‘joke’ and ‘almost dead.”

ODDS AND ENDS:

TIT FOR TAT: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Bernie Sanders’s wife says the Vermont senator will release his tax returns if Hillary Clinton releases the transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street banks.

THE BOSS: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Chris Christie isn’t afraid to show off his moves. The New Jersey governor was spotted dancing at a Bruce Springsteen concert Monday night in Brooklyn

POLL POSITION

MAJORITY: The Hill’s Kyle Balluck reports: Donald Trump has surpassed the 50 percent mark in a new national poll.

THE DAILY TRUMP

BAD FOR BUSINESS: The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: A New York judge has said that a case against Donald Trump over accusations of fraud at Trump University can move forward.

EASY SOLUTION: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: Donald Trump sold his Cessna jet to himself to get around a FAA registration issue.

SOMEDAY: The Hill’s Elliot Smilowitz reports: Donald Trump says he’d like to see a woman president someday, so long as it’s not Hillary Clinton.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I know a lot of people have been threatening to do this, but I really will. I know a lovely place in Vancouver, and I can get my work done from there.”

— Actress and Hillary Clinton supporter Lena Dunham vowing to leave the country if Donald Trump is elected president. Trump fired back, calling her a “B actor.”

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

MESSY PRIMARY: The Hill’s Melanie Zanona reports: The real estate investor trying to unseat Rep. Bill Shuster in Pennsylvania is using Shuster’s romantic involvement with a top airline lobbyist against him.

INDIANA SENATE: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: A Tea Party group is backing Rep. Marlin Stutzman’s insurgent bid for Senate in Indiana just one week before the primary there.

JOINING THE FRONT-RUNNER: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: A Republican candidate for Senate says that nobody from the Middle East should be allowed into the U.S.

MONEY WATCH

NOT MUCH DIFFERENCE: The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: Bernie Sanders is linking Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump in his latest fundraising pitch.

SUPER-PAC SPENDING: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: The main super-PAC supporting Hillary Clinton released a new ad on Tuesday portraying Donald Trump as a con man.

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW:

(All times Eastern)

Polls close for Republican and Democratic primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island at 8 p.m.

Hillary Clinton holds an election night rally at the Philadelphia Convention Center beginning at 8 p.m.

Donald Trump will hold a press conference from Trump Tower in Manhattan tonight at 9 p.m. He will appear on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday morning at 6. At noon, Trump will give a speech on foreign policy in Washington, D.C. at the Mayflower Hotel. He will rally supporters in Indianapolis at 6 p.m. that day with special guest Bobby Knight.

Ted Cruz will hold a rally today at 7 p.m. in Knightstown, Ind.

Bernie Sanders will hold a rally in Huntington, W.Va., at 8:30 p.m. today. On Wednesday, he will hold a town hall at Purdue University in Indiana at noon, and then a rally at Indiana University in Bloomington at 7 p.m.

TWEET OF THE DAY

If Trump has a big, dominant performance tonight, Indiana starts to look like #NeverTrump Waterloo.

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 26, 2016