--- title: Donald Trump Wins Most Pennsylvania Unbound Delegates description: Donald Trump won a majority of unbound delegates from Pennsylvania, overtaking Ted Cruz in the race for support from the free agents. canonical: https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-27T15:35:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:01.306Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Wins Most Pennsylvania Unbound Delegates og:description: Narrowing the margin between with Cruz. og:url: https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dd1c93f2b3ffc42/698890cea988cab2336b79b4/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3938 og:image:height: 2215 og:image:alt: APTOPIX GOP 2016 Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Wins Most Pennsylvania Unbound Delegates twitter:description: Narrowing the margin between with Cruz. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dd1c93f2b3ffc42/698890cea988cab2336b79b4/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Wins Most Pennsylvania Unbound Delegates > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Final Results 'Amtrak' Primary [Watch (HLS stream): Final Results 'Amtrak' Primary](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3b152RUX.m3u8) (1:15)  _Published 2016-04-27. Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton win big during the 'Amtrak' Primary._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 27, 2016 3:35 PM UTC  Donald Trump waves after speaking during a primary night event in New York, on April 26, 2016. Donald Trump waves after speaking during a primary night event in New York, on April 26, 2016. Julie Jacobson—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 27, 2016 3:35 PM UTC Donald Trump won a majority of unbound delegates from Pennsylvania, overtaking Ted Cruz in the race for support from the free agent delegates. [According to a survey by ABC News,](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-secures-commanding-lead-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/story?id=38695683) 39 of Pennsylvania’s 54 unbound delegates plan to vote for Trump on the first convention ballot. 23 of those said they would support Trump, while 16 said they would commit to vote for the winner of their district, which ended up being Trump. Two Pennsylvania delegates told ABC they would support Texas Sen. Cruz, and seven others are uncommitted. This narrows the margin between Trump and Cruz among unbound delegates, and brings Trump closer to the possibility of sewing up the nomination on the first ballot. [According to a TIME analysis](http://time.com/4303264/donald-trump-ted-cruz-convention-unbound/?iid=sr-link5) conducted before Pennsylvania’s primary, 26 of the other 63 unbound delegates are either committed to support Cruz, lean towards supporting Cruz or refuse to support Trump on the first ballot. **Read More:** [_Who’s Winning the Campaign for the Republican Presidential Nomination?_](http://time.com/4228456/republican-primary-delegate-counter/) But now with the results from Pennsylvania, Cruz has the support of 27 of the 117 unbound delegates (plus one who may not support Cruz but refuses to support Trump), while Trump has 40: 39 from Pennsylvania, and one from North Dakota. Another delegate from American Samoa is Trump’s local campaign chair, but he declined to confirm to TIME that he will support Trump on the first ballot. Only about 5% of the 2,472 delegates to the convention are unbound, and they could become the most important Republicans in the nation if Trump arrives at the convention just short of the [1,237 bound delegates](http://time.com/4228456/republican-primary-delegate-counter/) he needs to lock up the nomination on the first ballot. To achieve that, Trump will need to win 50% of all remaining delegates (Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are both mathematically unable to do so). But if he comes in just shy, the results from Pennsylvania Tuesday night bring Trump 39 steps closer to an outright victory. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Wins Most Pennsylvania Unbound Delegates","datePublished":"2016-04-27T15:35:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:01.306Z","description":"Donald Trump won a majority of unbound delegates from Pennsylvania, overtaking Ted Cruz in the race for support from the free agents.","url":"https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dd1c93f2b3ffc42/698890cea988cab2336b79b4/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dd1c93f2b3ffc42/698890cea988cab2336b79b4/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"APTOPIX GOP 2016 Trump","caption":"APTOPIX GOP 2016 Trump","creditText":"Julie Jacobson—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/","name":"Donald Trump Wins Most Pennsylvania Unbound Delegates"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Final Results 'Amtrak' Primary","description":"Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton win big during the 'Amtrak' Primary.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3b152RUX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-27T03:03:36.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3b152RUX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/","duration":"PT1M15S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4309399/donald-trump-unbound-delegates-pennsylvania/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```