Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has four adult children, but at least two of them are not eligible to vote in New York’s closed Republican primary. Of the three Trump kids who have publicly campaigned with their father, only Donald Trump Jr. registered as a Republican by the deadline. Ivanka, who has lectured citizens of other states on how to vote, is barred from voting herself.
New York has an absurdly early deadline to register to vote in a closed party presidential primary. The primary is next Tuesday, April 19. The deadline to declare your party affiliation was October 9 — of last year! Given this byzantine process, the state nearly guarantees that only long-time Republicans will be able to vote in the GOP primary (and the same applies to Democrats, as many Bernie Sanders supporters may learn to their sorrow in the coming days).
Here comes the juicy bit: Neither Ivanka nor Eric Trump is enrolled in either party. Like many Trump and Sanders supporters across the state, they will be barred from voting next Tuesday.
This is particularly rich, because Ivanka has been featured prominently in voter-guidance videos from her father’s campaign. As early as January 30, Trump’s eldest daughter has told voters how to vote. Now, she is ineligible to do it herself.
View the video on the next page! And hear about the upcoming Trump family town hall…
Trump and family will appear at a CNN town hall on Tuesday at 9 p.m., hosted by Anderson Cooper. Expect to hear questions about this and other family issues then! While CNN has not specified which members of The Donald’s family will be there, it is likely that Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric will all attend, as they have been public surrogates for their father throughout the campaign.
However, the birth of Ivanka’s son Theodore James Kushner last month may preclude her appearance, and rumors swirl as to whether her absence as Trump’s advisor led to The Donald’s disastrous abortion comments two weeks ago.
Trump is the heavy favorite (FiveThirtyEight puts him at above 99 percent certainty) in the Republican primary next Tuesday, so much so that his chances of winning over 50 percent in the state are high. New York state awards a large majority of delegates to the winner if he breaks the 50 percent margin, and divides three delegates per congressional district among the poll leaders in each district. If a candidate breaks 50 percent in any district, he takes all three delegates.
While a Trump victory next Tuesday is more or less a foregone conclusion, the margin of victory matters a great deal. If The Donald falls one vote short of 50 percent, Ivanka and Eric may cost their father the delegates he needs to win the nomination outright. How ironic would that be?
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