Trump takes Pennsylvania

Donald Trump has won the Pennsylvania Republican presidential primary.

Trump easily outdistanced Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the Associated Press projected moments after polls closed. The AP had not yet declared a winner in the Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders - though CNN projected the state for Clinton at about 8:50 p.m.

Now the real work begins on the Republican side.

For despite his overwhelming win at the polls, Trump is guaranteed only 17 of the state's 71 GOP delegates.

The remaining 54, elected three per congressional district, are not bound to any candidate. They represent the largest block of undeclared delegates in the nation.

Their ultimate loyalty appears critical to Trump's chances of securing the 1,237 delegates he needs to win his party's nomination on the first ballot at the Republican convention in Cleveland in July.

By the same token, Cruz and Kasich need as many of those 54 unbound delegates as possible to have any chance of denying Trump that first-round win and forcing a contested convention.

For weeks, delegate candidates have been getting the soft sell from the three campaigns. As of Wednesday, the pitch should harden dramatically.

Calvin Tucker, a delegate candidate from Philadelphia's East Mount Airy neighborhood, said he hasn't been courted like this since he and his wife dated 40 years ago.

Tucker, a 63-year-old financial services contractor, has had "one-on-one" time with Kasich at the Conshohocken Marriott, met with Trump in New York, and was wooed by Cruz surrogate, Carly Fiorina.

"I'm truly uncommitted," he said. "I didn't vote for any presidential candidate because I wanted to preserve the integrity of the system."