26 April primaries as it happened: Trump sweeps, Clinton wins four and Sanders sneaks in a victory

That's a wrap for our live coverage of tonight's primary races. On the GOP side, Trump swept victories in all five states to further solidify his lead for the party's nomination. Meanwhile, Sanders managed a surprise win in Rhode Island, robbing Clinton of her own five-state sweep. Nevertheless, the Democratic frontrunner is well on her way to winning the party's nomination.

The last state is finally called...and Clinton is declared the winner in Connecticut. It was a tight race, and while she didn't sweep as expected, she did take home wins in four of the five states tonight.

With over 75% reporting in Connecticut, the tides have shifted in Clinton's favour. However, the race is still too close to tell, with the Democratic frontrunner ahead by nearly two points, 50.0% to 48.1%.

Trump takes the stage from New York City:

Following her wins in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, Clinton takes to the stage in Philadelphia. She says the party will unite much easier than Republicans and congratulates Bernie Sanders for challenging her campaign:

Sanders has prevented a Clinton sweep in the Democratic side tonight, with the AP calling Rhode Island as his first win tonight. Connecticut, where he also holds a lead, is the only state remaining.

And Clinton takes home a third state, with the AP calling her the victor in Pennsylvania. All that remains are Connecticut and Rhode Island, which appear to be leaning towards Sanders.

While Trump managed to sweep all five races, things aren't looking as great on Clinton's side. The former secretary of state is currently behind Sanders in at least two of the three remaining states. With 22.3% reporting in Connecticut, Sanders leads Clinton 50.1% to 48.1%. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Rhode Island, the Vermont senator is up 57.4% to 41.0% with 26% reporting.

The AP has also called the second win for Hillary Clinton, this time in the state of Delaware.

The AP has called the final two races in Delaware and Rhode Island for Donald Trump. As expected, he swept all five states and is expected to widen his lead in the GOP side. The billionaire real estate mogul has thanked supporters on his Twitter account.

Ted Cruz told supporters that Donald Trump was Hillary Clinton's vice presidential pick in Indiana tonight. "Donald and Hillary, they are flip sides of the same coin," he said. Trump has been declared the projected winner in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland.

"Tonight this campaign moves back to Indiana and Nebraska and North Dakota and Washington and Montana and California," Cruz added.

Bernie Sanders tells 6,000 supporters in Huntington, West Virginia, as polls closed "we cannot sweep the hard realities of our lives" under the carpet.

He said: "You are prepared to wage the fight against the one per cent and the billionaire class... national polls have us 15 points up on Donald Trump. We are doing something very unusually in contemporary American politics we are telling the truth."

At closing time, The Associated Press has called Donald Trump the winner in Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton takes her first win in Maryland.

Results from Maryland will not begin reporting until 9pm EDT/2am BST after a judge ruled that four polling locations in Baltimore did not open on time. Polling at the four locations—John Eager Howard Elementary, Beth Am Synagogue, Oliver Multi-Purpose Center and Pimlico Elementary School—will remain open for an extra hour.

h/t The Guardian

Polls will close in less than 5 minutes! However, any voter standing in line to vote by 8pm EDT/1am BST will be able to cast their ballot regardless of closing time.

Early exit polls this evening show that bombastic billionaire Donald Trump could do well in all five primary contests across the northeast. In the key state of Pennsylvania, 36 per cent of Republican voters are said to be "excited" about the possibility of a Trump administration, said the Oregonian.

Even though there is said to be substantial evangelical support for Ted Cruz in Pennsylvania just 25 per cent of those quizzed in an exit poll say that they will defiantly vote for the Texan.

Reports have emerged that Sanders will "reassess" his campaign following tonight's primaries. Sanders is expected to lose big against Clinton tonight, but will still take home some delegates thanks to the Democrats' policy of proportional delegate allocation in the Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Despite this, Sanders "is adamant that he will remain in the race until the Democratic convention this summer," according to the New York Times.

"If we are sitting here and there's no sort of mathematical way to do it, we will be upfront about that," Tad Devine, Sanders' senior strategist, said in an interview with the Times. "If we have a really good day, we are going to continue to talk about winning most of the pledged delegates because we will be on a path toward it. If we don't get enough today to make it clear that we can do it by the end, it's going to be hard to talk about it. That's not going to be a credible path. Instead, we will talk about what we intend to do between now and the end and how we can get there."

h/t The New York Times

Exit poll results have begun pouring in. The latest preliminary exit polls reveal Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut believe Clinton has a better chance at beating Trump in November than her rival does. Also, more than half of the voters in those states said they'd like to see the next president continue President Obama's policies.

h/t ABC News

Trump's remaining rivals are determined to prevent him from winning the party's nomination. Cruz and Kasich have even gone as far as forming an unlikely alliance to stop Trump from reaching the necessary 1,237 delegates. In separate press releases on Sunday (24 April), the candidates said that Cruz will focus on winning in Indiana, while Kasich turns his attention to Oregon and New Mexico.

In response, Trump tweeted: "Wow, just announced that Lyin' Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!"

A new poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics on Monday (25 April) revealed just how badly Republican frontrunner Donald Trump does among millennial voters. When placed in a hypothetical general election race against Hillary Clinton, Trump only received 25% support compared to Clinton's 60%. Several other mock general election polls reveal Clinton hold the lead among all voters when paired with Trump.

Welcome to our live coverage of tonight's primaries in five East Coast states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Party frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are poised to sweep all five states, but if past primaries are any indication, anything can happen.