New York, Apr 20 (IANS): Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump improved his chances of winning the party nomination on Tuesday night after registering a commanding victory in the New York primary, while Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton snapped Senator Bernie Sanders’s winning streak and took an important step toward clinching the nomination, media reports said.

Queens-born Trump campaigned vigorously for a huge vote total to revive his political fortunes. He drew support from majorities of nearly every demographic group across the state, according to exit polls by Edison Research, The New York Times reported.

Trump’s appeal was so strong that the media declared him the winner shortly after the polls closed at 9 p.m, the report added.

Trump, who built his fortune in New York's real estate market, now has clear momentum heading into the next primaries in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and three other states on April 26.

On the Republican side, Clinton held an edge in early returns even as Bernie Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, fought for an upset victory.

"We've won in every region of the country," Clinton says. "From the north to the south to the east to the west, but this one's personal," Clinton said in her address.

Clinton told Sanders supporters: "There is much more that unites us than divides us."

With about half of the vote in both races, Clinton and Trump both led their primaries by roughly 60 percent.