Hillary Clinton widened her lead over Democratic rival Bernie Sanders as minority voters helped her secure key victories in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia in the Super Tuesday contests.
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Trump’s ideas have resonated with Tuesday’s Republican electorate, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.
While Clinton had much of the Democratic establishment behind her, Sanders banked on strong support from the state’s college-age voters to help keep his candidacy afloat.
Sanders is projected by ABC and MSNBC to win his home state of Vermont, one of five states he is hoping to capture.
Trump had been heavily favored to carry all three states, according to polls, and more victories for the mogul were likely, according the surveys, in Alabama, Massachusetts, Alaska, Oklahoma and Tennessee, where returns are expected later Tuesday. On the GOP side, Rubio and Cruz are battling for second place, while Trump is projected to win by a comfortable margin.
In the Republican race, front runner Donald Trump is projected to have won six states.
Mrs Clinton won seven and Mr Trump at least six states as they distanced themselves from party rivals and looked ahead to a November presidential election showdown. About 55 percent of Ted Cruz’s voters said sharing values was most important, as did 4 in 10 of Rubio’s voters.
Sanders was expected to win handily in Vermont but the other states where he was competing – Minnesota, Massachusetts and Oklahoma – were expected to be narrowly contested.
Also known at the SEC primary, the day is worth almost half – 48% – of the delegates needed to win the GOP nomination.
“These are challenging times for the Republican Party”, said Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who wanted to stay neutral in the GOP primary but endorsed Rubio last week.
Democratic voters in 11 states took to primaries and caucuses on Tuesday to help pick their party’s presidential nominee. Texas is among 12 states taking part in Super Tuesday. “Once we get all this finished, I’m going after one person – Hillary Clinton”.
Clinton won women by more than 2:1 ratio. Her wins in Georgia and Virginia were the first of what her campaign hoped would be a sweep of the South, a region where large segments of the Democratic electorate are black.
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Clinton had Trump on her mind in her victory speech, although she never mentioned him by name.
