Trump Wins In Mass. As Voters Turn Out in Big Numbers for Super Tuesday Contests

BOSTON (AP) — The Latest on Super Tuesday and the Massachusetts presidential primary :

8:35 p.m.

Donald Trump has jumped to a big lead in the Super Tuesday delegates with victories in Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

Trump has won 100 delegates so far. Marco Rubio has won 12 and Ted Cruz has won five.

There are 595 Republican delegates at stake in 11 states.

Overall, Trump leads with 182 delegates. Rubio has 28, Cruz has 22, John Kasich has six and Ben Carson has five.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

8:32 p.m.

John Kasich is thanking supporters at a Super Tuesday rally In Mississippi.

Kasich, the governor of Ohio, has been trying to build off his surprising second place finish in the New Hampshire primary last month.

He has yet to win any states. His speech Tuesday was full of family remembrances and tributes to his supporters but very little discussion of the night’s results.

Donald Trump has captured Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Tennessee. Some states remained too close to call.

He has resisted calls from some other Republican power brokers to drop out of the race.

8:20 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is adding to her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders after victories in Alabama and Tennessee.

She is now assured of winning at least 175 delegates for the evening. Sanders will receive at least 71.

In all, 865 delegates are at stake in 11 states. Clinton so far has won four of those states, while Sanders prevailed in his home state of Vermont, allowing her to build a delegate lead.

Including superdelegates, Clinton now has a total of at least 723 delegates, according to a count by The Associated Press. Sanders has at least 158. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

8:00 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have won the presidential primaries in Alabama.

Trump has also finished on top in the Republican primary in Massachusetts.

Trump and Clinton have also won their party primaries in Tennessee.

These latest wins put the two candidates ahead of their rivals in the group of contests known as Super Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump and Clinton won the primaries in Georgia. Clinton also won the Democratic primary in Virginia, while her rival, Bernie Sanders, won the contest in his home state of Vermont.

7:40 p.m.

Bernie Sanders, celebrating a victory in the Democratic primary in his home state of Vermont, is pledging to “win many hundreds of delegates” on Super Tuesday.

After thanking the raucous crowd, which periodically chanted his name, he touted how far his campaign had come in the last 10 months.

And he vowed to “take our fight” to the 35 states that would have not yet voted by night’s end.

He pledged to enact judicial reform, fix the nation’s “broken” campaign finance system and he, once again, pledged a “political revolution” and said that he and his supporters would stand up to “billionaire class” that dominates the nation’s political system.

His opponent, Hillary Clinton, has won the contests Tuesday in Georgia and Virginia.

7:39 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Georgia, taking home his first win in the group of contests known as Super Tuesday.

The Republican front-runner has already won three of the previous four nomination contests, putting him ahead of his rivals, particularly Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who many feel need a strong showing on Tuesday to keep their campaigns afloat.

Trump posted a message on Twitter reading “Thank you Georgia” moments after polls closed.

7:30 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is thanking supporters at a victory rally in his home state of Vermont.

Sanders captured the Democratic primary in Vermont, his first win on Super Tuesday. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, won Georgia and Virginia.

He told the raucous crowd that it meant a lot to him that “the people who know me best” gave him a victory.

He extolled the small-town virtues of Vermont, applauding the state’s town halls which he said could not be corrupted by the billionaires trying to influence the political system.

He said his campaign was about confronting the “ugly truths” in the United States today.

This is Sanders’ second victory. He captured the neighboring state of New Hampshire last month.

 7:05 p.m.

The top quality voters in both Virginia and Georgia are looking for in a candidate is experience, according to early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and Television Networks.

Clinton won both states. She drew support from a large majority of those who cared most about a candidate who can win in November.

Among those who said they cared most about a candidate being honest and trustworthy, most in both states supported Sanders. A majority of those who said their top quality in a candidate was caring about people like them supported Sanders in Virginia, but that group was slightly more likely to support Clinton in Georgia.

Six in 10 Virginia Democratic primary voters said Clinton is honest and trustworthy, and three-quarters said the same of Sanders.

7:00 p.m.

Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential primaries in Virginia and Georgia, while Bernie Sanders wins in his home state of Vermont.

According to early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and Television Networks, Clinton led in both Virginia and Georgia among both men and women. Sanders led among voters under 30 and Clinton held a commanding lead among those 45 and over.

In Vermont, Bernie Sanders was supported by overwhelming majorities of both men and women, and huge majorities of voters across all age groups.

Half of Vermont Democrats said they want the next president’s policies to be more liberal than those of President Barack Obama.

2:55 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blasting Donald Trump’s “seeming ambivalence about David Duke and the KKK,” joining House Speaker Paul Ryan’s earlier call for the GOP presidential candidates to reject racism.

The two highest-ranking leaders of Congress spoke as voters in 11 states holding GOP contests went to the polls for the Super Tuesday contests. They never said Trump’s name, but clearly were referring to a weekend interview on CNN in which Trump refused to denounce the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard or racist groups. Trump had disavowed them and did so again after facing criticism for wobbling. But the leaders of his party on Tuesday suggested that wasn’t enough.

Ryan, the nation’s highest-ranking Republican government official, earlier Tuesday said anyone who wants to be the Republican presidential nominee must reject any racist group or individual.

McConnell went next, saying, “Senate Republicans condemn David Duke, the KKK, and his racism.”

Republicans are defending their congressional majorities in the November elections.

2:35 p.m.

A midlevel New York court has refused to throw out a fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump over his former school for real estate investors.

The Appellate Division on Tuesday unanimously rejected Trump’s request to dismiss the 2013 suit.

The four justices also denied New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s request for an immediate judgment, saying there are material issues of fact.

Schneiderman alleges Trump University was unlicensed and promised lessons with real estate experts hand-picked by Trump, only one of whom had ever met him.

He says the school used “bait-and-switch” tactics. Its name was changed to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative before it closed in 2010.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Trump’s presidential opponents attacked him over the litigation during Thursday’s GOP debate. The ruling comes as Super Tuesday primary voters head to the polls.

2:28 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is making her way through the Midtown Global market in downtown Minneapolis as Super Tuesday voters headed toward the polls.

The Democratic presidential front runner was confronted by a young woman who questioned her record on working with the Somali community and 1996 comments Clinton made calling young people who commit crimes “super predators.”

At the time, the term was typically applied to young black men living in urban areas. Clinton made the remark while promoting her husband’s 1994 crime bill — now repudiated by many, including the Clintons — during his re-election race. Aides confirmed the encounter, pointing out that Clinton met with Somali-Americans during a previous visit to the state and has support from many in the black community.

“Why don’t you go run for something then,” Clinton responded, after the woman kept questioning her record on racial issues.

Clinton is joined by Governor Mark Dayton and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges. She flew nearly 1,300 miles from campaign events in Virginia on Monday to build support in the state during the final hours before tonight’s caucuses and polls close in 12 other Super Tuesday contests.

2:20 p.m.

Marco Rubio is reminding an audience in Minnesota about what can happen when voters angry with the political establishment elect an outspoken celebrity.

In a ballroom in a northern Minneapolis suburb, Rubio asks, “How did that work out for Jesse Ventura?”

Rubio is referring to a flamboyant former professional wrestler elected governor of Minnesota for one term from 1999 to 2003.

Minnesota holds caucuses for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday evening. Rubio is trying to catch Trump who leads in many of the 11 Super Tuesday states, and has taken to painting Trump as an unprincipled celebrity charlatan.

Rubio says: “Jesse Ventura was an embarrassment. Let me rephrase that. Jesse Ventura is an embarrassment.”

Rubio is in Minnesota for the quick rally after blitzing over the past four days Southern states holding Super Tuesday primaries today.

He was in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas and Oklahoma Monday alone, making five stops and nearly losing his voice.

Rubio was planning to fly from Minnesota to his home in Miami Tuesday to await the results of voting in the 11 states holding primaries.

1:47 p.m.

Donald Trump is criticizing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally in Ohio.

He’s telling a crowd of 4,000 in a hangar at Port Columbus International Airport that Clinton “Clinton does not have the strength of the stamina to be president.”

Trump also repeated his attacks against GOP rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and vowed to win Ohio’s primary in two weeks over GOP rival John Kasich, the state’s governor.

Trump got his largest response when he spoke about building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, protecting gun rights and “saying Merry Christmas again.”

1:35 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says Republicans aren’t even talking about issues in their protracted race for the GOP presidential nomination.

She tells reporters in Minneapolis that the GOP candidates are “now running their campaigns based on insults. It’s turned into a kind of one-upmanship on insulting.”

The Democratic presidential front runner says she doesn’t think it’s appropriate.

She also says she is “disappointed” that Donald Trump did not disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan in a weekend interview.

Clinton added that Trump “obviously” has done very well and “could be on the path” to the GOP nomination.

She spoke as voters in 11 states holding GOP contests went to the polls on Super Tuesday.

Trump has disavowed Duke, but did not do so when asked about the former KKK grand wizard in a CNN interview on Sunday. He subsequently did disavow Duke.

1:09 p.m.

Ted Cruz says any candidate who can’t win his home state “has real problems” winning the GOP presidential nomination. But he’s not saying he’ll secure all 155 GOP presidential delegates in Texas on Tuesday.

He says, “For any candidate that wakes up tomorrow who has not won any states” it could be “time to start coming together and unifying” against Donald Trump.

Winning every Texas delegate means capturing a majority of the votes statewide and in all 36 congressional districts. Cruz has said that “polling suggests we aren’t anywhere close to that threshold.”

Still he insisted Tuesday, “I hope and believe today is a good day.”

12:32 p.m.

The New Hampshire newspaper that gave Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey one of his biggest boosts ahead of the state’s primary now says it made a grave mistake.

New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph McQuaid says in an editorial, “Boy, were we wrong.”

The editorial published online Monday night comes after Christie, who ended his bid after a disappointing finish in the state, threw his support behind Donald Trump, shocking many in the political word.

McQuaid says the paper offered its Christie endorsement “despite his baggage,” because of his experience as a Republican governor in a Democratic state and thinking he had the best chance of taking on Trump.

He adds, “Rather than standing up to the bully, Christie bent his knee. In doing so, he rejected the very principles of his campaign that attracted our support.”

12:05 p.m.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says rival Marco Rubio should drop out of the race if he doesn’t win a single Super Tuesday state on Tuesday night.

Trump says on Fox News, “He has to get out. He hasn’t won anything.”

The GOP presidential frontrunner also is hitting Rubio for his sudden turn to negative campaigning.

While Trump is looking to rack up a long list of wins on Tuesday, Rubio’s goal is more modest.

He’s aiming to stay competitive in the delegate count to bide time ahead of the vote in Florida on March 15, which he hopes to win.

10:40 a.m.

Former President Bill Clinton is getting the rock star treatment as he stumps for his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in the Massachusetts presidential primary.

Hillary Clinton and fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders are close in the polls and in a statistical dead heat according to one.

The ex-president and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh appeared together at a polling place in the city’s West Roxbury neighborhood early Tuesday, where they greeted voters and school children.

Walsh said the GOP candidates for president are “an embarrassment to the office” after voting for Hillary Clinton near his Dorchester home.

The former president is expected to make several other public appearances in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

9:15 a.m.

Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has cast his ballot in the state’s presidential primary, but he’s not saying who earned his vote.

He did, however, say who he did not vote for.

After voting Tuesday morning in his hometown of Swampscott, Baker said he did not vote for New York businessman Donald Trump or Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

Baker had originally endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie but did not select a new favorite after Christie dropped out of the race, even after Christie backed Trump.

The Massachusetts governor has been highly critical of Trump.

Baker said Monday he was likely to vote for either Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

7:30 a.m.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has voted in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont as Super Tuesday kicks off across 11 states.

Sanders tells reporters that if voter turnout is high “we are going to do well. If not, we’re probably going to be struggling.”

Sanders says “this is a campaign that is going to the Philadelphia convention in July.”

He jokes that “Bernie Sanders here in Vermont got at least one vote. I was working on my wife,” Jane. He says, “We’re feeling pretty good.”

7:10 a.m.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is showing weariness with repeated questions about when — and whether — he has disavowed any connection with David Duke, a onetime Ku Klux Klan leader.

Interviewed by phone on ABC’s “Good Morning America” as voters went to the polls early Tuesday, Trump said once again that he had on several occasions disavowed Duke. He told the network at one point that “there’s nobody who’s done so much for equality as I have.”

Trump also said he’s bringing new people — even Democrats — into the Republican Party. He said, “We’re getting people into the party that they’ve never had before” and said he was relishing the thought of taking on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Trump said, “I can tell you the one person Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to run against is me.”

 7 a.m.

The Massachusetts presidential primary is underway.

Polling places across the state opened at 7 a.m. and voters seemed eager to have their voices heard. People had already started lining up at one polling place in the Boston suburb of Arlington even before polls opened.

Secretary of State William Galvin says a record turnout is possible.

The state’s most hotly contested primary was in 2008, when 1.8 million voters cast their ballots.

The Democratic Galvin says one hint that turnout will be high is the fact that 20,000Massachusetts voters have left the Democratic party since Jan. 1. Most of those are now considered unenrolled, but about 3,500 switched to the Republican party. Galvin attributes the switch to the “Trump phenomenon,” sparked by Republican businessman Donald Trump.