Clinton looking to solidify lead in Super Tuesday primaries
MIAMI (AP) - Hillary Clinton enters a series of Super Tuesday contests poised to extend her lead over Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, who risks a major setback for his insurgent campaign if he has a poor showing in primaries and caucuses across the nation.
Backed by black voters, Clinton aimed for a sweep of Southern states holding primaries on Tuesday and polls showed her with a big advantage in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. Sanders could only bank on winning his home state of Vermont and both campaigns were vying for support in Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Virginia.
Clinton declined to make any predictions, saying only that it was up to the voters to decide.
"Let's see what voters decide in all these states that are lined up today and then we'll take stock after it's over," she told reporters. "But I'm going to keep going."
Still, Clinton and her allies have already shifted some attention to Donald Trump, casting the Republican front-runner as divisive and unprepared to lead the country. The Republican contest, said Clinton, has "turned into a kind of one-upsmanship on insulting."
All told, Clinton and Sanders were competing for 865 delegates in 11 states and American Samoa on Tuesday, the biggest single-day prize of the 2016 campaign. Black voters powered Clinton to victory in South Carolina last weekend and were expected to give her a huge advantage throughout the South.
Nearly half of Democratic primary voters in Alabama and Georgia were black, according to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks. In Texas, about 3 in 10 Democratic primary voters were Hispanic and a little fewer than 2 in 10 were black.
Greta Lewis voted with her mother at the Central Christian Church in Memphis. Both women are black and chose Clinton.
"She has been the one who has stepped out to at least try to identify with most of the minorities, whether they're women, black, Asian, Hispanic," said Lewis, a 31-year-old receptionist at her mother's dental office.
Exit polling also showed voters pushing to continue President Barack Obama's policies rather than the kind of leftward shift championed by Sanders.
Clinton starts Tuesday with 546 delegates, including super delegates - the party leaders and members of Congress who can support any candidate. Sanders has 87 delegates and needs to begin winning states with a healthy margin to gain ground on Clinton. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.
Clinton visited Minnesota before heading to Miami, foreshadowing the importance of Florida for the general election.
Sanders decamped to his home in Burlington, Vermont. At rallies in Minnesota and Massachusetts on Monday, Sanders vowed to fight on until the party's convention in July and his advisers noted the primary calendar would be more accommodating later this month.
"I am confident that if there is a large voter turnout today across this country we are going to do well," Sanders said after voting.
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. Because Democrats award their delegates proportionally, Clinton could use blowout victories in the South to add to her delegate haul.
Despite his obstacles, the Vermont senator has little incentive to fold. He reported raising more than $42 million in February, a sign that he will have the money to go deep into the spring.
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Thomas reported from Burlington, Vermont.
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