Super Tuesday: Trump, Clinton Victorious In Massachusetts Primary
BOSTON (CBS/AP) – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won their respective primaries in Massachusetts while also scoring big victories across the country on Super Tuesday.
CBS News projected the win for Trump immediately after polls closed at 8 p.m. in the Bay State. The New York businessman held a 32-point lead in the state over rivals Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Ben Carson, according to a UMass Amherst, WBZ-TV, WBZ NewsRadio poll taken days before the election.
The same poll showed a dead heat between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was just before 11:30 p.m. when CBS News declared Clinton the winner.
While Clinton has much of the Democratic establishment behind her, Sanders is banking on strong support from the state's college-age voters to help keep his candidacy afloat.
The Whiskey Priest @HillaryClinton crowd responds to her speech in Florida. pic.twitter.com/eptOxw57BV
— Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) March 2, 2016
Although Trump has held a solid lead in most polls, Kasich was hoping for a strong second-place finish.
Polling locations opened at 7 a.m. and most stayed open until 8 p.m.
Voting in Boston was on pace to set a new presidential primary record.
As of 3 p.m., more than 81,000 voters had cast ballots in the primary contests in the city.
Secretary of State William Galvin said that's well ahead of the previous record high in 2008, when about 66,000 Boston voters had cast ballots by 3 p.m. during that year's presidential primary. That 2008 contest also featured Hillary Clinton's name on the Democratic ballot, when she handily defeated then-Sen. Barack Obama.
The Republican ballot that year included former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The 2008 primary contest set a record high of about 1.8 million total ballots cast statewide.
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