Trump, Clinton extend leads with big wins in Tuesday's primaries

SEE UPDATES UNDER EACH STATE SECTION BELOW.

UPDATE: The two front-runners in the race for the presidency ruled Tuesday’s state primaries. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton added to their substantial delegate leads for their parties’ nominations in one of the election season’s most significant days yet.

“We are moving closer to securing the Democratic party nomination and winning this election in November,” Clinton told supporters in West Palm Beach, Fla. The former secretary of state quickly won the Democratic primaries in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio. She also held the lead in Illinois and was in a tight race with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in Missouri late this evening.

Tonight also saw Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., end his bid for the Republican nomination after losing his home state to Trump.

“We’re going to win, win, win, and we’re not stopping,” said Trump at a press conference in Palm Beach, Fla., where he took no questions from the media. The billionaire businessman bested Rubio by double-digits in the winner-take-all contest in Florida and also picked up wins in North Carolina and Illinois. In Ohio, Trump lost to Gov. John Kasich, who got his first win of the primary season in his home state. Though the loss meant 66 delegates went to Kasich and not Trump, the real estate mogul still has the delegate lead over both Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas by a wide margin.

Cruz came in second in North Carolina and expected to pick up delegates in Missouri (which was too close to call late Tuesday evening) and Illinois, too, all of which divide their delegates proportionally.

“After tonight, America has a clear choice going forward,” Cruz told supporters in Houston. He also congratulated Rubio on his campaign effort and urged his supporters to join the Cruz camp. “To those who supported Marco, who worked so hard, we welcome you with open arms.”

OUR EARLIER REPORT (2:55 p.m.): Tonight is a big night in the Republican presidential race—bigger even than Super Tuesday.

Voters in Florida and Ohio likely will determine whether Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Gov. John Kasich remain in the race or turn it over to a two-man contest between front-runners Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Florida is a winner-take-all race, with 99 delegates at stake. And while Rubio has focused all of his attention in recent weeks on getting his supporters to turn out, it might be too late. The latest RealClearPolitics average of polls in Florida shows Rubio 20 points behind Trump, and more than 2 million Floridians cast ballots in early voting. Losing his home state would almost certainly end Rubio’s campaign.

Ohio also is a winner-take-all state, and polls show Kasich has a better chance than Rubio of beating Trump on his home turf. But Kasich also has the most ground to make up. Ohio’s 66 delegates won’t be enough to get him even close to Trump’s count. Kasich has said if he doesn’t win Ohio he will drop out. The latest polls show him neck-and-neck with Trump in the state.

Going into today’s contests, Trump has 460 delegates while Cruz has 370. Trailing behind significantly, Rubio has 163 delegates, and Kasich has just 63.

In the Democratic race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has 1,235 delegates, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has 580. But much of Clinton’s lead comes from so-called “superdelegates,” who can vote for a candidate regardless of his or her state’s primary or caucus results. Without superdelegates, Clinton has 768 delegates to Sanders’ 554.

(See WORLD’s Delegate Tracker.)

In addition to Florida and Ohio, Republican and Democratic voters in Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina also go to the polls today.

Visit WORLD’s Election Center ’16 to view interactive maps of each state and track the vote totals as they come in this evening.

Florida

8:10 p.m.—As soon as polls closed in Florida’s panhandle, Donald Trump was declared the winner of the state’s Republican primary. Although Marco Rubio had hoped to win his home state, Trump dominated from the time the first early votes came in.

With about 50 percent of precincts reporting, Trump has a 17.8 percent margin of victory, with 45.5 percent of the vote. Rubio has just 27.6 percent. The only county he has won so far is Miami-Dade, his home county.

Florida is a winner-take-all state, and its 99 delegates will give Trump a big boost over rival Ted Cruz.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton also won the state with a massive victory, taking 65 percent of the vote. Bernie Sanders has just 32.6 percent. Clinton will take all of the state’s 246 Democratic delegates.

Illinois

March 16, 12:30 a.m.—Hillary Clinton narrowly wins in Illinois, the state where she was born. With 94 percent of the vote reporting, Clinton led Bernie Sanders 50.5 percent to 48.7 percent.

9:50 p.m.—Donald Trump has won Illinois, his third state of the night. With about 30 percent of votes counted, Trump has a 14 percent margin and 40 percent of the vote. In second place, Ted Cruz has 25.9 percent.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads with a 6 percent margin and 52.6 percent of the vote. But that race remains too close to call.

Missouri

March 16, 1:28 a.m.—Both races in Missouri came down to the wire early Wednesday morning.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump led Ted Cruz 40.8 percent to 40.7 percent with 99.9 percent of the vote reporting—a margin of less than 2,000 votes. Although the majority of the state’s 52 delegates are rewarded proportionally according to vote totals in congressional districts, the overall winner receives an additional 12 delegates. In a race where every delegate counts, the Cruz campaign could call for a recount in an attempt to claim those dozen delegates.

In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders narrowly led for most of the evening, but Hillary Clinton overtook him after late vote totals came in from the metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Kansas City. With 99.9 percent of the vote reporting, the former secretary of state led 49.6 percent to 49.4 lead, a little more than 1,500 votes ahead, which could be enough to give Clinton a sweep of Tuesday’s contests.

North Carolina

9:50 p.m.—The Associated Press has called the North Carolina Republican primary for Donald Trump, with about half the state’s votes counted. But the race was far from a rout. Trump won with 40.3 percent of the vote, a 4 percent margin over Ted Cruz’s 36.3 percent. John Kasich is in third place with 12.5 percent.

8:35 p.m.—Hillary Clinton has won the North Carolina Democratic presidential primary with a commanding lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. With her victory in North Carolina, Clinton maintains her strong hold on the southern states, where she has strong support from female and African-American voters. The Republican race in North Carolina is still too close to call, though Donald Trump has the lead over Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in early returns.

Ohio

8:55 p.m.—The Associated Press has declared Gov. John Kasich the winner of his state’s Republican primary, giving him the victory he needed to stay in the race. With less than 5 percent of precincts reporting, Kasich leads Donald Trump by a 9.5 percent margin. Kasich has 43.5 percent of the vote to Trump’s 34 percent. Ted Cruz is in third place with 14.5 percent. But Ohio is a winner-take-all race, giving Kasich all 66 delegates.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton won her party’s Ohio primary, leading Bernie Sanders by a 32 percent margin, with 65.4 percent of the vote.

8:10 p.m.—Early returns in Ohio gave Gov. John Kasich hopes of keeping his presidential campaign alive. Though he went into the race with just 63 delegates (compared with Trump’s 460 and Cruz’s 370), he led the Ohio primary by double digits after polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Kasich had promised to drop out of the race if he lost in his home state, but if he continues to carry the lead as more precincts count their ballots, he could win Ohio’s 66 delegates in the winner-take-all race. What his future holds after that is unclear since the other Republicans are still far ahead in the delegate count.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.