LANSING, Mich.: Bernie Sanders breathed new life into his long-shot White House bid with a crucial win in Michigan’s primary Tuesday night, chipping away at Hillary Clinton’s dominance in the Democratic presidential race. Republican Donald Trump swept to victory in both Michigan and Mississippi, overcoming fierce efforts to blunt his momentum.
Even with Sanders’ win, Clinton and Trump moved closer to a general election face-off. Clinton breezed to an easy victory in Mississippi, propelled by overwhelming support from black voters, and she now has more than half the delegates she needs to clinch the Democratic nomination. Trump, too, padded his lead over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, his closest rival.
The front-runners turned their sights on November as they reveled in their wins.
“We are better than what we are being offered by the Republicans,” Clinton declared.
In a nod toward the kind of traditional politics he’s shunned, Trump emphasized the importance of helping Republican senators and House members get elected in the fall. Having entered Tuesday’s contests facing a barrage of criticism from rival candidates and outside groups, he also delighted in overcoming the attacks.
“Every single person who has attacked me has gone down,” Trump said at one of his Florida resorts. In his typically unorthodox style, the billionaire was flanked by tables packed with his retail products, including steaks, bottled water and wine.
Sanders, meanwhile, said Michigan signaled that his campaign “is strong in every part of the country, and frankly we believe our strongest areas are yet to happen.”
While a handful of recent losses to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have raised questions about Trump’s durability, Tuesday’s contests marked another lost opportunity for rivals to slow his momentum.
Republicans were also holding contests Tuesday in Hawaii and Idaho. GOP candidates were fighting for 150 delegates, while 179 Democratic delegates were at stake in the party’s two primaries.
The economy ranked high on the list of concerns for voters heading to the polls in Michigan and Mississippi. At least 8 in 10 voters in each party’s primary said they were worried about where the American economy is heading, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and television networks.
Among Democrats, 8 in 10 voters in both states said the country’s economic system benefits the wealthy, not all Americans.
Sanders has sought to tap into that concern, energizing young people and white, blue-collar voters with his calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and making tuition free at public colleges and universities. Michigan, with big college towns and a sizable population of working-class voters, was a good fit for him despite Clinton leading in pre-vote polling.
Tuesday’s contests are a prelude to next week’s high-stakes primaries in Florida and Ohio. Like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio must win his home state to remain a viable contender.
“It has to happen here, and it has to happen now,” Rubio told supporters Tuesday during a rally in Sarasota.