Hillary Clinton Wikimedia

7:23 p.m. — And we’re pau. With the voting results now in, the delegate math begins in earnest. And for Hillary Clinton, it looks pretty darn good.

She adds considerably to her existing pledged or earned delegate total, which expands to an estimated 1,155 based on today’s results. That compares to an estimated 855 for Sanders — a difference of 300.

Add in super delegates committed to each candidate, and that considerable 300-delegate lead swells to an estimated 709: 1,587 total for Clinton and 878 for Sanders.

That would leave Clinton just under 800 votes short of the 2,383 needed for the nomination.

The numbers are far different and closer on the GOP side. After today’s results, Donald Trump has an estimated 621 pledged delegates, a lead of about 225 over Ted Cruz, who has an estimated 396 delegates.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has an estimated 168. Sen. Marco Rubio and Dr. Ben Carson, who both only recently left the race, hold a total of 176 delegates between them. How those delegates are handled could be significant in a tight race still far from settled, with chatter about a brokered convention building daily.

6:55 p.m. — NBC News just called Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump the “apparent winners” in their respective primaries.

This gives Clinton a strong media narrative coming out of Super Tuesday II. And while it wasn’t as strong a day for Trump, it would be hard to imagine how a four-for-five performance would do anything other than strengthen the GOP frontrunner.

6:41 p.m. — Hillary Clinton just overtook Bernie Sanders, with a surge of St. Louis votes at the finish line.

With 99 percent now in, she leads Sanders by about 1,200 votes. If it holds, Clinton will have won all five Democratic contests today, and Sanders will begin to hear questions about how much longer he should stay in the race.

6:26 p.m. — NBC News just named Hillary Clinton the “apparent winner” of Illinois, which seems like a safe bet: She holds a 36,000 vote lead with 96 percent of the vote in.

If it holds, this will give Clinton four states today — Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois — to Sanders’ possible one.

And Missouri isn’t a done deal. The race is tightening, with now fewer than 3,600 votes separating Bernie Sanders, who leads, and Hillary Clinton, and only about 2 percent of the vote still not in. Sanders’ lead of 12,000 an hour ago continues to dwindle as more St. Louis votes come in.

On the GOP side, though, it’s down to 2,000 Missouri votes keeping Donald Trump in the lead against Cruz, with 99 percent of the vote counted. Tight!

5:22 p.m. — Everything’s been called so far, with the exception of the Democratic races in Illinois and Missouri and the Republican contest in Missouri.

Hillary Clinton holds a lead of about 43,000 votes in Illinois with more than 82 percent of the vote in and seems a solid bet to take the state.

Things are closer in Missouri, where Sanders has an 12,ooo-vote lead with 70 percent in. But it may not last, given that most of the remaining votes are in St. Louis, where Clinton is performing strongly.

On the GOP side, it’s even closer: With 98 percent of the vote counted, Trump leads Cruz by just a couple thousand votes — 41.5 percent to 41.1 percent.

To recap, the races called thus far are as follows: On the Democratic side, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio for Clinton; on the GOP side, Florida, North Carolina and Illinois for Trump and Ohio for Kasich.

4:58 p.m. — Those who think Donald Trump is the most radical voice in the presidential race may not be listening closely enough to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

In what sounded remarkably like a victory speech — strange for a candidate who hadn’t yet recorded a win on Tuesday, with Missouri’s results still outstanding — Cruz promised what he typically promises.

If elected, “We will repeal every word of Obamacare,” promised Cruz. “We will abolish the IRS … we will reign in regulators … we will stop amnesty and end benefits for those who are here illegally. …and we won’t compromise away your 2nd Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.”

Regardless of what you may think of Texas’ junior senator, he remains one of three Republicans left in a race that once included 17 candidates, and is arguably the only once with a chance to deny Trump the nomination.

4:38 p.m. — Side note from Illinois: U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, formerly of Honolulu, is crushing her primary opponent for the right to face off against incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois this fall.

A war veteran who lost multiple limbs in combat, Duckworth holds the distinction of being one of only two female combat veterans serving in Congress. Hawaii’s Tulsi Gabbard is the other.

With more than 50 percent of the vote in, Duckworth holds a 38-percent lead over her challenger and seems to have the primary race all but locked up.

Duckworth is a graduate of McKinley High School in Honolulu. She’s also a longtime, close friend of U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, who flew to Illinois to campaign for Duckworth this week.

4:23 p.m. — The last state whose primary results are coming in on Super Tuesday II, Missouri is turning out out to be the night’s nailbiter, as well.

With about 31 percent of the vote in, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has a lead of less than 2 percent over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Donald Trump, meanwhile, leads U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz by about the same margin in the Republican race.

The nature of the vote still remaining to be counted, though, looks particularly good for Clinton: Few St. Louis votes have been counted, where Clinton is expected to win that voter-rich metropolitan area by a sizable margin.

4:14 p.m. — Donald Trump’s victory speech at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach was more subdued than his usual campaign speeches, avoiding the braggadocio and vulgarity he’s often used elsewhere in an apparent effort to come across as more presidential.

He gently made a case for himself as the GOP nominee, pointing out the new voters he’s drawn into the Republican primary process and his now months-long lead in GOP polls and thanking party officials who have recently endorsed him.

Donald J. Trump Courtesy: Ninian Reid/Flickr

After administering beat down after beat down to Sen. Marco Rubio in recent months, he offered praise on Tuesday as Rubio exited the race. “He’s tough, he’s smart and he’s got a great future.”

But he couldn’t resist a bit of the sharp-elbowed showmanship that’s gotten him this far in the race, assuring viewers “we’re going to knock the hell out of (ISIS)” and complaining about the “lies and deceit” of “disgusting reporters.” As usual, though, he never strayed far from his core message.

“We’re going to make our country rich again, we’re going to make our country great again,” said the billionaire, “and you need the rich to have the great, I’m sorry to tell ya.”

3:47 p.m. — Donald Trump, once again, is defying expectations. On the heels of what for any other candidate would have been a disastrous past week, it looks quite likely that he’ll win four out of five states today. He could hold a delegate lead of 250 after tonight, which would make it nearly impossible for any GOP establishment effort to deny him the nomination.

NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd was reduced to sarcasm on Twitter in trying to translate the unlikely nature of Trump’s big day, particularly in Illinois.

3:39 p.m. — News networks and others are calling Illinois for Donald Trump.

3:25 p.m. — Ohio Gov. John Kasich has been the gentleman of the GOP primary, consistently refusing to get down in the mud and brawl with Donald Trump, Marco Rubio or anyone else.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich 

He reinforced his approach in his victory speech Tuesday night, emotionally thanking the voters of Ohio for not forgetting him, “even while I labored in obscurity,” and recommitting to his positive campaign.

“I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land,” Kasich said, to thunderous applause, speaking below a banner proclaiming “Kasich For Us.”

“We are going to go all the way to Cleveland and secure the nomination.”

3:15 p.m. — This could be a big night for Hillary Clinton: In addition to wins already on the board in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio, she is out to a substantial lead in Illinois with about 40 percent of the vote in, and also holds a lead in early returns from Missouri.

Though Bernie Sanders has said he’ll stay in the race until the Democratic convention this summer, a clean sweep today by Clinton would put pressure on the Vermont senator to drop out and allow the primary process to yield as strong as possible a candidate to face off against the GOP nominee, likely Donald Trump.

2:42 p.m. — Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic primary in Ohio – AP:

2:36 p.m. — Tweet from Marco Rubio’s advisor:

2:28 p.m. — CNN has just called the North Carolina Democratic Primary for Hillary Clinton, with 107 delegates at stake.

This is her second win of the night. Both Florida and North Carolina are southern states, and they’ve combined now with previous Clinton wins across the South to give Clinton a delegate lead that is all but insurmountable and a clear path to the Democratic nomination.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio Wikimedia Commons

2:25 p.m. — Delivering an impassioned concession speech after his loss in Florida, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio pulled the plug on a presidential campaign that lost its way amid attacks from Donald Trump in recent weeks and was unable to find a path forward.

“After tonight, it is clear that while we’re on the right side, we will not be on the winning side,” Rubio told cheering supporters, as he announced the suspension of his campaign. “I still remain hopeful and optimistic about America.”

Echoing many of the themes that characterized his campaign — immigration reform, economic change and hope for a strong future for conservative values — Rubio said he decided from the beginning to run a campaign that was “realistic about all these challenges.”

“So, from a political standpoint, the easiest thing to have done in this campaign is to jump on all these anxieties (Trump) talked about,” he said. “But I chose a different route, and I’m proud of that.”

With about 83 percent of Florida’s GOP vote in, Rubio was trailing Trump by about 17 percentage points.

Ohio
Ohio Flickr

2:10 p.m. — Both Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Hillary Clinton must be delighted with Ohio’s early numbers.

As he predicted, Kasich seems in a strong position to win his home state, which he made the predicate for staying in the race. With more than 11 percent of the vote in, he holds a 12-point lead over Trump.

With a similar number in for the Democrats, Clinton is out to a 38-point lead over Sanders, which likely won’t hold at that level as the night wears on. But it’s great news for a candidate who had been downplaying expectations in that state in recent days, while Sanders said with increasing frequency he though Ohio was a state he might win.

2:02 p.m. — Broadcast and cable networks and wire services have called Florida’s primary races, with Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic race and Donald Trump taking the Republican side.

The importance of the wins for both candidates can’t be overstated: Florida is a winner-take-all state, meaning Trump will take all 99 GOP delegates, and Clinton the lion’s share of the 241 Democratic delegates.

About 68 percent of the Republican vote is in; 74 percent for Democrats.

Team Clinton held a massive rally in West Palm Beach, where thousands of supporters exploded as the race was called at the top of the hour.

1:45 p.m. — With trailing badly in his home state of Florida and faring even worse in early counting in North Carolina, commenters are predicting he may drop out after today’s balloting, perhaps as early as tonight.

1:38 p.m. — With now 58 percent of Florida’s Democratic vote in and about 50 percent of GOP ballots and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both way out in front, expect this state to be called for both candidates when the remaining panhandle polls close in a little more than 20 minutes.

1:30 p.m. — With Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump continuing to hold fat leads in Florida with now 44 percent of the Democratic vote in and 37 percent of the Republican vote, attention is now turning to North Carolina.

While not as big as Florida, North Carolina still carries strong promise for both races: It holds 72 Republican delegates and 107 for the Democrats.

Remaining polls in the Florida panhandle that fall in the Central Time Zone will close in 30 minutes, or 2 p.m. HST.

Meanwhile, new exit polls have just been released in all-important Ohio, which show Ohio Gov. John Kasich holding a strong lead among Republicans and Clinton with a 7 percent lead over Sanders.

1:20 p.m. – Early results from Florida show both and out to strong early leads. Absentee ballots are counted first there, and strong early leads have proven to be critical to winning Florida campaigns over the past 30 years.

With 14 percent of Democratic ballots counted, Clinton holds a 62.4 percent to 35.3 percent lead over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, largely consistent with pre-election polling.

On the GOP side, with 11 percent in, Trump leads U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio by a 47.2 percent to 24.1 percent spread. That’s already a 62,000-vote lead for Trump, which means to be competitive, Rubio must run extraordinarily strong in his home county, Dade, where results typically come in late.

Florida 

1 p.m. —  The biggest prize on the board today is Florida. With 243 delegates at stake for Democrats and 99 for Republicans, it represents to open bigger leads in their races, as polling shows both candidates well ahead in the Sunshine State.

Those results will be among the first counted today, and will factor heavily in determining who, if anyone, walks away from Super Tuesday II as a big winner.

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