[EARLIER UPDATES IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

12:41AM ET: Donald Trump has built a sizeable lead in the race for delegates by winning at least seven states on Super Tuesday.

Trump won at least 186 delegates in Tuesday’s presidential primary contests. Ted Cruz collected at least 125 delegates and Marco Rubio picked up at least 62.

John Kasich won at least 18 delegates and Ben Carson has won at least three.

There were 595 Republican delegates at stake in 11 states.

Overall, Trump leads with 268 delegates. Cruz has 142, Rubio has 78, Kasich has 24 and Carson has eight.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

12:15AM ET: Hillary Clinton has won a majority of Super Tuesday delegates.

Her wins in seven states have now earned her 441 of the 865 delegates at stake for the evening. Sanders is on track to win at least 262.

The Democratic contests award delegates in proportion to the vote, meaning that even the loser wins some. Votes are still being tallied to determine the final margins of victory in several states.

Including superdelegates, Clinton now has at least 989 delegates in the overall AP delegate count. Sanders has at least 349.

11:55PM ET: Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Vermont, claiming his latest victory in the string of nomination contests known as Super Tuesday.

His win in Vermont places him well-ahead of his rivals who significantly trail him in delegates. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won contests in Oklahoma and Texas Tuesday, and Sen. Marco Rubio scored his first win in Minnesota. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson have not won any of the races since the nomination contest began a month ago.

11:20PM ET: Democrat Bernie Sanders has earned his latest win in the Super Tuesday nomination contest, this time in Minnesota. The Vermont senator won the state’s caucuses, beating rival Hillary Clinton in his fourth win of the night. He also won contests in Colorado, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont.

11:15PM ET: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has won the Republican presidential caucuses in Minnesota, earning his first victory in the 2016 race for the White House.

Rubio won second place in Nevada and South Carolina but still trails rivals Donald Trump and fellow Sen. Ted Cruz in the much-needed delegates needed to win his party’s nomination.

But Rubio has won overwhelming support from members of Congress and governors who see him as the most viable alternative to the billionaire businessman, who holds a commanding lead in delegates a month into the contest.

10:40PM ET: Fox News projects Hillary Clinton winning the Massachusetts Democratic primary.

10:21PM ET: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Arkansas.

10:07PM ET: Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is insisting that he has “expanded the Republican party,” claiming that he is responsible for higher voter turnout in the primary states.

Despite heightened efforts by the GOP establishment to stop him, Trump says he is “a unifier” who soon wanted to put internal Republican squabbles behind him to focus on Hillary Clinton.

He criticized Clinton’s track record said she “isn’t going to straight it out” over the next four years if elected president.

But he also did could not resist taking swipes at Marco Rubio, who he dubbed “the little senator.” He mocked Rubio for not having won a single state.

He is paying tribute to Ted Cruz who captured Texas and Oklahoma.

Trump was victorious in Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Tennessee.

9:57PM ET: Donald Trump is marking his several victories on Super Tuesday and is looking forward to a general election fight against Hillary Clinton. Trump, speaking at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, was introduced by former rival New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who endorsed him last week. Trump won Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Tennessee. Ted Cruz has captured Texas and Oklahoma.

Trump, who has a commanding lead in delegates, mocked Marco Rubio for “having a tough night” because he did not win any states.

And he said that Clinton’s call earlier in the night to “make America whole again” — itself a rebuttal to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rallying cry — was an inferior slogan.

9:44PM ET: Bernie Sanders isn’t making up much ground in delegates after his win in Oklahoma. With 38 delegates at stake, Sanders will gain at least 20 delegates in that state. Clinton will get at least 11. In all, Clinton has won six states including Texas as well as the American Samoa, overtaking Sanders’ victories in smaller states such as Vermont and Oklahoma. Clinton is now assured of winning at least 334 of the 865 delegates at stake on Super Tuesday. That’s compared to Sanders, who at least 145.

Including superdelegates, Clinton now has at least 882 delegates. Sanders has at least 232. It takes 2,383 delegates to win.

9:41PM ET: Donald Trump has won at least 139 Super Tuesday delegates, while Ted Cruz has won at least 52.

There are 595 Republican delegates at stake in 11 states.

Marco Rubio has won at least 25 delegates and John Kasich has won at least 13. So far, Ben Carson has picked up two delegates in Virginia.

Overall, Trump leads with 221 delegates. Cruz has 69, Rubio has 41, Kasich has 19 and Carson has seven.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

9:16PMET: Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic presidential primary in Oklahoma. He also captured his home state of Vermont. Sanders also won New Hampshire earlier this campaign.

His opponent, Hillary Clinton, racked up several victories during the string of contests known as Super Tuesday. She also won Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas.

9:15PM ET: Marco Rubio, speaking at a Super Tuesday rally at his hometown in Miami, is criticizing the night’s big winner among Republicans: Donald Trump. Rubio said that over the last five days he has begun “to unmask the true nature” of Trump, whom he called a “con artist.”

He said his recent attacks on Trump have given his campaign momentum and said that Trump did not represent the legacy of the “party of Reagan.”

Trump has won several states on Tuesday: Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts and Tennessee. Ted Cruz has captured Oklahoma and his home state of Texas. Rubio has yet to win a state, but his upbeat speech was full of promises to continue fighting and vowing to win his home state of Florida later this month.

9:11PM ET: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won another Republican primary — this time in Oklahoma. Cruz topped his rivals in Oklahoma, having just won in his home state of Texas. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has already won the Republican races in Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

9:00PM ET: Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Hillary Clinton have won the presidential primaries in Texas. This is the first win for Cruz during the group of Super Tuesday contests and his second win since the leadoff Iowa caucuses.

Clinton earned her latest win in the string of contests known as Super Tuesday. She has also won the Democratic primaries in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, putting her ahead of her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has won the race in his home state of Vermont.

Texas is home to the largest number of delegates up for grabs in both parties on Super Tuesday.

8:58PM ET: Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Virginia, adding to his Super Tuesday victories in Massachusetts, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. He is adding to his wins earlier this campaign in Nevada, South Carolina and New Hampshire. The win was a blow to Marco Rubio, who competed hard in Virginia.

Rubio has yet to win a primary. Ted Cruz has captured Iowa.

8:49PM ET: It’s a win for Hillary Clinton in American Samoa. The South Pacific island chain held its caucus Tuesday. Clinton won 73 percent of 223 votes cast to earn four of the six delegates at stake. Bernie Sanders picked up two delegates. American Samoa is one of five U.S. territories that cast votes in primaries and caucuses to decide the Democratic presidential nominee, even though those residents aren’t eligible to vote in the November general election.

The island chain has a population of 54,000 and is about a six hour flight from Hawaii.

8:40PM ET: Donald Trump has jumped to a big lead in the Super Tuesday delegates with victories in Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Virginia. Trump has won 100 delegates so far. Marco Rubio has won 12 and Ted Cruz has won five. There are 595 Republican delegates at stake in 11 states. Overall, Trump leads with 182 delegates. Rubio has 28, Cruz has 22, John Kasich has six and Ben Carson has five.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

8:30PM ET: CNN is projecting that Hillary Clinton has won Arkansas. She now has won five states on Super Tuesday.

8:06PM ET: Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have won the presidential primaries in Alabama.

Trump has also finished on top in the Republican primary in Massachusetts.

Trump and Clinton have also won their party primaries in Tennessee.

These latest wins put the two candidates ahead of their rivals in the group of contests known as Super Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump and Clinton won the primaries in Georgia. Clinton also won the Democratic primary in Virginia, while her rival, Bernie Sanders, won the contest in his home state of Vermont.

8:00PM: CNN projecting that Donald Trump has won Alabama, Massachusetts, and Tennessee. Hillarry Clinton is projected to win Alabama and Tennessee.

7:52PM ET: ‘Super Tuesday’ primary polls are closing at 8PM ET in Alabama, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and at 8:30PM ET in Arkansas. Stay with YWN as we continue bringing you the latest news in live time..

7:43PM ET: In six states (Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas), large majorities of Republican primary voters expressed support for temporarily banning all non-citizen Muslims from entering the U.S., a Trump proposal, according to early results of exit polls.

But Republican voters were more divided on another of his contentious ideas, to deport all people who are in the U.S. illegally. The proposal won majority support only in Alabama, among seven states where that question was asked of GOP voters.

7:20PM ET: Hillary Clinton has sprinted to an early delegate lead on Super Tuesday. Her victories in Georgia and Virginia are giving her an early advantage over Bernie Sanders, who won big in his home state of Vermont.

At stake in those three states are 213 delegates.

She is assured of at least 108, while Sanders will receive at least 57. Forty-eight remain to be allocated in those three states.

In all, 865 delegates are up for grabs in 11 states and American Samoa on Super Tuesday.

Going into Super Tuesday, Clinton held a 26-delegate advantage based on wins from primaries and caucuses.

7:19PM ET: Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential primaries in Virginia and Georgia, while Bernie Sanders wins in his home state of Vermont.

According to early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and Television Networks, Clinton led in both Virginia and Georgia among both men and women. Sanders led among voters under 30 and Clinton held a commanding lead among those 45 and over.

In Vermont, Bernie Sanders was supported by overwhelming majorities of both men and women, and huge majorities of voters across all age groups.

Half of Vermont Democrats said they want the next president’s policies to be more liberal than those of President Barack Obama.

7:04PM ET: NBC And Fox News are projecting that Donald Trump has won Georgia. Donald Trump is in close races with Marco Rubio in Virginia and John Kasich in Vermont, according to exit polls.

7:03PM ET: CNN projecting that Hillary Clinton has won Georgia and Virginia. Bernie Sanders has won his home state of Vermont.

7:00PM ET: Both parties held contests in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. As well, Republicans voted in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado. Democrats also had a contest in American Samoa and for Democrats abroad.

Polls close, EST: 7 p.m. in Virginia, Georgia and Vermont; 8 p.m. in Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee and Massachusetts; 8:30 p.m. in Arkansas; 9 p.m. in Texas, Colorado and Minnesota; midnight in Alaska.

REFRESH FOR UPDATES

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC / AP)