Tuesday Caucus And Primary Live Updates 2016: Results From Arizona, Utah, Idaho And American Samoa

UPDATE: 3:25 a.m. EDT — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won the GOP race in Utah, garnering over 50 percent of the votes in the state's caucus. The victory means that he will get all 40 of the state's delegates to the Republican National Convention. However, Cruz is still trailing far behind his rival Donald Trump, who won all 58 delegates in Arizona's Republican primary Tuesday. In American Samoa, meanwhile, Trump and Cruz each picked up a delegate in Tuesday's caucus.

UPDATE: 2:26 a.m. EDT — With 100 percent of the votes counted, Bernie Sanders has been declared the winner in the Idaho Democratic Caucus, sweeping up 17 delegates of the state's 23, the Associated Press reported. This would be his second victory this night after Utah, where he is projected to win 18 of the 33 delegates. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, is projected to win the Republican caucus in Utah. So far, 24 percent of the votes cast in the state, which has 40 delegates, have been counted.

UPDATE: 1:34 a.m. EDT — With 11 percent of the votes counted in Utah, the Associated Press has declared that Bernie Sanders has won the caucus. The Vermont senator has reportedly won 18 of the state's 33 delegates, while his rival Hillary Clinton has so far won only 5.

UPDATE: 11:28 p.m. EDT -- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been declared the winners of Arizona's Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively, the Associated Press and major TV networks have reported.

UPDATE: 10:52 p.m. EDT — As voters choose between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Utah, Arizona and Idaho Tuesday night, Sanders was taking his campaign to California. He is expected to hold a rally in San Diego.

UPDATE: 10:42 p.m. EDT — Utah’s new online voting system created a frenzy Tuesday with voters experiencing long lines and the Democratic Party's website crashing from high traffic. Utah's director of elections, Mark Thomas, said about 10,000 people tried to register to vote Tuesday.

The Deseret News reports some voters got error messages when they tried to use the online voting site. Only the Republican Party offered the online option. Democrats must still show up to vote. There was a March 15 deadline to cast a ballot online.

UPDATE: 10:15 p.m. EDT — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are turning to Wisconsin with visits to the state Wednesday almost two weeks before the April 5 primary. Polls show Donald Trump with high negatives among GOP voters in metropolitan Milwaukee, a region that often determines Republican primaries, according to local media.

Trump told reporters Monday, “I hope to do well in Wisconsin.” But he also conceded, “There will be some we don’t” win.

UPDATE: 10:02 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump threatened Ted Cruz’s wife Tuesday night in a tweet. Apparently it was a night for GOP leaders to attack each other’s spouses. Mitt Romney joked about the billionaire’s foreign-born wives Tuesday night at the annual NRCC dinner.

“Donald Trump has had several foreign wives. It turns out that there really are jobs Americans won’t do,” Romney said, the Hill reported.

UPDATE: 9:42 p.m. EDT — Idaho Democrats were choosing between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Tuesday night. Caucuses ended at 9 p.m. EDT, but the race was still too close to call.

UPDATE: 8:58 p.m. EDT — Hillary Clinton picked up a new name Tuesday while in Washington state campaigning with Native American groups. Her given tribal name is "strong woman."

UPDATE: 8:20 p.m. EDT — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said President Barack Obama should not have stayed in Cuba instead of responding to security concerns threat in Belgium. Cruz, at a New York City event Tuesday, said Obama "is happily at a baseball game, yukking it up with the Castro communist dictators" instead of returning to Washington or traveling to Brussels in solidarity.

UPDATE: 7:20 p.m. EDT — Arizona voters complained of long lines Tuesday and some simply gave up and walked away.

"I don't think it should take this much effort just to vote," Kathy Wilson, 75, a Hillary Clinton supporter who had been waiting a half-hour, told local reporters. "With the weather so hot and so many senior people like me, this is getting dangerous to stand in these lines for so long in the sun."

UPDATE: 6:33 p.m. EDT — Polls show Donald Trump ahead in Arizona, but he also might take the state's winner-take-all 58 delegate prize because of early voting. A lot of votes were cast before Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dropped out earlier this month after losing Florida. Previous contests show Trump benefited from Rubio divided voters who may have gone for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, according to FiveThirtyEight. "It’ll be interesting to see how high a percentage of the vote Rubio gets in a state he’s no longer competing in. The higher Rubio’s share, the less likely Cruz gets a surprise win," the site noted Tuesday.

UPDATE: 6:01 p.m. EDT — Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta endorsed Donald Trump Tuesday and urged "establishment" Republicans to give up their fight to keep him from the White House. Bother Republicans have spoken out against illegal immigration.

"I wish that the establishment, instead of trying to stop Trump, you know, would look at why he’s so popular and coalesce around him so that it’s one team in November. Donald Trump is bringing a record amount of Democrats and independents…we should embrace that," Barletta told Politico. "I like that he is willing to stand up and fight for the American people and as I did as mayor.”

UPDATE: 5:30 p.m. EDT — A large number of registered independents has seen a surge in provisional ballots in Arizona. Voters must be registered with one of the three parties for their votes to count.

“These are independent voters,” Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne told local media. “They refuse to not vote, and federal law requires they be given a ballot.”

UPDATE: 4:48 p.m. EDT — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's response to the Tuesday's terror attacks in Brussels amounts to "fear-mongering," Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Tuesday afternoon.

“Ted Cruz is a disgrace,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement, reported the Hill.

“This is not leadership; it is fear-mongering for political gain,” she added. “And this is the sad state of Republican leadership today, where the hateful and divisive rhetoric of the GOP’s presidential candidates seems to reach new lows each day. We need to elect a commander-in-chief with the temperament and judgment to respond wisely to the threat of terrorism and global unrest, not a demagogue who defaults to militaristic escalation and racial or religious profiling."

Cruz earlier in the day called for heightened surveillance of Muslim communities in the U.S. after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attack that killed at least 31 people and injured nearly 200 more.

UPDATE: 4:20 p.m. EDT — John Kasich’s top advisers, including former New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu, campaign manager Beth Hansen and chief strategist John Weaver, will meet this week with major uncommitted donors in California, Politico reported Tuesday.

UPDATE: 3:40 p.m. EDT — President Barack Obama defeneded his decision to attend Tuesday a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game in Cuba, where he did the wave, noting that a U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group would continue pounding the militants.

"The whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people's ordinary lives," Obama said.

Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump was tweeting all day Tuesday about Obama's Middle East policies and promising to take on the militant group also known as ISIS.

UPDATE: 3:20 p.m. EDT — Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is expected to give a speech in Washington Wednesday about the "state of American politics" that has renewed speculation about whether he might run for president. Ryan's office would not say what the speech would be about or if it will be related to the presidential race.

Ryan has scolded Donald Trump in the past for his remarks against Muslims and failure to immediately disavow support from the Ku Klux Klan. But Ryan has played down rumors that he would enter the 2016 race. "You guys are funny," Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck tweeted.

The 11 a.m. speech will take place in the House Ways and Means Committee room and will be open only to members of the media and House interns, the Hill reported.

UPDATE: 2:57 p.m. EDT — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called on law enforcement officials to closely watch Muslims after terror attacks in Brussels Tuesday. His remarks were swiftly blasted by civil rights leaders and Democrats, who said he was discriminating against a minority group.

"That's not what we do in America. We don't take a race, religion, creed, color and say we're monitoring everybody. We look for terrorism where it is, and we pursue it relentlessly. That's what we should do; that's what I believe the administration is doing," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the likely next Senate Democrat leader, told reporters Tuesday at a press conference.

Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called Cruz’s plan “unconstitutional, un-American and dangerous.” “It’s shocking that a leading presidential candidate in our nation in 2016 would suggest monitoring a section of our American society just because of its religious faith,” Awad told the Hill on Tuesday. “He claims in his speeches to defend religious liberty, but he seems to be fake when it comes to this.”

Credo Action Political Director Murshed Zaheed said Cruz was "in a race to the bottom to gin up racism-fueled xenophobia" with GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who called for waterboarding Tuesday after the attacks.

Cruz had his own solution. "Our European allies are now seeing what comes of a toxic mix of migrants who have been infiltrated by terrorists and isolated, radical Muslim neighborhoods," he said, adding that law enforcement should be allowed to "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized."

UPDATE: 2:32 p.m. EDT — It's going to be a long night for those waiting for results. Online voting in Utah is open until 11 p.m. In Arizona, polls close at 7 p.m. local time, or 10 p.m. EDT. The exception is Navajo County, where polls there close at 7 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time, or 9 p.m. EDT.

UPDATE: 1:55 p.m. EDT — Idaho is hosting a Democratic caucus Tuesday night. Here's how it works: A first vote takes place upon arrival at the caucus location to decide which sub-caucus to join. This year, there are four: one each for candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and California businessman Rocky De La Fuente and one for undecided voters. Then after some speeches and debating, caucus participants can jump to another candidate's team. That process will repeat up to three times until all delegates are decided. To win delegates, Democratic presidential candidates must get at least 15 percent support, local media reported. It starts at 6 p.m. local time.

UPDATE: 1:15 p.m. EDT — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he is leaning toward endorsing Donald Trump for president, but wants to "think about it a little bit more," Politico reported Tuesday. Guiliani was mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and could help Trump seem like the candidate most prepared to protect the nation. The endorsement would come as elite GOP leaders are working to keep Trump from winning the nomination.

“The way I look at it, there really are only three people who will be the next president of the United States. One’s Hillary Clinton, the other’s Donald Trump, and the third is Ted Cruz,” he said at a Monday night event with the Columbia University College Republicans in New York. “So I’ll choose between those three. I’ll give you a hint: it won’t be Hillary Clinton. I seriously doubt it will be Ted Cruz. But I just want to think about it a little bit more before I do anything formally."

He added: "This is the hand you’re dealt, and you’ve gotta work with it."

UPDATE: 1:05 p.m. EDT — Long lines were growing outside Arizona polling places Tuesday as officials predicted high turnout. Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan said there had already been nearly 1 million early votes statewide, including from 271,801 Republican and 192,004 Democrats.

Officials hired extra polling staffers and five sheriff’s deputies to avoid problems in the Phoenix area. The presidential preference election Tuesday will cost just short of $10 million, Reagan said, local media reported. ​

UPDATE: 12:45 p.m. EDT — President Barack Obama marveled Tuesday at the diversity of the 2016 presidential race, pointing out that two top candidates were Cuban-American. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has since dropped out, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is trailing behind Donald Trump.

Speaking in Havana during a historic trip, Obama called the presidential race a great example of American democracy: “You have two Cuban Americans running against the legacy of an African American president.”

UPDATE: 12:22 p.m. EDT — About 30,000 Republican voters who elected to cast their ballots on computers, smartphones or tablets in one of the nation's first prominent uses of online voting have already voted in the Utah presdential nominating contest. For everyone else, former GOP nominee Mitt Romney is working to sway the vote. Many Utah Republicans received a pre-recorded call from Romney Monday telling them to go for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz because Ohio Gov. John Kasich has so few delegates, the Associated Press reported.

"At this point," Romney said on the call, "a vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump."

UPDATE: 11:52 a.m. EDT — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders interrupted his campaign in Arizona to offer condolences to the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attack in Brussels. "We offer our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this barbaric attack and to the people of Brussels," he said in a statement.

UPDATE: 11:32 a.m. EDT — A pro-Israel lobby slammed Tuesday morning Donald Trump’s attacks this week on President Barack Obama at their policy conference. Trump told the annual Washington gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday night that Obama “may be the worst thing to ever happen to Israel, believe me, believe me.”

AIPAC president Lillian Pinkus disavowed Trump’s remarks by reading a statement from the stage on Tuesday. “We say unequivocally that we do not countenance ad hominem attacks, and we take great offense to those that are levied against the United States of America from our stage,” Pinkus said. “While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of the president of the United States and our president, Barack Obama.”

She blasted attendees who applauded Trump’s comments, Politico reported. “There are people in our AIPAC family who were deeply hurt last night, and for that, we are deeply sorry,” Pinkus said. “We are disappointed that so many people applauded a sentiment that we neither agree with or condone.”

Trump's speech can be found here.

UPDATE: 11:15 a.m. EDT — After terror attacks in Belgium Tuesday and elections in Utah and Arizona, 19 states are scheduled to vote in a presidential nominating contest this year, meaning the international conflict could shape how voters pick their next president, Time reported.

"It’s also possible the attacks will be another blip in the ongoing presidential race," Time concluded. "After all, they are hardly the first attacks to come in the midst of this White House race. A November attack in Paris left at least 130 dead, and a month later, extremists left 14 dead in California. Each time, the candidates laid out broad plans to defeat America’s enemies. And then the campaign shifted back to talk about Donald Trump’s hand size, questions about Trump’s business ventures and Hillary Clinton’s emails."

UPDATE: 10:32 a.m. EDT — Voting is underway in Arizona, where Donald Trump is expected to win big Tuesday night. Polling places opened at 6 a.m. local time and will close at 7 p.m. Local officials predict up to 65 percent of voters will cast ballots in the presidential preference election.

UPDATE: 9:54 a.m. EDT — U.S. presidential candidate and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton released Tuesday a statement on the Brussels attacks, which killed dozens. Clinton said that while terrorists have once again struck Europe, their “campaign of hate and fear” won’t win out in the end.

“The people of Brussels, of Europe, and of the world will not be intimidated by these vicious killers. Today Americans stand in solidarity with our European allies,” Clinton said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and wounded, and all the people of Belgium. These terrorists seek to undermine the democratic values that are the foundation of our alliance and our way of life, but they will never succeed. Today's attacks will only strengthen our resolve to stand together as allies and defeat terrorism and radical jihadism around the world.”

UPDATE: 9:25 a.m. EDT — The Grand Old Party is looking a little sheepish these days. Roughly 60 percent of Republicans say they are embarrassed by the GOP presidential race, compared with 13 percent of Democrats who say the same about the Democratic presidential contest, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Voters head to the polls Tuesday in Idaho, Arizona and Utah.

UPDATE: 8:52 a.m. EDT — John Kasich is winning over new supporters, but he is still far behind Donald Trump, according to a NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday. Kasich’s support grew by 4 percent nationally in the past week, the largest jump of any GOP presidential candidate.

Trump remains in front, commanding 45 percent support, followed by Ted Cruz with 24 percent and Kasich at 16 percent. About 8 percent of Republican votes are undecided.

UPDATE: 8:20 a.m. EDT — Several presidential candidates have commented on the attacks in Brussels, which left a total of at least 26 people dead Tuesday morning. The attacks targeted an airport and a subway system.

GOP front-runner Donald Trump said the U.S. needed to take the Brussels attack as a warning to remain "vigilant," while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz criticized President Barack Obama for purportedly failing to recognize the threat posed to the U.S.

UPDATE: 7:10 a.m. EDT — As Democrats in Idaho prepare to vote Tuesday, some are predicting a tight race. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasn’t visited the state for some time — but she did win there in 2008 — whereas Sanders campaigned in Idaho Falls Friday. Sanders has spent about $100,000 on ads there, while Clinton hasn’t spent any money in the state, Politico reported.

Polling data for the Democratic primaries in Idaho is sparse, but a recent survey has Sanders with a narrow lead ahead of Clinton — 47 percent to 45 percent. Two other states and one U.S. territory is set to vote Tuesday. Struggling candidates are hoping Tuesday can offer them the boost needed to pull ahead.

UPDATE: 6:39 a.m. EDT — Utah, which in previous election cycles has often been largely ignored by presidential candidates, is relishing the chance to play a more meaningful role in the GOP nominating contest.

If the winner of the GOP race in Utah garners over 50 percent of the vote, they get all of the state's 40 delegates — a prize Ted Cruz would definitely like to have. While Ohio Gov. John Kasich is unlikely to be a factor in the fight for victory, if he takes enough votes from Cruz to prevent him from reaching that 50 percent mark, he could be a significant factor in the race.

UPDATE: 6:11 a.m. EDT — A new poll shows Donald Trump with a double-digit lead over his nearest rival, Ted Cruz, in Arizona. The results of the poll, released by Fox Channel 10 in Phoenix, show Trump with 46 percent support, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 33 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich on 17 percent. If the election played out along those lines, Trump would win all of the state's 58 delegates, pushing him ever closer to the Republican nomination.

UPDATE: 5:17 a.m. EDT — Voters in Utah's Republican caucus will have the opportunity to cast their ballot online, something that security experts have expressed concerns about. According to Wired, researchers have detected serious vulnerabilities in similar systems that have been used in other state and international votes in the past.

Utah's GOP, however, dismissed those concerns, and its chairman said that the move to let people vote online was a bid to make the caucus process more accessible, as voter participation has been declining in recent years.

UPDATE: 5:04 a.m. EDT — Arizona appears to be on track for a high turnout in its crucial presidential primary Tuesday, if early ballots are any indication. Of the 1.2 million eligible Maricopa County voters, about 894,000 requested early ballots. So far, 54 percent or 464,067 have returned their ballots, Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell told the Arizona Republic.

Purcell added that she was expecting a turnout of 60 to 65 percent.

Original story:

Well, it’s Super Tuesday — again.

Voters in Idaho, Utah, Arizona and American Samoa are set to head to the polls Tuesday and decide who they want to represent their party in the general election. All eyes are on Arizona, a winner-take-all state, where 58 delegates are at stake for Republicans and 85 for Democrats. Only Republicans are voting in the American Samoa caucus and only Democrats in the Idaho caucus; both parties will vote in the Utah caucus.

GOP front-runner Donald Trump and the leading Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, are hoping victories Tuesday will help build their lead. If they win by a landslide, it could help secure the nomination, while victories for their opponents could reflect a comeback for struggling candidates. If Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wins in Arizona, it could help him rise as a viable challenger to Trump.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has spent the most time rallying in Arizona, hoping a win there could pull him closer to Clinton. The candidate, a self-declared democratic socialist, has seen wide support build around his campaign, particularly among young voters, but still trails Clinton in national polling. A recent survey in Arizona suggests Clinton is likely to win by a landslide in the state, AZ Central reported.

In Utah, polls shows Cruz comfortably ahead of Trump. In second is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is ahead of Trump with 29 percent, which was seen to indicate growing frustration with the national front-runner among many Republicans. Trump sat with 11 percent, according to the survey. But as recent primaries and caucuses have shown, polls don’t always offer accurate predictions.

On the Democratic side of the race, Clinton has secured 1,614 delegates, including superdelegates, and Sanders 856. Among the Republicans, Trump has 678 delegates, Cruz has 423 and Kasich 143, according to Bloomberg.

This article will be updated throughout the day. Check back for updates.