RTX2DCZJ
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Charleston, West Virginia, May 5, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Tilley/File Photo

UPDATE: 10:07 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders categorized his win in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary Tuesday as "pretty good news," but the reality is that it keeps his campaign more than alive and gave the Vermont senator his second consecutive primary win after emerging victorious in Indiana last week. Sanders took the stage at a rally in Salem, Oregon, Tuesday night to revel in the fact that "tonight it appears that we’ve won a big, big victory in West Virginia," he said to thunderous applause from what appeared to be thousands of people in attendance.

Sanders went on to thank the people of West Virginia for giving him what he said "ends up being a double-digit victory tonight," a seemingly perfect contextual segue for his next point: “[West Virginia] is a state where Hillary Clinton won by over 40 points against Barack Obama in 2008.”

He acknowledged his differences with Clinton, but there was one thing, he said, that they most certainly agree on: "We must defeat Donald Trump."

Pointing to polls that show he would beat the billionaire real estate mogul by “bigger numbers than Secretary Clinton," Sanders concluded in part that “we will defeat Donald Trump.”

UPDATE: 9:45 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders was in Salem, Oregon, Tuesday night when it was announced he was the projected winner of the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, leaving the thousands of people in attendance at a rally there to erupt in cheers. He was expected to take the stage to deliver his victory speech, which can be seen below.

UPDATE: 9:25 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders is projected to win the Democratic presidential primary in West Virginia, according to media reports. The Associated Press confirmed Sanders' victory.

It was not immediately clear how many delegates were handed to him with the victory, but the Vermont senator will still need a considerable number of them to catch up with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who as of Monday needed 154 delegates to reach the requisite 2,382 mark and clinch her party’s presidential nomination.

Sanders needs 928 more delegates to secure the nomination, according to RealClearPolitics.

UPDATE: 8:50 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump is the projected winner of the Nebraska Republican presidential primary, CNN reported on live TV. The results were all but a foregone conclusion after Trump's last two GOP rivals — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — both suspended their campaigns last week following Trump's lopsided win in the Indiana GOP primary.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also won the West Virginia GOP primary earlier Tuesday evening and was inching closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to officially clinch the party nomination.

UPDATE: 8:50 p.m. EDT — White nationalist William Johnson is apparently still on Donald Trump's list of state delegates in California despite the billionaire candidate's campaign insisting otherwise Tuesday. A spokesperson for the California Secretary of State confirmed Johnson's inclusion, saying in part that Trump's campaign failed to meet the deadline to have Johnson's name removed.

Johnson said Trump's campaign contacted him Tuesday to say the white nationalist's name was "erroneously listed," according to a tweet from Sacramento Bee reporter David Siders. It was immediately unclear how Johnson's name made it on the list in the first place.

One potential solution for Trump's campaign would be to submit the name of an alternate to take Johnson's spot.

UPDATE: 8:25 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders' campaign is claiming a victory in the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, according to a tweet from a New York Times reporter. The Vermont senator reportedly sent out a fundraising email announcing Sanders won "the majority of the delegates in today's primary in WV," Trip Gabriel tweeted.

Aside from NBC News, no other major media outlet issued a projection for which candidate is expected to win the West Virginia Democratic primary.

UPDATE: 8:13 p.m. EDT — Less than 1 percent of voting precincts in West Virginia have reported their results for the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, according to Politico. While ABC News reported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was enjoying a lead, citing exit polling data, Politico showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was actually ahead in terms of total votes in the state's contest.

Even still, NBC News projected Sanders as the state primary's winner despite the media outlet showing that just 5 percent of the voting had been tallied. Aside from NBC and its affiliated networks, no other media outlet was reporting their projected winner of the Democratic contest.

UPDATE: 7:49 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders is holding a lead over Hillary Clinton in the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, according to exit polls published by ABC News. Sanders was favored to win the contest but has a ways to go before he can catch up with the former secretary of state’s lead in terms of delegates.

UPDATE: 7:34 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in West Virginia, according to media reports. Trump was all but unopposed, as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich each suspended their presidential campaigns last week.

UPDATE: 7:22 p.m. EDT — The demographics of voters who cast ballots in Tuesday's West Virginia presidential primary are becoming more apparent through a series of exit polls published by ABC News.

The racial makeup of primary voters was 90 percent white, something that isn't a major indicator of anything considering the state is made up of nearly 94 percent of white people. One-third of the voters identified themselves as independents, something Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders calls himself despite running for the Democratic nomination.

UPDATE: 7:12 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders on Tuesday was more than 2,600 miles away from West Virginia, where voters have been taking to the polls all day casting ballots in the state's Democratic presidential primary. The Vermont senator held a rally there Tuesday afternoon, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

"We have an uphill battle to fight, but you know what? We've been in uphill battles all our lives," Sanders said in between chants of "Bernie, Bernie!" Sanders, who was predicted to win in West Virginia, trails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in California, according to Real Clear Politics.

Sanders stuck to his campaign's main message of bringing attention to income inequality and the powers that he says are responsible for the disproportionate distribution of wealth in the U.S.

"We can create millions of jobs, transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and ... we are uniquely going to tell Wall Street and the billionaire class yes they are going to start paying their fair share of taxes," Sanders said during the Oakland rally Tuesday. "So that is what the political revolution is about. It's not about only the progressive agenda, it is the understanding that real change never takes place unless millions of people stand up and fight back."

UPDATE: 6:59 p.m. EDT — Hillary Clinton is looking ahead to the general election in November and told the crowd during a rally Tuesday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, "I am looking forward to debating Donald Trump."

While those in attendance inside reportedly responded with raucous applause at Clinton's stated intentions, plenty of people were protesting outside of Louisville Slugger Field. In March, Trump won the Kentucky Republican caucuses, edging Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who suspended his campaign last week following the Indiana primary.

UPDATE: 6:43 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders has a point when he contends he would fare better than his rival former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a general election against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, according to a well-known pollster.

"I think he makes a very fair point, which is that in these polls, our polls have shown it as well, that when you do a head-to-head with Hillary Clinton versus the field or Bernie Sanders versus the field, Bernie Sanders' numbers are uniformly higher than Hillary Clinton," J. Ann Selzer told Bloomberg News Tuesday. "It certainly tells us that this is an electorate that is in a mood for a change."

National polling backs up Selzer's opinion.

According to Real Clear Politics polling, Clinton would edge Trump in a general election by garnering more than 47 percent support from voters versus Trump's nearly 41 percent. Sanders, in turn, would claim nearly 59 percent of the voting support compared to Trump's nearly 39 percent, Real Clear Politics found.

UPDATE: 6:18 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump was being mocked Tuesday by a presidential candidate not named Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, CNN reported. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is campaigning for the White House running on the Libertarian Party’s ticket, called the Republican front-runner’s commentary “ridiculous” and characterized himself as the leading candidate when it comes to immigration.

"With regard to Trump, he's saying some things that I just think are ridiculous and would disqualify any other candidate," Johnson said during CNN’s “New Day” telecast.

Johnson has tried to emphasize his stance on immigration — a topic that inspired Trump to propose building a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico — should be a primary reason why voters should consider him as a viable third-party candidate.

UPDATE: 6 p.m. EDT — Preliminary exit poll data from West Virginia primary voters show that those who went to the state's polls Tuesday are primarily concerned about the country's economy, ABC News reported. West Virginia's coal industry, a major employer in the state, is likely causing worry for the more than 60 percent of voters Tuesday who said the economy and employment are the most pressing issues.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stands to benefit the most from this preliminary exit poll data, which could change with more respondents as the primary goes on. His rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said during a March town hall event in West Virginia that she was “going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” inciting the wrath of many in the state who depend on the coal industry for their livelihood.

UPDATE: 5:47 p.m. EDT — A "database error" is reportedly to blame for one of the nation's most prominent white nationalists being named as a California delegate for Donald Trump's campaign, according to a tweet from a Sacramento Bee reporter.

William Johnson is in fact not a delegate for Trump, the billionaire's campaign said Tuesday, David Siders tweeted.

Trump has attracted the support of other white nationalists, including David Duke. Other white nationalists have in recent months begun congregating at Trump rallies, with one in particular being caught on video shoving a black female protesting Trump's candidacy. The presumptive GOP nominee did not disavow Duke's support, but he did object to the former Ku Klux Klan leader's recent comments that Jews are the "reason why America is not great," a reference to Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America great again."

UPDATE: 5:28 p.m. EDT — Hillary Clinton apparently has an unlikely ally: Blac Chyna. Who, you ask? The socialite linked to the Kardashian clan debuted Tuesday her personalized emojis, one of which shows her support for the former secretary of state and Democratic front-runner presidential candidate, Refinery 29 reported.

In fact, the emoji, which features a red, white and blue campaign-style with the names "Hillary" above the word "Chyna," seems to imply Blac Chyna should be Clinton's running mate.

To see what the Clinton "ChyMoji" looks like, click here.

UPDATE: 4:59 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump has a short list of potential running mates, but he's not saying who's on it. But the last standing Republican presidential candidate provided several hints Tuesday by saying what type of vice president is not needed, the Associated Press reported.

"We don't need another businessperson," Trump said, a clear reference to his own background in business that has made him a billionaire.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who suspended his own presidential campaign in February, could very well end up being on that short list, Trump conceded during the exclusive interview.

Chris Christie | InsideGov

UPDATE: 4:42 p.m. EDT — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who recently ended his presidential campaign, returned Tuesday to Capitol Hill. After telling one reporter that, "It's good to be back," he told a gaggle of journalists waiting for him outside his office that he has "no interest in a third-party run."

Cruz made no mention of his purported plans to potentially revive his presidential campaign, which he abruptly suspended last week following a lopsided primary loss to Donald Trump in Indiana.

After running a presidential campaign that pitted the Texas senator against the so-called Republican establishment, longtime politicians speculated that Cruz, a freshman in the Senate, might be ostracized upon his return, Bloomberg News reported.

"I think a lot of people here will always consider Ted an outsider," U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also a former 2016 presidential candidate, said Monday.

It should be noted that Graham once joked about how to get away with murdering Cruz.

UPDATE: 4:20 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump’s campaign named one of the nation’s most prominent white nationalists as a California delegate ahead of July's Republican National Convention. Williams Johnson was accepted Monday by the campaign after he submitted his application, Mother Jones reported. He and 168 other delegates will represent Trump in California.

"I, William Johnson, endorse Donald J. Trump for the office of President of the United States. I pledge to cast ALL of my ballots to elect Donald J. Trump on every round of balloting at the 2016 Republican National Convention so that we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he wrote in a pledge.

Johnson is the leader of the American Freedom Party, a group that "exists to represent the political interests of White Americans" and aims to preserve "the customs and heritage of the European American people."

In the California Republican primary, campaigns must provide a list of pledged delegates -- three from each of California's 53 congressional districts plus 10 statewide representatives --before the election.

UPDATE: 4:08 p.m. EDT — Sorry, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Vice President Joe Biden predicts Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States.

“I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee, and I feel confident she’ll be the next president,” Biden said in an exclusive interview with ABC's “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts.

Biden has not endorsed Clinton but he has said in April he would “like to see a woman elected” president.

UPDATE: 3:54 p.m. EDT — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is supporting Donald Trump because he wants a conservative justice appointed to the Supreme Court. Perry, who once called Trump a “barking carnival act,” said last week he would serve as Trump’s vice president if asked.

"When you think about what's going to happen over the next four years, and what has the possibility and probability of impacting America for the next 40 or 50 years, it is the Supreme Court," Perry told CNN's Chris Cuomo Tuesday on "New Day." "I'm a lot more comfortable with Donald Trump choosing an individual that is going to be on the Supreme Court that's going to impact policies my children are going to be affected by than Hillary Clinton."

UPDATE: 3:40 p.m. EDT — What exactly does Donald Trump have to do to win Marco Rubio’s vote? Rubio isn’t saying.

Rubio, the Florida senator who dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination after fighting with Trump over penis size, yes, penis size, said Tuesday during a foreign policy discussion in Washington that he still isn’t backing the New York business mogul.

"As I’ve said before, my policy differences and reservations about Donald’s campaign are well-established. I’ve said them often, and I stand by those. Those remain, and I hope they’ll be addressed but those remain," Rubio said when asked what Trump could say to signal that he could handle complex foreign policy challenges. "That said, I don’t view myself as a guy who’s going to sit here for the next six months taking shots at him. People know where I stand. They know how I feel. They know what our differences are."

UPDATE: 3:24 p.m. EDT — Heidi Cruz on Tuesday compared her husband’s calls to reform Washington, D.C., to the fight to end slavery, urging supporters to remain faithful, the Texas Tribune reported. Heidi Cruz spoke as her husband, Ted Cruz, said Tuesday he might re-enter the presidential race if he wins Nebraska.

“I don’t want you to feel like any of this was in vain," Heidi Cruz said on a conference call with the campaign's National Prayer Team. "I believe in the power of prayer. This doesn’t always happen on the timing of man, and God does not work in four-year segments."

"Be full of faith and so full of joy that this team was chosen to fight a long battle," she continued. "Think about slavery — it took 25 years to defeat slavery. That is a lot longer than four years."

She explained her husband’s decision to exit the race last week after Trump won the Indiana primary, calling her husband's campaign "just the beginning."

"I want to assure all of you that this was not a race we gave up," Heidi Cruz said. "This was a race that no longer had a viable path to victory, and it would’ve been very demoralizing for you all and the troops to go through nine states of losses. We left on a high note. We left when there was no possible way that we were going to win."

"We have changed the Republican Party," she went out. "This is no longer about the establishment and the old way of doing things versus the Constitution. This party is now being deceived, but the old battles are behind us, the new ones are before us."

UPDATE: 2:57 p.m. EDT — After dropping out of the presidential race, Ted Cruz said Tuesday he might re-enter the contest if he wins Nebraska. But voters heading to the polls Tuesday looking to back an outsider candidate have more choices than just Donald Trump or Cruz. Libertarians have five presidential candidates on the ballot: Marc Feldman, Gary Johnson, Steve Kerbel, John McAfee and Austin Petersen. Nonpartisan voters cannot vote in Nebraska's presidential primary.

UPDATE: 2:45 p.m. EDT — The folks at the Guardian have dreamed up what Donald Trump's victory speech could sound like in November and their vision describes a humble, reserved leader. Nah, just kidding. It's all about the Trump ego:

"What a turnout! They have 6,000 people outside that can’t get in. The press will never report how many people are here. They’re horrible people. Absolutely dishonest. Absolute scum. I’ll be the greatest unifier of all!," Trump is predicted as saying. "We’re being laughed at all over the world. So our country needs a truly great leader. I’m going to represent our country with dignity very, very well. I’m a solid, stable person. I’m a man of great achievement. I went to an Ivy League school. I’m like a really smart person."

Read the full speech here.

UPDATE: 2:25 p.m. EDT — Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly says she spent the past year behind security guards and closed blinds because “of being in Trump's crosshairs.”

Kelly discussed her feud with Donald Trump in an Associated Press article published Tuesday where she promoted her new show “Megyn Kelly Presents.” Kelly is also promoting an interview with Trump that will air during a prime-time special on the Fox broadcasting network this month.

"I am looking to move beyond the acrimony on his end," Kelly told the AP. "It has never been on my end."

Read the AP's interview here.

UPDATE: 2:03 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump is the most talked-about presidential candidate on Twitter. The presumptive Republican nominee has dominated the national conversation from the first full week of September 2015 until the end of last week, according to an analysis released Tuesday by Twitter.

Trump is a big fan of the social media site. Since he started tweeting in 2009, he has amassed more than 7.5 million followers and tweeted more than 31,000 times.

UPDATE: 1:45 p.m. EDT — As GOP lawmakers demanded answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over allegations that the social media site’s trending news feature censors conservative news topics, the Hill reported Tuesday that Facebook employees are overwhelmingly backing Hillary Clinton this election cycle when it comes to campaign donations.

Clinton picked up $114,000 from Facebook workers. A distant second was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race after getting $16,604 in campaign donations from Facebook employees. The Hill based its reporting on itemized contributions through the end of March reported to the Federal Election Commission.

That doesn't necessarily mean Clinton is the top candidate at the social network. Candidates only have to report contributions greater than $200. That's why Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has collected most of his contributions from small donors, might not be reflected in the Hill's Facebook tally.

Facebook said Monday it “found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true" after Gizmodo reported that the site's human curators had omitted stories from conservative news outlets.

2016 Presidential Candidate Daily Average Raised | InsideGov

UPDATE: 1:20 p.m. EDT — Republican Donald Trump once told radio shock jock Howard Stern he could have “nailed” Princess Diana. When asked by Playboy magazine in 2004 about Viagra, Trump boasted: “I just have never needed it.” “I’m just lucky,” he said.

With Trump expected to win the GOP presidential nomination, the Washington Post asked the Donald about his long history of making crass, vulgar or sexist remarks. Trump largely refused to apologize for any previous comments in an interview published Tuesday, explaining that he is now in a different place.

“I never anticipated running for office or being a politician, so I could have fun with Howard on the radio and everyone would love it. People do love it,” Trump told the Washington Post. “I could say whatever I wanted when I was an entrepreneur, a business guy.”

Trump said the media coverage of his sexual antics were “overblown," but that he would have been more reserved if he had known he would eventually be running for office. “Or I wouldn’t have gone on the show because that is the easier way of doing it,” Trump said.

UPDATE: 12:52 p.m. EDT — Some Bernie Sanders voters have said they won’t vote for Hillary Clinton in November, even against Donald Trump. But that could change if the Vermont senator backs his rival.

Sanders will likely end up endorsing Clinton in the November general election because she is the best candidate to champion his push for a higher minimum wage and accessible health care, Matthew Yglesias wrote for Vox Tuesday.

“On virtually every issue, Sanders has promised to go further than Clinton has in the same direction. Which is another way of saying that implementing Clinton's agenda would be a way of moving closer to Sanders's goals — so in pursuit of his goals, he's going to want to put her in the White House,” the article theorizes.

UPDATE: 12:35 p.m. EDT — Ted Cruz said Tuesday he could relaunch his presidential campaign if he wins Nebraska’s GOP primary. Cruz, who refused to endorse Donald Trump for president, said he is still weighing options in the 2016 race.

"We launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I felt there was no path to victory," he said on Glenn Beck's radio program. "If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly."

Cruz said it was too soon to come out in support of Trump. "This is a choice every voter is going to have to make. I would note, it’s not a choice we as a voters have to make today," Cruz said when asked about a potential endorsement.

It's unclear what makes Cruz think he has a shot when Tuesday's election results are announced. Long before Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich exited the 2016 race last week, Trump was performing strong in Nebraska, outpolling Cruz and Kasich 61 percent to 22 and 14 percent respectively.

UPDATE: 12:20 p.m. EDT — Hillary Clinton is the most popular American presidential candidate in Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Mexico and Brazil. But northern neighbor Canada just isn’t too jazzed about the former secretary of state. About 31 percent of Canadians said they would vote for Bernie Sanders, who’s been called the American Justin Trudeau by Canadian press. Clinton would still get 29 percent of the vote, Quartz reported Tuesday.

UPDATE: 12:02 p.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders is heading to South Dakota Thursday in the latest sign he has no plans to slow down his longshot campaign against Hillary Clinton. Sanders will host rallies at a school and a park in Pine Ridge and Rapid City. South Dakota’s primary is June 7.

UPDATE: 11:50 a.m. EDT — Ted Cruz has exited the 2016 race, but that doesn’t mean he is ready to fully give his support to Donald Trump. In Kansas, Cruz is refusing to release his delegates so that they can stand with Trump.

Kansas GOP bylaws require delegates stick with the winning candidate until the candidate expressly releases them. Cruz won the state in March in an upset victory after polls showed him trailing behind Trump. The National Review reported Monday that Cruz sent a letter to the Kansas GOP that made it clear he does not plan to release his delegates.

“Although I have suspended my campaign for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, I do not release any Republican National Convention delegates bound to me as a result of the 2016 delegate selection process that took place in your state. The delegates remain bound to cast their ballots at the RNC according to the rules of the Convention and the rules of your state party,” he said. “I encourage all delegates who supported my campaign — and who support a constitutional conservative agenda that will grow jobs , protect our freedoms, and ensure our security — to actively participate in shaping the party platform and rules n a manner that will ensure our cause is advanced.”

UPDATE: 11:32 a.m. EDT — Bernie Sanders' plan to raise taxes and give voters government-run healthcare, free undergraduate college, enhanced Social Security and family and medical leave would cost $18 trillion, creating enough federal debt to hurt the economy, according to a tax analysis released Monday.

The joint analysis released by the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the Urban Institute Health Policy Center, well-known Washington think tanks, found the cost of Sanders' healthcare plan alone would exceed $30 trillion. For comparison, the current total government debt is $19 trillion.

"The dramatic increase in government borrowing would crowd out private investment, raise interest rates, further increase government borrowing costs and retard economic growth," the analysis concluded.

Sanders has said he would raise taxes by more than $15 trillion over 10 years to pay for his programs.

UPDATE: 11:15 a.m. EDT — The West Virginia Democratic primary is unfolding at a time when the state's many coal workers have seen natural gas production drive down prices and encourage a switch from coal to natural gas. Coal made up about half of the country’s electricity generation a decade ago, but that has since dropped to one-third, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

“A lot of people I know are laid off, and you know that had to hurt the people,” Janet White, 80, a librarian whose husband was a coal miner, told the Times.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton infuriated many West Virginia voters when she said while discussing clean energy at a forum in March, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

Coal Production in West Virginia | FindTheData

UPDATE: 10:55 a.m. EDT — Some voters really don’t like presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Ahead of primary voting in Nebraska and West Virginia, a new poll conducted by Public Policy Polling shows that 61 percent of voters viewed root canals and jury duty more favorably than the New York business mogul. When asked, "What do you have a higher opinion of, Donald Trump or lice?" Some 54 percent of respondents answered "lice."

"Much has been made of Trump's unpopularity over the course of this campaign, and certainly we find that to be the case too — only 34 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 61 percent who have an unfavorable one. But we decided to take it a step further in finding out just how much people dislike Trump, by matching him in a series of heads to heads with things such as root canals, cockroaches, and even hipsters to see who voters had a higher opinion of," the poll noted.

The poll released Tuesday surveyed 1,222 registered voters from May 6-9 with a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

UPDATE: 10:40 a.m. EDT — With the Democratic and Republican primary seeming like a sure thing for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, voter turnout was light Tuesday at polling sites in Omaha. About five people waited for poll workers to open up at 8 a.m. at McMahon Hall. At Bethany Lutheran Church, only 15 people had cast ballots by 8:15 a.m. At the Gretna Community Church, there were no lines, local media reported.

UPDATE: 10:18 a.m. EDT — Donald Trump is unfazed by the growing number of Republican leaders who say they don't want to be his vice president. "It is only the people that were never asked to be vp who tell the press that they will not take the position," Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.

Former GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio wrote a Facebook post Monday that said he was still concerned about Trump’s campaign and policies. "He will be best served by a running mate and by surrogates who fully embrace his campaign. As such, I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for Vice President. Instead, I will focus my attention on representing the people of Florida, retaining a conservative majority in the Senate and electing principled conservatives across the country," Rubio wrote.

Another former rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, has also said he doesn't want the gig. "Never," Kasich spokesman Chris Schrimpf told The New York Times. "No chance."

Other Republicans have said no, including New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

UPDATE: 10:01 a.m. EDT — Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear endorsed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton Tuesday for president a week before the state's May 17 primary election. Beshear cited Clinton's support for health care rights as a main reason for this endorsement, local media reported.

"In this time of division and derision, we need a calm, sensible and experienced hand leading this nation. Hillary Clinton is that leader, and I enthusiastically endorse her to be president of these United States," Beshear said.

Clinton was expected to give a major policy speech in Kentucky Tuesday on child care costs.

UPDATE: 9:30 a.m. EDT — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are locked in a tight match in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday. The candidates are tied overall, but voters are largely split along gender, race and age.

In Florida, Clinton is ahead of Trump 43 percent to 42 percent, but holds a 13-point advantage among women. Trump wins with men at 49 percent to 36 percent.

In Ohio, registered voters favor Trump over Clinton, 43 percent to 39 percent, with 49 percent to 32 percent of white voters going for the Republican candidate. Older voters also backed Trump.

In Pennsylvania, Clinton leads 43 percent to 42 percent and holds a 7-point lead among voters under 35 years old.

UPDATE: 9:01 a.m. EDT — The co-founder of PayPal is backing Donald Trump's race for the White House. Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel appears on a list of Donald Trump delegates filed with the California Secretary of State, CNBC reported Tuesday. Thiel backed Ron Paul's 2008 and 2012 presidential bids, and Ted Cruz's Senate race in Texas, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

UPDATE: 8:20 a.m. EDT — Hillary Clinton is courting mothers Tuesday by announcing an ambitious agenda to cover some of the cost of high-quality child care for all working parents. Clinton will give a speech in Kentucky to unveil the plan, The Huffington Post reported. The plan will also demand higher pay for child-care workers to improve retention.

Original story:

Voters in West Virginia and Nebraska head to the polls Tuesday to weigh in on the 2016 presidential race. However, with billionaire businessman Donald Trump having basically locked up the Republican nomination and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having a big lead over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in terms of Democratic convention delegates, the election results may not resonate much beyond the borders of those two states.

Despite the apparently low stakes, Americans might want to pay attention to the Democratic primary election in West Virginia to see whether Sanders can gather more fuel in his attempt to achieve a brokered convention. And they might want to see whether GOP voters in West Virginia and Nebraska bother to turn out to vote and how many of them cast their ballots for Trump or for somebody else, given that their presumptive nominee’s march to the White House has scandalized party leaders and prompted speculation about whether a third-party candidate could emerge at the last minute. Political junkies are closely watching whether Republican leaders who have so far refused to back The Donald, such as House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, will ultimately fall in step with the plurarity of primary season voters who have backed Trump.

“I think people are pretty well — how would you say? — pretty much resigned to the fact that Trump is going to be the nominee,” Paul Landow, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, told the Omaha World-Herald. “I think for many Nebraskans, that’s not such a bad thing. He’s conservative, and he appears to have a possibility of winning. And while he may not have been their first choice, they will unite behind him.”

Trump has 1,068 of the 1,237 delegates required to win the GOP nomination. The candidate told voters in West Virginia this month that the race was over after his last two remaining rivals — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — dropped out. “What I want you to do is save your vote, you know, you don’t have to vote anymore. Save your vote for the general election, OK? Forget this one. The primary is gone,” Trump said. “Save your vote for the general election in November, and we’re going to show you something, and then you’re going to show me something, OK?”

Donald Trump | InsideGov

However, political leaders in West Virginia and Nebraska said voters should still get a say. “This was one of the longest primaries in the history of our country, and Nebraska still didn’t have a voice,” state Sen. John Murante told the Associated Press. “We had such excitement for the presidential race — and just when we had the opportunity to have our moment in the sun, the race ended.”

The presidential-nomination race is far less settled on the Democratic side. Sanders faces an almost-impossible path to the party’s nomination based on the remaining pledged delegates at stake this primary season, but opinion polls show West Virginia could support him, providing further fuel to his grassroots campaign that has engaged millions of largely young and white voters across the country who are angry about the economy and Washington politics. Sanders bested Clinton at the Nebraska caucuses in March, as he secured 15 delegates and she secured 10. A number of other states voting this month and next month could also fall into Sanders’ column.

“We’re going to stay in until the last vote is counted, and that will be in the [June 14] primary in Washington, D.C.,” Sanders said in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep last week. “We’re going to fight in West Virginia. I think we’ve got a shot to win there — we’ve got a good shot to win in Oregon, and I think we’ve got a good shot to win in some other states ... We’re in this race till the last vote is counted.”

Clinton has struggled to win over voters in West Virginia, including once-fervent supporters of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, especially after she commented during a March town hall that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” Clinton has since apologized for her remark.

Christopher Regan, the West Virginia Democratic Party vice chairman who has endorsed Sanders, told Politico the senator will do best among college students across the state.

“Huntington and Cabell County where Marshall [University] is. There’s also Morgantown for WVU [West Virginia University],” Regan said. “But I honestly think his support will be broad and deep in West Virginia. I’m confident that he will find that he has a great deal of support here ... I think this is Bernie country.”

Bernie Sanders | InsideGov

Because the Nebraska Democrats conducted their caucuses in March, Clinton and Sanders will be featured on a primary ballot only because it is required by state law, but this beauty contest will not have an effect on their respective delegate counts.

Clinton has largely brushed off Sanders’ attacks on her campaign in recent weeks, setting her sights on defeating Trump in the November general election. As of Monday, Clinton was just 154 delegates short of the 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination, while Sanders had to find 928 more delegates to secure it, according to RealClearPolitics.

RELATED STORIES
Election 2016