March 23--Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton won the Arizona primary, the biggest prize in Tuesday's presidential nominating contests, bolstering her case for the nomination and further pressuring rival Bernie Sanders with her sixth straight victory.
Democrats in Idaho and Utah were also making their choices, but Arizona offered more delegates up for grabs than the other two states combined. All three states saw long lines, with some Phoenix-area polls staying open late to accommodate voters who waited more than two hours to cast ballots.
Sanders campaigned heavily in the state, pressing forward with his message about income inequality and urging voters to take a gamble on his more ambitious liberal agenda. He spent $1.3 million on advertising there, more than double Clinton, according to data from SMG Delta.
"What this campaign is about is asking Americans to think outside the box," said Sanders at a rally in Flagstaff on Monday night.
Sanders, the Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, was hungry for wins after a series of losses to Clinton, the former secretary of State. She started building her lead at the beginning of the month with landslide victories in southern states, only to suffer a surprise loss in Michigan on March 8.
Even Sanders' victory in Michigan illustrated the uphill nature of his battle. Clinton won by a much larger margin that same night in Mississippi's primary, so, thanks to proportional allocation, she came away with a bigger lead in delegates.
She then regained her footing and swept Sanders in all five states that voted March 15, including Ohio and Florida.
Entering Tuesday, Clinton had won 319 more pledged delegates than Sanders, according to an Associated Press tally. She's also supported by the vast majority of superdelegates, party leaders and elected officials who can decide for themselves which candidate to support and aren't bound by voters' picks in nominating contests.
Speaking to union workers in Everett, Wash., on Tuesday, Clinton explicitly pointed to her mathematical advantage in the race. She noted that she has received more votes in nominating contests than any other presidential candidate, including GOP front-runner Donald Trump, and 2.6 million more than Sanders. She also mentioned that she has a bigger delegate lead than then-Sen. Barack Obama did at this point during their 2008 fight for to be the Democratic nominee.
"We are on the path to the nomination," she said.
Despite increasing pressure on Sanders to wind down his candidacy, he's kept up his fight against Clinton. He criticized her in Flagstaff for financing her campaign with corporate donations and receiving payments for "speeches on Wall Street behind closed doors."
Clinton had a double-digit lead in the Arizona polls over Sanders and mentioned him only once in her speech at a high school gym in Phoenix on Monday while describing their differing views on making college more affordable.
She spent more time criticizing Republicans.
"The stakes in this election just keep getting higher and higher, and the rhetoric on the other side keeps getting lower and lower," Clinton said.
She said that she understands Americans' frustrations, but that she had never seen such a divisive, mean-spirited presidential race.
"Anger is not a strategy," she said. "We have to roll up our sleeves and get to work."
Mark Kaelber, 54, wore a Clinton button, T-shirt and sticker to the candidate's rally and said he was disappointed by Sanders' recent attacks.
"I have always admired Bernie, but it's gotten really nasty. He's implying Hillary is corrupt and bought and paid for. He needs to stop," said Kaelber, a university admissions advisor. "It seems like he can't accept the fact he's not going to win. It doesn't do anyone any good by him continually being negative toward her."
Other Clinton supporters worried that Sanders has focused too narrowly on income inequality at the expense of other important issues.
"I love Bernie. My only concern with him is that he has been too much of a one-issue candidate," said Kris Kyllo, a 65-year-old retiree from Chandler.
While campaigning in Arizona, both Clinton and Sanders sharply criticized Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is nationally recognized for his hard-line stance against immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
"When I see people like Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio and others who are treating fellow human beings with such disrespect, such contempt, it just makes my heart sink," Clinton said.
Sanders said, "It's easy for bullies like Sheriff Arpaio to pick on people who have no power." He added, "If I'm elected president ... watch out, Joe."
With Donald Trump on track to become the Republican nominee, Sanders has highlighted polls that show him beating the New York businessman in a general election by a wider margin than Clinton.
"There is no question that you are looking at the strongest Democratic candidate," he said Monday.
His campaign team has repeatedly described the primary calendar as skewed in Clinton's favor for the first half of the nominating contests and expect Sanders to pick up steam in western states such as Washington, which holds its caucuses Saturday.
"We're at halftime here, and we agree we're behind, but we think we're going to win this game," said Sanders strategist Tad Devine last week.
Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, expressed frustration with the sentiment that Clinton was already locking down the nomination, calling it a "media drumbeat to essentially disenfranchise half of the Democratic voters."
Twitter: @chrismegerian and @LATSeema
