Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton appeared to be on course for big victories on Super Tuesday as the first projections and early results came in from across the breadth of America.
CNN projected that the former secretary of state had won Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Alabama, while Mr Sanders was projected to have won Vermont, his home state, and Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, the network projected Donald Trump as the winner in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Massachusetts. It said that he, Marco Rubio and John Kasich were leading in the northeastern state of Vermont, while Senator Cruz was projected to have hung on to his home state of Texas.
The seven states were the first of twelve where voting was taking place on Tuesday where polls had closed. Before 9.00pm, CNN and other networks were able to project that both Mr Trump and Ms Clinton had collected eleven victories between them.
Vermont, the home state of Mr Sanders was always likely to go to the senator, although it only carries a modest 26 Democratic delegates.
Mr Sanders was quick to seize on his victory and address supporters in Burlington. "It's good to be home. I have been all over this country but I think that it's the greatest thing to come home and see all my friends," he said.
"You know we want to win in every part of the country. But it means so much to me that the people who know me best have voted so strongly to put us in the White House."
Although, Mr Sanders will have been pleased by the emotionald and psychological boost of that win, Georgia and Virginia, which carry 116 and 110 delegates respectively for the Democrats, and 79 and 49 delegates for the Republican, would have been much bigger prizes.
As it was, early returns from Virginia suggested Ms Clinton was leading Mr Sanders 67-32, while in Georgia she was leading him 81-18.
Mr Trump and Ms Clinton had gone into Super Tuesday with high expectations. A CNN-ORC poll put Mr Trump on 49 points, with Senator Marco Rubio on 16 per cent, Senator Ted Cruz on 15 per cent, Ben Carson on 10 per cent and Ohio Govenor John Kasich on 6 per cent. Mr Trump’s support added up to more than that of all of this rivals combined.
Meanwhile, the same poll put Ms Clinton comfortably clear of Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, scoring them 55-38 respectively.
