Hillary Clinton won the Massachusetts Democratic primary, while Bernie Sanders picked up a victory in his home state of Vermont, according to NBC News projections.
It was a narrow win for Clinton in the Bay State, with NBC News finally calling the race shortly after 11 p.m. But she claimed victories in a number of other key states, leaving Sanders with a tough road ahead.
"You know, we want to win in every part of the country, that goes without saying," Sanders said in his speech from Essex Junction, Vermont, on Tuesday night. "But it does say something and means so much to me that the people who know me best... have voted so strongly to put us in the White House.
"Ten months ago, we were at 3 percent in the polls. We have come a very long way in 10 months."
Sanders spent the day Tuesday in his home state of Vermont, casting his ballot early Tuesday at a recreation center in his hometown of Burlington.
Clinton, powered by strong support among black voters, swept through the Southern states on Super Tuesday. The former secretary of state had campaigned in Massachusetts and Virginia on Monday.
Former President Bill Clinton also campaigned for his wife in Massachusetts on Monday, and visited a polling place in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, shaking hands and posing for photos with voters.
Despite the obstacles he faces, Sanders has little incentive to fold. He reported raising more than $41 million in February and hoped to break the $45 million mark before the end of the day, a sign that he will have the money to go deep into the spring. And his team views a series of caucuses later this month as a place to rack up delegates and build momentum.
Clinton, meanwhile, has clearly turned the page and started eyeing a showdown with Trump, casting herself as the party's best choice to take on the GOP.
"Every time I listen to the Republicans I know we have to fight hard for our rights," said Clinton, addressing several hundred people gathered in a historic meeting house in Boston on Monday afternoon. "I don't know what our founders, some of those early patriots, would think about what we're up against today."
Clinton and her team are growing increasingly confident that they are on track to capture their party's nomination. Allies of the former secretary of state, unaffiliated Democratic strategists and the national party are stockpiling potential ammunition about Trump, reviewing reams of court filings, requesting information about his business dealings from state governments and conducting new polls to test lines of attack.
With Sanders lagging in delegates and likely to face greater losses on Super Tuesday, Clinton's team is also starting to become more concerned with the need to eventually unify the party. They are trying to avoid further alienating the passionate Sanders backers, whose support she will need to win a general election, and remind Democratic voters that she could face Trump - a hated figure in the party.
Sanders, however, continues to point out his differences with Clinton, pointing to his unwillingness to have a super PAC, his opposition to the Iraq War and his rejection of trade agreements he says have led to job losses.
His recent speeches have been packed with his typical pledges to provide single-payer health care and free college tuition, to reform the criminal justice system and protect the environment.
"We're very proud of what we are doing, and we're proud of what we're going to continue to do," Sanders told reporters gathered outside his polling place in Vermont on Tuesday morning. "This is a campaign that's going to the Philadelphia convention in July and I want to thank the millions of supporters throughout this country."
