Biden rolls on with big win in Michigan, grows delegate lead over Sanders

Joe Biden is extending his delegate lead over Bernie Sanders in Tuesday night’s primaries, according to NBC News projections.

The former vice president now has a 121-delegate lead over the Vermont senator after winning three of the six states that voted Tuesday, according to the NBC News. Nationally, Biden has 752 delegates to Sanders’ 631, as of 9:00 pm ET.

Biden appears on track to win Mississippi and Missouri by lopsided margins, which will lead to big delegate hauls since Democrats award delegates in proportion to the margin candidates win in each state.

Biden has also won the biggest state on the map, Michigan, with 125 delegates at stake. Sanders had won the state at a crucial moment in his 2016 battle against Hillary Clinton and on which he staked his 2020 comeback.

However, polls have yet to close in the second-biggest state on the map, Washington, which has 89 delegates up for grabs, and Idaho, with 20 delegates. North Dakota, with 14 delegates, was too early to call.

Sanders would likely need to win those states by massive margins to make up for the delegates Biden is now projected to gain.

Biden came into this round of contests with a 77-delegate lead over Sanders after his strong showing last week on Super Tuesday.

Sanders could still pick up more delegates from those Super Tuesday states, some of which are still counting ballots, since the largest caches of yet-to-be-allocated delegates are in states the Vermont senator is leading: California, which NBC News has still not called and with 63 delegates yet to be assigned, Utah, with 20 delegates, and Colorado, where 16 delegates are on the line.