JOE BIDEN (pictured earlier campaigning in Iowa) won at last three states Tuesday – Michigan. Mississippi and Missouri (Flickr).

Former vice president Joe Biden increased his stature as front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination with three primary election victories Tuesday night.

All major news agencies declared by 7 p.m. Pacific time that Biden had won the key state of Michigan, as well as Missouri and Mississippi with three elections – Washington state, Idaho and North Dakota – yet to be called.

One calculation put Biden with 716 pledged delegates compared to 590 for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The number needed to win is 1,991 delegates.

“It looks like we’re going to have a good night,” said Biden after the three wins were notched. He went on to say that the 2020 presidential campaign was going to be a “campaign of conscience.”  Biden followed by praising Sanders and his supporters and said “together we’re going to defeat Donald Trump.”

As of this posting (8 p.m. Pacific), here are the figures from those primary elections.

Michigan

• Biden 52.9 percent
• Sanders: 38.9 percent

Mississippi

• Biden 81 percent
• Sanders 14.9 percent

Missouri

• Biden 60.5 percent
• Sanders 34 percent.

Diedre Nguyen closing in

The close race in the 72nd State Assembly District is turning into a squeaker. Former state senator Janet Nguyen has a solid lead in first with 35,199 votes (34.38 percent), but the battle for second is extremely tight. As of 8 p.m. Tuesday incumbent Tyler Diep had 25,797 votes (25.20 percent) and Garden Grove council member Diedre Thu-Ha Nguyen was just 17 votes behind at 25,780 (25.18 percent).

The top two finishers will be on the general election ballot in November.

According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, there were still about 76,649 votes to be counted across the county.