JOE BIDEN won two states in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primaries, widening his lead over rival Bernie Sanders (Flickr/Gage Skidmore).

UPDATE: Joe Biden has been projected to win the Arizona Democratic presidential primary, giving him a clean sweep of the three states contested on Tuesday.

–––––

Joe Biden won two states in today’s (Tuesday) Democratic presidential primaries, extending his lead over Bernie Sanders.

The former vice president bested the senator from Vermont 61.7 percent to 22.7 percent in Florida and 59.2 percent to 36 percent in Illinois, as of this posting at 8 p.m. He’s now won 16 states to Sanders’ eight.

Results from Arizona are too few to call that race.

That gives Biden a lead of 292 delegates – 1,080 to Sanders’ 788. Needed to win the nomination are 1,991 delegates, so he is more than halfway to the goal.

As for the popular vote, Biden now leads Sanders by 9.58 million to 7.24 million.

A scheduled primary in Ohio was postponed to June because of concern over the coronavirus.

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump won overwhelmingly in those states and clinched his party’s nomination for the second time.