Clinton wins 2 of first 3 Super Tuesday contests

Hillary Clinton kicked off her expected dominance of Super Tuesday early in the evening with projected wins in Virginia and Georgia.

{mosads}Clinton’s victory in Georgia will be especially concerning to Democratic presidential rival Bernie Sanders and his campaign strategists because it reinforces the former secretary of State’s popularity among African-Americans voters. Sanders has been unable to win enough black voters away from Clinton to convince most analysts he has a viable path to the nomination.

After Sanders’s crushing loss among black voters in South Carolina — which he described as being “decimated” — the Vermont senator needed to show an improved performance in Southern states like Georgia, where 51 percent of Democratic primary voters in 2008 were black, according to exit polls on CNN’s election center.

Clinton’s victory in Virginia was also expected; the average RealClearPolitics polling heading into the primary had her leading Sanders by 21.5 percentage points.

Clinton lost both Georgia and Virginia to then-Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the 2008 presidential primaries.

Both Georgia and Virginia are delegate-rich states, offering 102 and 95 delegates, respectively, on a proportional basis. Clinton will take the majority in each state, building her already significant delegate lead over Sanders.

Sanders easily won the primary in his home state, which allocates 16 delegates.