March 08, 2016 04:31 PM UTC

"Pretty Good Tuesday" Open Thread

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• by: Colorado Pols

WEDNESDAY AM UPDATE: Bernie Sanders’ narrow upset victory in Michigan is set to be a major topic of discussion today. Hillary Clinton wins big in Mississippi as expected, while Donald Trump dominates in Michigan, Mississippi, and Hawaii. Ted Cruz manages just one victory last night in Idaho.

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It may not be a “Super” Tuesday, but as the Washington Post reports, a couple of the four states casting ballots for President today could help Democrat Hillary Clinton all but secure the Democratic nomination for President:

Voting was underway Tuesday in two states — Mississippi and Michigan — that are widely expected to solidify the leads of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in their respective nominating contests.

The latest day of voting, which will also include a Republican primary in Idaho and GOP caucuses in Hawaii, comes at a time when the GOP establishment is in turmoil over how to stop Trump. On the Democratic side, Clinton’s advantage in recent polls in Michigan and Mississippi suggests easy victories that would render Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s path to the Democratic nomination all but impossible.

While Clinton hoped to effectively clinch her party’s nomination once the two states tallied Tuesday’s votes, Sanders made it clear he was not giving up without a fight. He announced shortly before 3 p.m. that his campaign is filing suit in federal court to block a move by the secretary of state in Ohio that would keep 17-year-olds from voting in the state’s primaries.

On the Republican side, frontrunner Donald Trump is expected to increase his delegate lead after tonight, though it’s unlikely he could do well enough to put the nomination to bed. Meanwhile, another poor performance tonight for Marco Rubio will only increase calls for him to drop out of the race before his home state of Florida begins voting next week.