AP Updates on Super Tuesday

WASHINGTON (AP) --- The Latest on campaign 2016 on Super Tuesday (all times Eastern Standard Time):

8:55 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is marking several Super Tuesday victories with a rally in Miami.

Clinton has won Democratic primaries in Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee. She is appearing in Florida ahead of the key March 15 primary there.

She declared "What a Super Tuesday!" and said that her campaign would continue "to break barriers" across the nation.

Clinton's victories continue her momentum after wins in Nevada and South Carolina and she increased her delegate leader over her rival, Bernie Sanders.

In a swipe against Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Clinton said the goal was not to "make America great again" but to "make America whole again."

Sanders won his home state of Vermont on Tuesday.

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8:53 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Virginia, adding to his Super Tuesday victories in Massachusetts, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

He is adding to his wins earlier this campaign in Nevada, South Carolina and New Hampshire.

The win was a blow to Marco Rubio, who competed hard in Virginia.

Rubio has yet to win a primary. Ted Cruz has captured Iowa.

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8:38 p.m.

It's a win for Hillary Clinton in American Samoa.

The South Pacific island chain held its caucus Tuesday.

Clinton won 73 percent of 223 votes cast to earn four of the six delegates at stake. Bernie Sanders picked up two delegates.

American Samoa is one of five U.S. territories that cast votes in primaries and caucuses to decide the Democratic presidential nominee, even though those residents aren't eligible to vote in the November general election.

The island chain has a population of 54,000 and is about a six hour flight from Hawaii.

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8:35 p.m.

Donald Trump has jumped to a big lead in the Super Tuesday delegates with victories in Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

Trump has won 100 delegates so far. Marco Rubio has won 12 and Ted Cruz has won five.

There are 595 Republican delegates at stake in 11 states.

Overall, Trump leads with 182 delegates. Rubio has 28, Cruz has 22, John Kasich has six and Ben Carson has five.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

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8:32 p.m.

John Kasich is thanking supporters at a Super Tuesday rally In Mississippi.

Kasich, the governor of Ohio, has been trying to build off his surprising second place finish in the New Hampshire primary last month.

He has yet to win any states. His speech Tuesday was full of family remembrances and tributes to his supporters but very little discussion of the night's results.

Donald Trump has captured Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Tennessee. Some states remained too close to call.

He has resisted calls from some other Republican power brokers to drop out of the race.

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8:30 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic presidential primary in Arkansas, where she once served as the state's first lady.

Clinton earned her latest win in the string of contests known as Super Tuesday. She has also won the Democratic primaries in Georgia, Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee, putting her ahead of her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has won the race in his home state of Vermont.

Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, served as governor of Arkansas before he was elected president in 1992.

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8:20 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is adding to her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders after victories in Alabama and Tennessee.

She is now assured of winning at least 175 delegates for the evening. Sanders will receive at least 71.

In all, 865 delegates are at stake in 11 states. Clinton so far has won four of those states, while Sanders prevailed in his home state of Vermont, allowing her to build a delegate lead.

Including superdelegates, Clinton now has a total of at least 723 delegates, according to a count by The Associated Press. Sanders has at least 158. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

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8:00 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have won the presidential primaries in Alabama.

Trump has also finished on top in the Republican primary in Massachusetts.

Trump and Clinton have also won their party primaries in Tennessee.

These latest wins put the two candidates ahead of their rivals in the group of contests known as Super Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump and Clinton won the primaries in Georgia. Clinton also won the Democratic primary in Virginia, while her rival, Bernie Sanders, won the contest in his home state of Vermont.

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7:40 p.m.

Bernie Sanders, celebrating a victory in the Democratic primary in his home state of Vermont, is pledging to "win many hundreds of delegates" on Super Tuesday.

After thanking the raucous crowd, which periodically chanted his name, he touted how far his campaign had come in the last 10 months.

And he vowed to "take our fight" to the 35 states that would have not yet voted by night's end.

He pledged to enact judicial reform, fix the nation's "broken" campaign finance system and he, once again, pledged a "political revolution" and said that he and his supporters would stand up to "billionaire class" that dominates the nation's political system.

His opponent, Hillary Clinton, has won the contests Tuesday in Georgia and Virginia.

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7:39 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Georgia, taking home his first win in the group of contests known as Super Tuesday.

The Republican front-runner has already won three of the previous four nomination contests, putting him ahead of his rivals, particularly Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who many feel need a strong showing on Tuesday to keep their campaigns afloat.

Trump posted a message on Twitter reading "Thank you Georgia" moments after polls closed.

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7:30 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is thanking supporters at a victory rally in his home state of Vermont.

Sanders captured the Democratic primary in Vermont, his first win on Super Tuesday. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, won Georgia and Virginia.

He told the raucous crowd that it meant a lot to him that "the people who know me best" gave him a victory.

He extolled the small-town virtues of Vermont, applauding the state's town halls which he said could not be corrupted by the billionaires trying to influence the political system.

He said his campaign was about confronting the "ugly truths" in the United States today.

This is Sanders' second victory. He captured the neighboring state of New Hampshire last month.

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7:10 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has sprinted to an early delegate lead on Super Tuesday.

Her victories in Georgia and Virginia are giving her an early advantage over Bernie Sanders, who won big in his home state of Vermont.

At stake in those three states are 213 delegates.

She is assured of at least 108, while Sanders will receive at least 57. Forty-eight remain to be allocated in those three states.

In all, 865 delegates are up for grabs in 11 states and American Samoa on Super Tuesday.

Going into Super Tuesday, Clinton held a 26-delegate advantage based on wins from primaries and caucuses.

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7:05 p.m.

The top quality voters in both Virginia and Georgia are looking for in a candidate is experience, according to early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and Television Networks.

Clinton won both states. She drew support from a large majority of those who cared most about a candidate who can win in November.

Among those who said they cared most about a candidate being honest and trustworthy, most in both states supported Sanders. A majority of those who said their top quality in a candidate was caring about people like them supported Sanders in Virginia, but that group was slightly more likely to support Clinton in Georgia.

Six in 10 Virginia Democratic primary voters said Clinton is honest and trustworthy, and three-quarters said the same of Sanders.

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7:00 p.m.

Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential primaries in Virginia and Georgia, while Bernie Sanders wins in his home state of Vermont.

According to early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and Television Networks, Clinton led in both Virginia and Georgia among both men and women. Sanders led among voters under 30 and Clinton held a commanding lead among those 45 and over.

In Vermont, Bernie Sanders was supported by overwhelming majorities of both men and women, and huge majorities of voters across all age groups.

Half of Vermont Democrats said they want the next president's policies to be more liberal than those of President Barack Obama.

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6:00p.m.

Donald Trump is keeping up his criticism on his closest Republican rivals in the hours before the first Super Tuesday polls close.

Trump, in Kentucky, said Tuesday that March Rubio was "a total lightweight" while Ted Cruz is "a basket case" and "a liar." However, he held his fire on Ben Carson, calling him a "nice guy" and he didn't provide any descriptions for John Kasich.

He said his dealing powers would force companies to keep jobs in America and coerce countries to release American prisoners.

The Louisville crowd cheered when Trump spotted a sign in the crowd and asked it to be fetched for him. He held up the sign --- which read "Hispanics 4 Trump" --- and waved it around, mouthing "thank you" toward the audience.

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5:45 p.m.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is backing Hillary Clinton, but he's not predicting she'll win Minnesota's caucuses.

Dayton tells The Associated Press that he thinks Clinton would win decisively if Tuesday's presidential preference vote was done as part of a primary. But it's not, and Dayton says caucuses "are such an unknown" because so many things can come up to keep people from attending.

Bernie Sanders is trailing Clinton but has invested a lot of time in Minnesota, where he says he can win if turnout is strong.

Dayton has been a longtime Clinton supporter and has pledged his support as a superdelegate to the national convention no matter how she does Tuesday. He says he expects her to have a good night around the country as Super Tuesday unfolds.

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5:30 p.m.

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin is reminding Hillary Clinton's campaign about state election laws after former President Bill Clinton greeted voters inside a polling location in Boston.

Clinton arrived at the Holy Name gymnasium, a polling place in the city's West Roxbury neighborhood where he met with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, one of his wife's supporters.

Bill Clinton spoke with voters outside the polling location before heading inside with Walsh. At one point, a woman asked for a photo and Clinton said, "as long as we're not violating any election laws."

According to state law, no one may solicit a person's vote within 150 feet of a polling location.

Galvin also said that Bill Clinton created a traffic jam outside a polling location in New Bedford later in the day when he addressed voters on the street. Galvin said the polling location never shut its doors, however.

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5:25 p.m.

In eight of nine states where exit polls were conducted Tuesday, Democratic voters were more likely to want a continuation of President Barack Obama's policies than a switch to more liberal policies.

According to early results of the exit polls conducted for the Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research, majorities of Democratic voters in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia want a continuation of Obama's policies, along with more than 4 in 10 voters in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Texas.

In each of those states, about a third of Democratic voters or less want a switch to more liberal policies.

In Vermont, about half of Democratic primary voters said they want the next president to change to more liberal policies.

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5:20 p.m.

Large majorities of Republican primary voters across nine states have negative feelings toward the federal government.

But whether they're more dissatisfied or more angry varies by state.

According to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research, at least 8 in 10 GOP primary voters in each state feel down on the way the federal government is working.

The dissatisfied outnumbered the angry and accounted for a half or more of Republican voters in Virginia, Vermont and Massachusetts.

In Texas, half of GOP primary voters said they were angry.

In Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee, GOP voters were more evenly split between dissatisfaction and anger.

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5:20 p.m.

White voters accounted for half of voters or less in three of nine Democratic primaries where exit polls were conducted on Super Tuesday.

According to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks, nearly half of Democratic primary voters in Alabama and Georgia were black.

In Texas, about 3 in 10 Democratic primary voters were Hispanic and a little under 2 in 10 were black.

In three other states, black voters accounted for about a quarter of Democratic primary voters. They are Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee.

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5:15 p.m.

Large majorities of Republican primary voters in six states going to the polls on Super Tuesday said they support a proposal to temporarily ban all non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States.

Early results of exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks show two-thirds of GOP primary voters in Texas, Virginia and Georgia, 7 in 10 in Tennessee, and nearly 8 in 10 in Alabama support the proposal championed by GOP front-runner Donald Trump.

But Republican voters were more divided on another major immigration issue, whether to deport immigrants already in the country illegally or allow them to stay.

In just one of the seven states where the question was asked, Alabama, did a majority of Republicans support deportation. In two states, Virginia and Georgia, those who preferred legal status outnumbered those supporting deportation.

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5:00 p.m.

Marco Rubio is ceremonially launching his campaign for the must-win primary in Florida, where Donald Trump sits comfortably ahead.

The Florida senator is telling reporters in Minnesota that he is looking ahead to the March 15 contest in his home state because he will have "a lot of delegates" after Super Tuesday balloting in 11 states holding Republican contests, even if he doesn't win any states. And he's predicting that the competition will become so fierce that it will become clear that Trump "has no chance" of ever winning enough delegates to capture the GOP presidential nomination.

Rubio also is setting high expectations for Ted Cruz's Super Tuesday finish. Cruz is doing well but not likely to win all 155 delegates offered by the contest in his home state of Texas.

Rubio says, "Tonight was supposed to be Ted Cruz's big night."

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4:45 p.m.

Donald Trump is trying to woo Kentucky voters at a rally in Louisville by criticizing President Barack Obama as having "decimated" the coal industry. Trump said if he becomes president, coal will "make a very big comeback."

His rally on Tuesday was interrupted several times by protesters. The billionaire businessman shouted at them from the stage, "out, out, out." He told the roaring crowd that the protesters wouldn't be there if the nation weren't so politically correct.

Trump, introduced by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, continued to hurl insults at his competitors. He took aim at Demoncratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and said she doesn't have the strength or stamina to be president.

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4:38 p.m.

A judge has dismissed a claim that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz isn't eligible for the Illinois ballot because he was born in Canada.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Maureen Ward Kirby tossed the case on a technicality Tuesday.

Kirby says the suburban Chicago attorney who filed the complaint, Lawrence Joyce, failed to give a copy of it to Cruz or state electoral board members, as required by Illinois law. Instead, Joyce served only lawyers representing Cruz and the board.

Joyce says the Texas senator can't be president because he wasn't born in the U.S. Cruz and some legal experts say he's eligible because his mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born.

Joyce backs Ben Carson but says he acted on his own.

Illinois' primary is March 15.

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2:55 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blasting Donald Trump's "seeming ambivalence about David Duke and the KKK," joining House Speaker Paul Ryan's earlier call for the GOP presidential candidates to reject racism.

The two highest-ranking leaders of Congress spoke as voters in 11 states holding GOP contests went to the polls for the Super Tuesday contests. They never said Trump's name, but clearly were referring to a weekend interview on CNN in which Trump refused to denounce the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard or racist groups. Trump had disavowed them and did so again after facing criticism for wobbling. But the leaders of his party on Tuesday suggested that wasn't enough.

Ryan, the nation's highest-ranking Republican government official, earlier Tuesday said anyone who wants to be the Republican presidential nominee must reject any racist group or individual.

McConnell went next, saying, "Senate Republicans condemn David Duke, the KKK, and his racism."

Republicans are defending their congressional majorities in the November elections.

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2:35 p.m.

A midlevel New York court has refused to throw out a fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump over his former school for real estate investors.

The Appellate Division on Tuesday unanimously rejected Trump's request to dismiss the 2013 suit.

The four justices also denied New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's request for an immediate judgment, saying there are material issues of fact.

Schneiderman alleges Trump University was unlicensed and promised lessons with real estate experts hand-picked by Trump, only one of whom had ever met him.

He says the school used "bait-and-switch" tactics. Its name was changed to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative before it closed in 2010.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Trump's presidential opponents attacked him over the litigation during Thursday's GOP debate. The ruling comes as Super Tuesday primary voters head to the polls.

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2:28 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is making her way through the Midtown Global market in downtown Minneapolis as Super Tuesday voters headed toward the polls.

The Democratic presidential front runner was confronted by a young woman who questioned her record on working with the Somali community and 1996 comments Clinton made calling young people who commit crimes "super predators."

At the time, the term was typically applied to young black men living in urban areas. Clinton made the remark while promoting her husband's 1994 crime bill --- now repudiated by many, including the Clintons --- during his re-election race. Aides confirmed the encounter, pointing out that Clinton met with Somali-Americans during a previous visit to the state and has support from many in the black community.

"Why don't you go run for something then," Clinton responded, after the woman kept questioning her record on racial issues.

Clinton is joined by Governor Mark Dayton and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges. She flew nearly 1,300 miles from campaign events in Virginia on Monday to build support in the state during the final hours before tonight's caucuses and polls close in 12 other Super Tuesday contests.

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2:20 p.m.

Marco Rubio is reminding an audience in Minnesota about what can happen when voters angry with the political establishment elect an outspoken celebrity.

In a ballroom in a northern Minneapolis suburb, Rubio asks, "How did that work out for Jesse Ventura?"

Rubio is referring to a flamboyant former professional wrestler elected governor of Minnesota for one term from 1999 to 2003.

Minnesota holds caucuses for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday evening. Rubio is trying to catch Trump who leads in many of the 11 Super Tuesday states, and has taken to painting Trump as an unprincipled celebrity charlatan.

Rubio says: "Jesse Ventura was an embarrassment. Let me rephrase that. Jesse Ventura is an embarrassment."

Rubio is in Minnesota for the quick rally after blitzing over the past four days Southern states holding Super Tuesday primaries today.

He was in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas and Oklahoma Monday alone, making five stops and nearly losing his voice.

Rubio was planning to fly from Minnesota to his home in Miami Tuesday to await the results of voting in the 11 states holding primaries.

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1:47 p.m.

Donald Trump is criticizing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally in Ohio.

He's telling a crowd of 4,000 in a hangar at Port Columbus International Airport that Clinton "Clinton does not have the strength of the stamina to be president."

Trump also repeated his attacks against GOP rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and vowed to win Ohio's primary in two weeks over GOP rival John Kasich, the state's governor.

Trump got his largest response when he spoke about building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, protecting gun rights and "saying Merry Christmas again."

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1:35 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says Republicans aren't even talking about issues in their protracted race for the GOP presidential nomination.

She tells reporters in Minneapolis that the GOP candidates are "now running their campaigns based on insults. It's turned into a kind of one-upmanship on insulting."

The Democratic presidential front runner says she doesn't think it's appropriate.

She also says she is "disappointed" that Donald Trump did not disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan in a weekend interview.

Clinton added that Trump "obviously" has done very well and "could be on the path" to the GOP nomination.

She spoke as voters in 11 states holding GOP contests went to the polls on Super Tuesday.

Trump has disavowed Duke, but did not do so when asked about the former KKK grand wizard in a CNN interview on Sunday. He subsequently did disavow Duke.

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1:09 p.m.

Ted Cruz says any candidate who can't win his home state "has real problems" winning the GOP presidential nomination. But he's not saying he'll secure all 155 GOP presidential delegates in Texas on Tuesday.

He says, "For any candidate that wakes up tomorrow who has not won any states" it could be "time to start coming together and unifying" against Donald Trump.

Winning every Texas delegate means capturing a majority of the votes statewide and in all 36 congressional districts. Cruz has said that "polling suggests we aren't anywhere close to that threshold."

Still he said insisted Tuesday, "I hope and believe today is a good day."

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12:32 p.m.

The New Hampshire newspaper that gave Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey one of his biggest boosts ahead of the state's primary now says it made a grave mistake.

New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph McQuaid says in an editorial, "Boy, were we wrong."

The editorial published online Monday night comes after Christie, who ended his bid after a disappointing finish in the state, threw his support behind Donald Trump, shocking many in the political word.

McQuaid says the paper offered its Christie endorsement "despite his baggage," because of his experience as a Republican governor in a Democratic state and thinking he had the best chance of taking on Trump.

He adds, "Rather than standing up to the bully, Christie bent his knee. In doing so, he rejected the very principles of his campaign that attracted our support."

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12:05 p.m.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says rival Marco Rubio should drop out of the race if he doesn't win a single Super Tuesday state on Tuesday night.

Trump says on Fox News, "He has to get out. He hasn't won anything."

The GOP presidential frontrunner also is hitting Rubio for his sudden turn to negative campaigning.

While Trump is looking to rack up a long list of wins on Tuesday, Rubio's goal is more modest.

He's aiming to stay competitive in the delegate count to bide time ahead of the vote in Florida on March 15, which he hopes to win.

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10:23 a.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says anyone who wants to be the Republican presidential nominee must reject any racist group or individual.

Ryan made the tacit swipe at GOP front runner Donald Trump as voters in 11 states headed to the polls on Super Tuesday. Ryan told reporters Tuesday that the GOP is the party of President Abraham Lincoln and "this party does not prey on people's prejudices."

He bemoaned the current discourse in the GOP and said it was time to get back to focusing on how Republicans would solve the nation's problems.

Ryan was the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2012. He said he has tried to avoid commenting on the presidential race but felt a need to speak up.

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7:30 a.m.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has voted in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont as Super Tuesday kicks off across 11 states.

Sanders tells reporters that if voter turnout is high "we are going to do well. If not, we're probably going to be struggling."

Sanders says "this is a campaign that is going to the Philadelphia convention in July."

He jokes that "Bernie Sanders here in Vermont got at least one vote. I was working on my wife," Jane. He says, "We're feeling pretty good."

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7:10 a.m.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is showing weariness with repeated questions about when --- and whether --- he has disavowed any connection with David Duke, a onetime Ku Klux Klan leader.

Interviewed by phone on ABC's "Good Morning America" as voters went to the polls early Tuesday, Trump said once again that he had on several occasions disavowed Duke. He told the network at one point that "there's nobody who's done so much for equality as I have."

Trump also said he's bringing new people --- even Democrats --- into the Republican Party. He said, "We're getting people into the party that they've never had before" and said he was relishing the thought of taking on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Trump said, "I can tell you the one person Hillary Clinton doesn't want to run against is me."

(KA)