Party frontrunners win Tuesday’s primaries

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden received the most votes in all 82 counties in Mississippi on Tuesday, awarding him an overwhelming majority of Mississippi's 36 primary delegates.

Biden bested his lone remaining contender Bernie Sanders in Madison County with 10,781 votes to Sanders' 1,986. The only other Democrat to receive over 100 votes was former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (179), who announced he was dropping out of the race last week.

Statewide results showed Biden received 81 percent of all votes. Sanders, who was hoping for a good showing after his opponent surged into the lead a week ago on Super Tuesday, received just 39,873 votes representing 15 percent of voters.

That's an important distinction, because if Sanders hadn't reached the viability mark of 15 percent, he would not have secured any of Mississippi's 36 delegates. Nationwide, Biden captured four of the six states that were up for grabs Tuesday.

Incumbent Republican President Donald Trump received 239,711 votes - roughly 99 percent of all voters.

The down-ballot races were just as lop-sided.



In the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, Madison attorney Mike Espy defeated Tobey Bartee and Jensen Bohren by capturing 93.1 percent of the vote. He will face incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in a rematch of the 2018 race, which Hyde-Smith won with 54 percent of the vote to Espy's 46.

U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson similarly cruised past his lone primary challenger with 94 percent of the vote. He will face either Brian Flowers or Thomas Carey, who are headed to a runoff on the Republican side, in November.

Incumbent Republican Michael Guest, who represents Mississippi's third congressional district, cruised to the party nomination against challenger James Tulp. Guest received 66,429 votes to Tulp's 7,561 - representing a 90-10 split among Republican voters. Guest will face Democratic challenger Dorothy Benford, who received 64 percent of Democrats' vote for her party's nomination.