UPDATE 2 - Biden takes 8 Super Tuesday wins as Sanders looks west

UPDATES HEADLINE ADDS MASSACHUSETTS

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Former Vice President Joe Biden is riding early momentum on Super Tuesday with a slew of wins in southern states as Sen. Bernie Sanders looks further west for major victories.

Biden is making a strong showing in the American South, where all three major cable news networks have projected his victories in Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Oklahoma -- states in which he holds strong support among black voters.

He is also projected to win the midwestern state of Minnesota, one day after Amy Klobuchar, the state's senator, abruptly ended her campaign and called on supporters to back him.

"It’s still early, but things are looking awful, awful good. For those that have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign,” Biden told supporters in Los Angeles.

Sanders, meanwhile, easily took his home state of Vermont as well as Colorado and Utah as he seeks to make major inroads further west.

Addressing supporters in Vermont, he maintained his campaign is uniquely positioned to defeat President Donald Trump come November.

“It is our movement that is best positioned to defeat Trump. You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics," Sanders said. "What we need is a new kind of politics that brings working class people into our political movement, which brings young people into our political movement, and which in November will create the highest voter turnout in American political history.”

Roughly one-third of all delegates nationwide are up for grabs in 14 states spanning the breadth of the continental U.S. and American Samoa. Democrats outside of the U.S. will also be able to begin casting their ballots in a separate contest that will run through the following Tuesday.

Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg is projected to win American Samoa.

The race has been too close to call in Maine.

But in a major upset for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Biden has been projected to take top spot in her home state, followed by Sanders, increasing questions over the feasibility of Warren's campaign.

Voting is still underway in the night's two biggest prizes, Texas and California, which boast the most delegates at stake Tuesday evening and combine for about half of all delegates in play on Tuesday.

Sanders has an early lead in Texas, but the race is still anyone's for the taking. As for California, results for the night's most important state are not expected until Wednesday at the earliest.

Polls officially close in California at 8 p.m. Western Time (0400 GMT), but those who are in line by that time are still allowed to cast their ballots as long as they remain in line. The state of 40 million people also accepts mail-in ballots as long as they are postmarked by Tuesday.

Sanders so far has taken an early lead in the night's most important state, which has more delegates than any other state with 415, but the race is too early to call.