UPDATED: Trump wins three primaries, Clinton takes Maryland

Donald Trump attends 2016 Time 100 Gala, Time’s Most Influential People In The World red carpet at Jazz At Lincoln Center at the Times Warner Center on April 26, 2016 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Time/AFP

WASHINGTON,United States (AFP) — Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on Tuesday scored major wins in the Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut primaries, US networks projected, while Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton drew first blood in Maryland.

Trump and Clinton were expected to do well in the night’s five contests, which also include votes in Delaware and Rhode Island. The two are looking to move even closer to locking up the nominations of their respective parties.

Should Clinton sweep the evening’s primaries, it would put her on the cusp of victory against her rival Senator Bernie Sanders, a monumental step in the 68-year-old’s quest to become the nation’s first female commander-in-chief.

“I don’t have the nomination yet,” Clinton — a former secretary of state, first lady and US senator — said in a town hall event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city, on the eve of the vote.

“We’re going to work really hard until the polls close.”

Trump also was expected to extend his formidable lead in the bruising Republican race, even as rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich mounted a hasty — and already fraying — tag team effort to block him.

Kasich agreed to forego campaigning in Indiana, a winner-take-all state that votes May 3, and Cruz, a US senator from Texas, will return the favor later in New Mexico and Oregon.

But within hours of the surprise deal, Kasich — the governor of Ohio — was already playing it down, saying he was not telling his supporters in Indiana not to vote for him.

Tuesday’s voting began at 6:00 am (1000 GMT) in Connecticut and one hour later in the other states. Polls close at 8:00 pm (0000 GMT Wednesday).

PHILADELPHIA, PA – APRIL 25: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a Get Out the Vote rally at Philadelphia City Hall on April 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton is campaigning in Deleware and Pennsylvania ahead of Tuesday’s presidential primaries. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

Sanders has vowed to fight on until the California primary on June 7.

“I don’t accept there is no path forward. Let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched,” Sanders told MSNBC Tuesday.

Trump was riding high going into the latest “Super Tuesday” contests.

“We feel very good about our position tonight,” campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Tuesday on CNN.

Trump has been in full attack mode, pouring scorn on the Cruz-Kasich deal and describing it as “collusion.”

The partnership “shows how weak they are,” Trump said. “It shows how pathetic they are.”

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