WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton swept through the South on Super Tuesday, claiming victory in their parties’ primaries in delegate-rich Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia. The front-runners appeared ever more likely to end up in a general election showdown.

On the Republican side, Ted Cruz won his home state of Texas, the night’s single biggest prize, as well as neighboring Oklahoma. Democrat Bernie Sanders picked up his home state of Vermont, as well as Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota, but failed to broaden his appeal with minority voters who are crucial to the party in presidential elections.

Trump and Clinton each won overall in seven states.

STATE BY STATE RESULTS:

The night belonged to Trump and Clinton, who turned the busiest day of the 2016 primaries into a showcase of their strength with a wide swath of American voters.

Signaling her confidence, Clinton set her sights on Trump as she addressed supporters during a victory rally.

“It’s clear tonight that the stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower,” she said.

Trump, too, had his eye on a general election match-up with the former secretary of state, casting her as part of a political establishment that has failed Americans.

“She’s been there for so long,” Trump said at his swanky Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “If she hasn’t straightened it out by now, she’s not going to straighten it out in the next four years.”

Trump’s dominance has rattled Republican leaders, who fear he’s unelectable against Clinton in November. Even as Trump professed to have good relationships with his party’s elite, he issued a warning to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who declared earlier in the day that “this party does not prey on people’s prejudices.” Trump said that if the two don’t get along, “he’s going to have to pay a big price.”

But all efforts to stop Trump have failed, including an aggressive campaign by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to discredit the billionaire businessman.

For Rubio, Super Tuesday turned into a bitter disappointment. He emerged with his first victory in Minnesota but failed to live up to the wider hopes of the numerous Republican officeholders who have promoted him as the party’s best alternative to Trump.

With an eye on Florida’s March 15 primary, Rubio vowed to keep up efforts to “unmask the true nature of the front-runner in this race.”

Cruz desperately needed his win in Texas in order to stay in the race. He’s the only Republican to beat Trump this primary season, a fact he wielded as he called on Rubio and other candidates to step aside.

“I ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together, united,” Cruz said.

EXIT POLLING

In six states (Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas), large majorities of Republican primary voters expressed support for temporarily banning all non-citizen Muslims from entering the U.S., a Trump proposal, according to early results of exit polls.

But Republican voters were more divided on another of his contentious ideas, to deport all people who are in the U.S. illegally. The proposal won majority support only in Alabama, among seven states where that question was asked of GOP voters.

VOTERS SAY…

-“Ultimately, if we have to elect someone who is borderline crazy to get people to understand what’s going on, then that’s what we have to do.” – Tyler Murphy, 26, of Boston, explaining his vote for Trump in the Republican contest. His backup choice was Clinton, a Democrat.

-“I’m so appalled at the choices.” –Gillian Gattie, 72, also of Boston. After 2008 and 2012 votes for Barack Obama, she was voting this time in the GOP race, for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

-“I can’t get excited for Bernie Sanders.” – Gillian’s twin sister, Vivien Gattie, who reluctantly voted for Clinton.

-“I like his background coming from a mother and dad who worked very hard, paycheck to paycheck. For him to provide that depth of understanding of what most people go through is important to me.” – Mark Vinson, 53, in Lubbock, Texas, explaining his vote for Republican Marco Rubio.

-“I stood in line for six hours the other day at a Trump rally because to me he’s just the man. He is the one that is going to make the country great again.” – Jeanie Lindsey, in Helena, Alabama, on why she lined up for 40 minutes Tuesday to back Trump.

THE LINEUP

Both parties held contests in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. As well, Republicans voted in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado. Democrats also had a contest in American Samoa and for Democrats abroad.

Polls close, EST: 7 p.m. in Virginia, Georgia and Vermont; 8 p.m. in Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee and Massachusetts; 8:30 p.m. in Arkansas; 9 p.m. in Texas, Colorado and Minnesota; midnight in Alaska.

WHAT’S THE SCORE?

Before Super Tuesday, Trump won New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Clinton won Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina.

Republican Ted Cruz won Iowa. Democrat Sanders won New Hampshire.

Republicans will allocate 595 delegates from the results of Super Tuesday, nearly half of the 1,237 needed for the nomination.

Democrats will allocate 865, more than one-third of the necessary 2,383.

WHY IT MATTERS

Immigration policy, the swollen U.S. debt, the uneven spread of wealth and hard questions about how to approach the Islamic State, terrorism and civil liberties are all in play for voters.

So is the fate of fundamental social policy as the Supreme Court stands ideologically divided. A vacancy may not be filled until after the next president takes office in January.

Trump’s agenda involves browbeating trading partners and others into doing his will. He would be on the hook for carrying out mass deportations of people in the country illegally, for temporarily banning non-U.S. citizen Muslims from coming into the country and for replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law with a system that does not, as he put it, leave people to die on the street.

Democrats have a choice between liberal pragmatism and liberal ambition.

Sanders preaches free college, a transformation of health care to a government-financed “Medicare-for-all” system and a breakup of big banks as part of an agenda centered on shrinking the gap between rich and poor. That means a far heftier safety net, at the cost of higher taxes and what a lot of economists say would be higher national debt.

Clinton says his goals are politically impossible and she would follow an achievable, yet still activist path.

TEXAS AND THE SOUTH

The South will enjoy more influence in this campaign because of several states added to the Super Tuesdayroster, giving this subset the nickname “SEC primary,” a nod to the Southeastern Conference of college sports. Clinton demonstrated her pull with black voters in South Carolina, suggesting she may do well in other Southern states with significant black populations.

The biggest Super Tuesday state overall is Texas, where Cruz has a home-state advantage built on prime endorsements from the governor down the political chain and a veritable army of some 27,000 volunteers.

Everything in politics is double-edged, though.

If Trump’s rebel yell attracts enough support to make him the winner or even a close second, Cruz will face sharp questions about his viability.