Sen. Bernie Sanders was projected to win the Alaska and Washington Democratic presidential caucuses -- victories he hopes will spark a Western states comeback and help him cut into frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s substantial lead. 
 
 The Associated Press projected Sanders the winner of both contests. The results of Saturday’s third presidential contest, the Hawaii Democratic Caucus, will not be announced until at least midnight. 
 
 "We knew things were going to improve as we headed west," Sanders said at a rally in Madison, Wis. "We are making significant inroads in ... Clinton's lead ... We have a path toward victory." 
 
 Clinton leads by roughly 300 pledged delegates, with 142 up for grabs Saturday. Washington had the biggest prize, 101 delegates, followed by Hawaii with 25 and Alaska with 16. 
 
 Sanders, a democratic socialist, on Saturday acknowledged his struggles in recent contests across the South, with its strong conservative voting bloc. But he remained optimistic about upcoming contests in the more liberal West including those in Oregon and California, which alone offers 546 delegates. 
 
 The next Democratic and Republican primaries are April 5 in Wisconsin. 
 
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 Sanders is popular among younger and more progressive Americans but continues to struggle to connect with Hispanic and African-American voters. 
 
 He will win at least nine delegates in Alaska. And all of them are elected to the state Democratic convention, not the party's national nominating convention in July in Philadelphia. 
 
 Going into Saturday, Clinton had a 1,223-to-920 lead on Sanders in so-called pledged delegates, who are bound to candidates by their states' elections. 
 
 Data curated by InsideGov 
 
 It takes 2,383 delegates to clinch the nomination. 
 
 Sanders was expected to do well in Washington, considering residents of Seattle, the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest, are among the most liberal in the country and major campaign contributors. 
 
 He drew more than 10,000 supporters to a rally Friday evening at Safeco Field in Seattle. And by Saturday afternoon, the state appeared to be having a record voter turnout, which has helped keep alive Sanders’ insurgent campaign. 
 
 In Spokane, a huge line of caucus attendees had already snaked around a high school parking by Saturday morning. 
 
 "I think one of the biggest things is free tuition for students and getting big money out of politics," said Savannah Dills, 24, a college student who supports Sanders. "He's not paid for by billionaires." 
 
 Top Sanders adviser Ted Devine recently told FoxNews.com that he was optimistic about the campaign cutting Clinton’s lead this weekend to under 300 delegates “with a couple of thousands more delegates to go.” 
 
 Most of the Washington’s Democratic leadership had endorsed Clinton, including Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. 
 
 Still, Sanders entered Saturday’s contests optimistic after winning more delegate than Clinton in three contests earlier this week -- nearly 20 in the Idaho and Utah caucuses, despite losing the marquee Arizona primary to the former secretary of state. 
 
 Sanders has done significantly better in caucus contests, now winning nine of the last 11. 
 
 Most of his 14 primary-season wins have been in states with largely white populations and in the caucus contests, which tend to attract the most active liberal Democrats. 
 
 Yet Sanders still needs a dramatic surge to catch Clinton or even hold her under the number needed to clinch the nomination, despite the optimism and fundraising numbers, which also include collecting more than $140 million from 2 million donors. 
 
 Clinton did not hold a public event after the Alaska and Washington results were announced. 
 
 While Sanders faces a steep climb to the nomination, a string of losses for Clinton would highlight her persistent vulnerabilities, including concerns about her trustworthiness and weak support among younger voters. 
 
 Clinton’s delegate advantage, before Saturday, increases to 1,692-to-949 once the superdelegates, or party officials who can back either candidate, are included. 
 
 Based on that count, Sanders still needs to win 58 percent of the remaining delegates from primaries and caucuses to have a majority of those delegates by June's end. 
 
 His bar is even higher when the party officials are considered. He needs to win more than 67 percent of the remaining delegates overall -- from primaries, caucuses and the ranks of uncommitted superdelegates -- to prevail. 
 
 Because Democrats allocate their delegates on a proportional basis, meaning that the popular vote loser can still pick up a share, his Saturday victories netted Sanders a gain of at least 27 delegates to at least five for Clinton. 
 
 Clinton has been looking past the primary contests and aiming at potential Republican challengers. In interviews, rallies and speeches this week, she largely focused on Tuesday's deadly attacks in Brussels, casting GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as unqualified to deal with complicated international threats. 
 
 Her campaign sees the April 19 contest in New York as an important one, not just because of the rich delegate prize but because losing to Sanders in a state she represented in the Senate would be a psychological blow. She hopes to lock up an even larger share of delegates in five Northeastern contests a week later. 
 
 Fox News’ Lauren Blanchard and Joseph Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| A week after scoring a five-state rout against Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton scored another big win over the Vermont senator by crushing him in Arizona. 
 
 But Sanders easily dispatched Clinton in Utah and Idaho, the other two Western states that voted Tuesday. Both states held caucuses, a format that has favored Sanders. 
 
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 Arizona, though, was the biggest prize of the night, with 85 proportionally allocated delegates at stake. With more than 96 percent of precincts counted in the state as of late Wednesday morning, Clinton was ahead 58 percent to 40 percent. 
 
 Sanders was looking to recapture the burst of momentum he enjoyed after his surprise win in Michigan on March 8. But he entered the day trailing Clinton by double digits in Arizona. 
 
 Shortly after The AP and networks called Arizona for Clinton, Sanders reminded supporters in San Diego just how far he had come in less than a year, while predicting a better finish in Utah and Idaho. 
 
 “When we began this campaign, we were considered a fringe candidacy," Sanders said. "Well, 10 months later we have now won 10 primaries and caucuses and unless I’m very mistaken, we’re gonna win a couple more tonight." 
 
 Before launching into a version of his stump speech, the Vermont senator also suggested that his campaign played a role in bringing out voters to the polls, regardless of whether they voted for him. 
 
 Delegates Remaining: 56 Delegates 2,814 1,893 56 0 2,382 Delegates Needed for Nomination 
 
 "When we began this campaign, we talked about the need for millions of people to become involved in the political process," he said. "Tonight in Utah, tonight in Idaho and tonight in Arizona there are record-breaking turnouts in terms of voters." 
 
 Sanders wrapped his speech by asking supporters to bring their friends and family out to vote in California's June 7 primary, the largest delegate prize in the Democratic primary campaign. "If there is a large voter turnout, we will win here in California," he said, echoing a common refrain. 
 
 He then issued a more explicitly triumphant statement once the later outcomes were clear. “I am enormously grateful to the people of Utah and Idaho for the tremendous voter turnouts that gave us victories with extremely large margins," Sanders said. "These decisive victories in Idaho and Utah give me confidence that we will continue to win major victories in the coming contests.” 
 
 Clinton, speaking to supporters in Seattle, said she was "proud" to have won Arizona before turning her focus to the Republican race. 
 
 The terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, she said, underscored the importance and gravity of the presidential election. "The last thing we need, my friends, are leaders who incite more fear," she continued. 
 
 “We can’t throw out everything we know about what works and what doesn’t and start torturing people," she remarked, alluding to Ted Cruz's call for more stringent policing of Muslim communities and Donald Trump's insistence that torture could have prevented the attacks in the European capital that killed 34 (including three suicide bombers) and wounded hundreds. 
 
 "What Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and others are suggesting, it’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous. It will not keep us safe. This is a time for America to lead, not to cower. And we will lead, and we will defeat terrorists that threaten our friends and allies," she said. 
 
 Sanders campaigned at the U.S.-Mexico border on Saturday, appearing with Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Clinton had the support of Arizona Democratic Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick and Ruben Gallego. 
 
 Unlike the other four candidates left running in either major party, Sanders opted to campaign in Idaho, Utah and Arizona on Monday rather than address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in Washington, D.C. He delivered a foreign policy speech in Salt Lake City in which he called for a restart of the Middle East peace process. 
 
 Following Tuesday's primaries, Clinton has 1,214 pledged delegates, while Sanders has 911. Counting pledged superdelegates, Clinton has 1,681 and Sanders 927, according to The AP. 
 
 The Democratic race next moves to the Saturday caucuses in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state, where Sanders is likely to do well. 
 
 "Our campaign will continue to compete in every state and will work to amass as many pledged delegates as possible everywhere," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in a memo after Clinton's March 15 sweep. "In fact, we already have staff on the ground in every state that votes through the end of April. But our pledged delegate lead is so significant that even a string of victories by Sen. Sanders over the next few weeks would have little impact on Sec. Clinton’s position in the race." 
 
 Clinton's allies in Congress are calling on Sanders to wind down his campaign or, short of that, stop attacking the former secretary of state directly. A prolonged primary battle, they say, will only aid Trump in a potential general election matchup.
– Bernie Sanders has won Saturday's caucuses in Alaska, Washington state, and Hawaii as he fights to gain ground on Hillary Clinton, reports the AP. Washington was Saturday's big prize with 101 delegates at stake, and Politico called a victory there "essential" to Sanders' campaign hopes. The delegates will be awarded proportionately and Sanders was headed toward a lopsided win—good news for him given that he trailed Clinton by more than 300 pledged delegates heading into the day. It's no surprise to see Sanders do well in Washington, notes Fox News. On Friday, he drew 10,000 to a rally in Seattle, one of the most liberal cities in the country. Seattle also leads the country in per-capita individual donations to Sanders—about $145 for every 100 people. The story was largely the same in Alaska, where Sanders had a lead of nearly 60 points with more than a third of precincts reporting. Analysts say the overwhelming whiteness of Alaska, which has 16 delegates up for grabs, favored Sanders. The final 25 delegates of the day came from Hawaii's caucuses. Throughout the campaign, Sanders has done better in caucuses than primaries. "The Deep South is a very conservative part of the country," he tells the AP. "Now that we're heading into a progressive part of the country, we expect to do much better. There is a path to victory." That path, the AP notes, is steep: After the first two wins Saturday, Clinton's delegate lead was 1,234 to 956 over Sanders, which widens considerably when superdelegates are included: 1,703 to 985.