BOSTON, March 2 (UPI) -- Favorite son Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday won the Democratic Party presidential primary in Massachusetts, taking more than 70 percent of the vote.
Kerry has won nearly every primary or caucus in this election season and was expected to do well in his home state. And with 89 percent of precincts reporting, Kerry had 72 percent of the vote. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., was second -- as he was so often on Super Tuesday -- with 18 percent.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich was third with 4 percent, just ahead of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who dropped out of the race two weeks ago, at 3 percent. New York activist Al Sharpton collected about 1 percent of the vote.
Massachusetts was the biggest New England prize of Super Tuesday with 93 Democratic National Convention delegates at stake and Kerry was projected to take more than 60 of them. The convention will be in Kerry's home town of Boston this July.
Kerry had not formally collected enough delegates to claim the nominations -- he needs 2,162 and has about half that -- but the strong showing Tuesday was enough to convince Edwards, his closest rival, to withdraw form the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. A formal announcement was expected from Edwards Wednesday.
