Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders had a surprise win on Tuesday. Credit:AP In the shock result of the night, Sanders' two-point win over Clinton in Michigan laid waste to several last-minute polls which had gave Clinton a lead ranging from 13 points to 27 points. In the GOP race in Michigan, Trump bagged 21 convention delegates with his 36.7 per cent vote. Behind him, Kasich won 15 delegates (24.7 per cent); Cruz, 12 delegates (24.5); and humiliatingly last was Rubio, with no delegates for his 9.2 per cent share of the vote. In Mississippi, the last of the southern states to vote, Clinton romped away in the Democratic vote – with 83.1 per cent. In the Republican vote in Mississippi, Trump's startling 48 per cent of the vote cast a pall over the rest of the field – Cruz, 36.4 per cent; Kasich, 8.3 per cent; and Rubio, 4.9 per cent. In Hawaii, with 19 delegates, Trump won - earning a proportional eight delegates.

A chef with the Trump National Golf Club arranges Trump steaks before a news conference by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday. Credit:AP Idaho offered some face-saving for Cruz and Rubio. Cruz won with 45 per cent to Trump's 29 per cent. Even Rubio seemed set to break from what otherwise would have been an across-the-board single-digit evening – he was on 16 per cent. Voting also took place in the Hawaii caucus, with 19 delegates on offer, and Trump was projected to win with 45 per cent of the vote. Donald Trump merchandise – including 'I'm huuuuge' condoms – are displayed along with material by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Credit:AP On the Republican side, with candidates needing 1237 delegates to clinch the nomination, Trump now has 428; Cruz has 315; Rubio has 151; and Kasich 52. In the Democratic race, Clinton now has amassed 1220 delegates to Sanders' haul of 571– with each of them needing 2383 to lock up the nomination.

And despite all that, in the Real Clear Politics averaging of national opinion polls, Trump is down, at 36 per cent; and Cruz and Rubio are climbing – at 20.8 points and 18.6 points respectively. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has called for sanctions against Iran after it test-launched two long-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday. Credit:AP Exit polls confirmed the combustible voter anger with Washington and the political process that is driving support for the likes of Trump and, to a lesser extent, Sanders. When CBS News exit-pollsters asked GOP voters whether they preferred an outsider to an experienced politician, 60 per cent in Mississippi and 52 per cent in Michigan opted for an outsider. The most surprising aspect of Democrat exit polls was Clinton's lowest showing to date among black voters in Michigan – she beat Sanders in this demographic by 32, down by about half. Donald Trump at the Trump National Golf Club in Florida on Tuesday. Credit:AP

Modest as always, Trump managed to rate Jesus Christ as an also-ran, when he spoke at a Florida victory celebration that was as much political event as showcase for Trump resorts, steaks, bottled water, wine and magazines. Flanked by tables of these goodies, the mogul offered this gem on one of the demographics that brought his success. "I tell you, with the evangelicals, they get it. They get me. They understand me. I'll be the best thing that ever happened to them. I mean that. 100 per cent." Republican presidential candidate senator Ted Cruz at a campaign rally in Kannapolis, North Carolina, on Tuesday. Credit:AP Mocking his opponents who had peeled off as the GOP field shrunk from an original 17 to four, Trump jeered, celebrating his two wins on the night despite "$38 million worth of horrible lies" in advertising that was meant to cut him down. Trump's twin wins mean that votes in Ohio and Florida next week, the home states of Kasich and Rubio respectively, could be the establishment's last opportunity to break Trump's stride towards the White House. Both Rubio and Kasich have put their campaigns on the line – each declaring they will win at home.

Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland on Tuesday. Credit:AP As voting opened on Tuesday, the Rubio campaign was furiously denying a CNN report that key staff had been advising Rubio to quit, to save face by avoiding what they had concluded would be certain defeat if he stayed in the Florida vote. Those denials were buoyed by a new Monmouth University poll, showing that Rubio had closed the gap between himself and Trump in Florida, previously in double digits, to eight points – 38-30. Analysts say that if Trump cannot pull off both states, the decision on who is to be the GOP nominee probably will be made on the floor of the Republican convention in Cleveland in July. Lauren Esquivel displays a sign supporting Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Miami on Tuesday. Credit:AP The race for the Democrat nomination had been expected to stay its now predictable course – challenger Sanders would continue to lag Clinton.

The marked contrast between the two campaigns – Republican; threats, infighting amid a sense of doom; Democrats; issue-focused, agitated civility – was borne out in an exchange between commentators Arthur Brooks and Gail Collins in The New York Times before the count began in Tuesday's voting. Brooks: "The [Republican] plot thickened … As of now, Cruz is closely trailing Trump in the delegate count – Trump is up 384-300. Rubio is a distant third at 151. The Democrats, on the other hand, have gotten enviably boring. At this point, the Clinton campaign's grim march to victory is looking inevitable, right?" Collins: "Arthur, I have already admitted the Hillary-Bernie battle has ceased to be all that thrilling. Really – issues, issues, issues. Yawn. I'm sure the Democrats wish they could have all the excitement and colour of Donald Trump stomping toward the nomination over the still-struggling bodies of the most hated man in the Senate and an increasingly juvenile Floridian who's terrified he'll lose his own state." But despite having less than half Clinton's allotted convention delegates, the win in Michigan gives Sanders momentum, particularly as the primary races move into the so-called rustbelt states, where Sanders believes, as was the case in Michigan, white voters are receptive to his stump speech and Clinton has let them down with her past support for free trade agreements. Clinton won decisively in Mississippi. But her supporters across the country could not cheer with her – none of the TV networks covered her Mississippi victory speech because Trump was promoting his beef and bottled water at the same time and that's what went to air.

"You have the water, you have the steaks," Trump said, as he flipped through a copy of Trump magazine. "You have the wines and all of that …" All makes the late Alan Bond look like a saint. Follow FairfaxForeign on Twitter Follow FairfaxForeign on Facebook