DETROIT — Bernie Sanders scored one of the biggest victories of his underdog campaign Tuesday by beating Hillary Clinton in Michigan, a delegate-rich state where she led by double digits in the closing days before voting.

The 2-point upset came after both candidates invested time and money in the state, and fuels the argument from Sanders' camp that he should not be written off after Clinton’s earlier wins.


The outcome in Michigan is significant for Sanders because it demonstrates an ability to compete in diverse primary states — counteracting a knock frequently leveled at him by Clinton allies that he has only performed well in largely white states.

"What tonight means is the Bernie Sanders campaign, the people's revolution that we are talking about, the political revolution we have been talking about, is strong in every part of the country," Sanders told reporters in Miami before the race was called. He predicted success in upcoming states, including in the West.

In a statement after he was declared the winner, Sanders added: "“I am grateful to the people of Michigan for defying the pundits and pollsters and giving us their support. This is a critically important night. We came from 30 points down in Michigan and we’re seeing the same kind of come-from-behind momentum all across America.

Sanders clung to a narrow lead for hours as results trickled in. Finally, almost four hours after most polls closed and with more than 90 percent of the vote counted, the race was called for Sanders, 50 to 48 percent.

Still, the tight margin means Clinton will still finish the night ahead in delegates after she dominated Sanders in Mississippi, the other state to vote on Tuesday, on the strength of her support among nearly nine of 10 African-American voters in the state.

But Sanders' win has the potential to breathe new life into his campaign on the eve of another debate with Clinton in Miami. People close to his team think the win in Michigan means he could compete strongly next Tuesday in similar states like Ohio and Illinois — a pair that Clinton allies were once more confident about.

While Clinton aides watched the Michigan results closely, they celebrated a sweeping, if widely-expected win in Mississippi earlier in the night.

Clinton's victory in the heavily African-American Southern state was called as soon as polls closed, following the pattern set by her easy wins across the South starting with South Carolina in February. Sanders barely competed in Mississippi, choosing to focus on the other state voting on Tuesday.

Neither Clinton nor Sanders were in Michigan Tuesday night, but their absence doesn't imply indifference. Both candidates campaigned hard in the state — Sanders for the chance to gain ground on the former secretary of state, and Clinton to close the door on his candidacy with a win in a competitive, delegate-rich state.

Speaking at a rally in Cleveland as results trickled in showing a tight race in Michigan, Clinton did not mention the neighboring state.

"I’m proud of the campaign that Sen. Sanders and I are running. We have our differences," Clinton said, "but I’ll tell ya what, those differences pale when compared to what’s happening on the Republican side.”

Clinton maintained a double-digit lead in nearly all polls of Michigan, the party’s second-biggest state in terms of delegates to vote so far. But Sanders visited the state repeatedly in recent weeks, believing its economically hard-hit areas would respond to his message of combating economic inequality. The surprise victory, his campaign team believes, should quiet naysayers who have questioned his viability after Clinton’s sweeping wins in last week's Super Tuesday contests.

It also allows him to argue that he's a truly national candidate, while most of Clinton’s big victories have been in the South.

In the lead-up to Tuesday, Clinton’s allies said a Sanders win likely wouldn’t help the Vermont senator's net delegate count. Clinton’s dominance in states like Mississippi has powered her to a delegate lead that Sanders is looking to chip into — but which is already wider than any lead Barack Obama had over Clinton in 2008.

"With a pledged delegate lead of more than 180 and momentum on our side, we anticipate building this lead even further, making it increasingly difficult and eventually mathematically impossible for Sen. Sanders to catch up," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in a memo after Super Tuesday. Since then, Sanders has won caucuses in Nebraska, Kansas, and Maine, but Clinton's wide Louisiana victory kept his net delegate gain to a minimum.

As a result, Clinton has slowly started looking ahead, telling a Detroit crowd on Monday, "The sooner I could become your nominee, the more I could begin to turn our attention to the Republicans."

Still, the front-runner redoubled her efforts in Michigan as polls tightened with the flood of in-state advertising dollars coming from the senator’s team. In recent days Clinton was joined in the state by her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and her daughter Chelsea Clinton.

The sparring in and around Detroit grew increasingly intense over the final week.

Sensing a major vulnerability, Sanders amped up his argument that Clinton’s support for multinational trade deals in the past tied her to some of the catalysts of the state’s economic devastation. Clinton shot back on the debate stage in Flint on Sunday, accusing her rival of not supporting the auto bailout — a move similar to the one that hampered Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign in Michigan and Ohio in 2012.

Her campaign then swiftly turned the moment into a radio advertisement airing in the state.

Sanders, in turn, used speeches, interviews, and a scathing radio ad of his own to hit back on Monday, calling Clinton’s claim inaccurate.

"Of course I voted in the one Senate vote where I had an opportunity to support the auto industry," Sanders said on Monday night, in a Fox News town hall attended by both candidates. "What I did not vote for was the bailout of Wall Street, and Secretary Clinton did vote for that."

Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.