Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton amid massive turnout at Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party precinct caucuses across Minnesota on Tuesday.

The Associated Press and several other media outlets called the race for the Vermont senator before 10:30 p.m. He had held a double-digit lead most of the night as results trickled in.

State DFL Chairman Ken Martin called it “a very decisive victory.” He and most other DFL leaders had backed Clinton, but he said Minnesota is a progressive state and Sanders is a progressive politician.

Martin said it appeared that Sanders would win each of the state’s eight congressional districts.

His wins in Minnesota and three other states may enable him to live to fight another day, albeit facing a difficult path to the Democratic nomination.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, widened her lead for the Democratic presidential nomination with a string of wins in six southern states plus Massachusetts.

LARGE TURNOUT

Across Minnesota, packed rooms, traffic jams and blocks-long lines of voters waiting to get in were the order of the evening. Turnout could top the 2008 DFL record of 220,000 voters.

Before the caucuses, Sanders had said a large turnout would favor him because he appeals to more first-time voters.

While he built a solid lead, many caucuses were closely divided. In one Eagan precinct, Mayor Mike Maguire said via Twitter that the vote was 75 for Clinton, 75 for Sanders and three undecided.

With 71 percent of the ballots counted, Sanders was winning 46 of Minnesota’s elected Democratic National Convention delegates to Clinton’s 31, Martin said. The DFL also will send to the convention 16 superdelegates who are not bound by caucus voting — top DFL Party and elected officials, mostly committed to Clinton.

In a typical caucus night scene, people lined up in the cold outside Woodbury High School before the doors opened.

Lisa Litchfield, 56, of Woodbury walked in wearing a Bernie Sanders sticker. “Bernie is speaking for me,” she said. “I am middle-class and affected by the downturn. I want a woman president, but I am not going to vote for Hillary.”

Frank Gillespie, 47, of Woodbury said he was leaning toward Clinton. “She is better-qualified and has a better chance of winning. Bernie has a single focus, economic issues, and we need more than that.”

But his 18-year-old son, Frederick Jr., said he is voting for Sanders. “He is focused on the most pressing issues of the day: the wealth gap.”

At the Capitol Hill Magnet School in St. Paul, one precinct ran out of sign-in sheets and printed ballots. Late arrivals wrote their names on blank sheets of paper and voted on torn slips of paper. Sanders carried the precinct, 207 votes to 68.

One voter at the school, Clinton supporter David Tomlinson, 40, said he had never caucused before but felt compelled to this year.

“My vote is going to Hillary Clinton because she’s the candidate that cares the most about people of color,” he said. “She also cares about racial justice, social justice, equality, police brutality. Police are abusing their power.”

“Bernie Sanders? What’s he done?” Tomlinson asked. “On the Republican side, none of them stand for people of color.”

At a classroom on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus, 30 minutes after one DFL caucus convened, a line of voters stretched out the door, down a hall and out the building. There were a lot of students and a lot of Sanders stickers.

“It’s really important for me to support Bernie. He needs young people like me,” said freshman Nicolle Weinstein of Lakeville. “You’re seeing the first generation that’s grown up with technology at our fingertips. We’re very politically aware, and we’re concerned. All I’m saying is this isn’t a big enough room.”

She arrived on a campus shuttle with a group of six friends, all Sanders supporters, all freshmen, and all ready to make a difference.

Clinton supporter George Rodriguez, a senior at the U, acknowledged that “Bernie has a catch with young voters, especially on campuses. I think he’s going to sweep.”

But Rodriguez feels assured by the former secretary of state’s background. “I like the idea of a president going into the White House and just being on top of it,” he said.

Lakeville South High School was another site where Democratic turnout exceeded expectations.

Lakeville resident Shaya Knopke went to her first caucus to support Sanders, who she feels gives a voice to people who typically feel marginalized in the political process.

“If you want to change the world, you have to get out and vote. Even the smallest voice matters,” Knopke said.

Rose Holten, a Clinton supporter, said she was more pragmatic with her vote. She believes Clinton is the Democratic Party’s best shot at keeping the White House.

“I think we need to be very pragmatic because we’re going to face a Republican onslaught. I love Bernie, though,” Holten said.

FREQUENT VISITORS

Clinton paid her fourth campaign visit to Minnesota just hours before the voting started. She made two stops in Minneapolis at a coffee shop and an international market to meet and greet voters and urge them to turn out for the caucuses.

Her appearances signaled the Democratic presidential race in Minnesota was highly competitive. Eleven states held Super Tuesday contests, and Minnesota was the only one she visited that day.

But Sanders paid even more attention to the North Star State in recent weeks. He held rallies in Hibbing on Friday and Rochester on Saturday and made a final stop in Minneapolis on Monday.

While Sanders was here more often, Clinton’s campaign was bolstered by high-profile surrogates, including daughter Chelsea Clinton, Gov. Mark Dayton and U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken. Sanders’ only big-name supporter in the state is Rep. Keith Ellison.

Both campaigns advertised heavily on Minnesota TV stations in recent weeks.

Then-candidate Barack Obama trounced Clinton in the 2008 Minnesota caucuses, and she responded by launching her campaign early this time and rounding up support from most of the DFL establishment.

Pioneer Press reporters Bob Shaw, Frederick Melo, Tory Cooney, Christopher Magan, Tad Vezner and David Montgomery and the Forum News Service contributed to this report.