Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to cruise to an easy reelection victory in Vermont on Tuesday night, defeating Republican Lawrence Zupan by a wide margin.
Projections from AP and ABC called the race as polls closed, with less than 1 percent of precincts reporting.
Sanders had a 40-point lead in pre-election polls in his bid for a third Senate term from Vermont, one of the most Democratic-leaning states in the nation.
Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, kept his status as a political independent despite running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. He ultimately lost to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
{mosads}Sanders, whose views represent the progressive flank of the party, is considered a likely contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination. His push on issues such as “Medicare for all” have shaped the debate within the Democratic establishment.
Zupan, who ran on an anti-regulation platform, had actually lost the GOP primary to H. Brooke Paige, but the GOP state committee put him on the ballot anyway after Paige withdrew his candidacy.