US Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry is hoping to build on his commanding lead in the race for his party's presidential nomination today when voters in Michigan and Washington state choose their preferred candidate.
With wins in seven of the first nine contests, Kerry is riding a wave that threatens to swamp all five of his remaining rivals vying for the right to challenge President George W. Bush in November.
A total of 204 delegates to July's nominating convention are at stake in the two states on Saturday. Kerry is favoured in both, and he has moved out to a huge lead in public opinion polls in Michigan, the biggest state to vote so far.
"Victory is in the air," Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Kerry supporter, said at a rally in the Detroit suburb of Warren.
Michigan and Washington are the first of five states to vote in the presidential race over the next four days. Maine will hold caucuses on Sunday, and Tennessee and Virginia will hold primaries on Tuesday.
Michigan, a strongly Democratic state with a broad urban and rural mix and large populations of blacks and union members, had been pegged a key battleground in the nomination fight but Kerry's surge forced his rivals to recalculate their strategies.
Retired General Wesley Clark and North Carolina Senator John Edwards both skipped visits to Michigan or Washington this week to focus on Tuesday's contests in Virginia and Tennessee, where they are locked in a tough battle that could decide which one moves on to tackle Kerry.
Former front-runner Howard Dean, who in a month has squandered big leads in the polls and a record bank account, made some appearances in Michigan and Washington but then pulled out to concentrate on making a potential last stand in the February 17 primary in Wisconsin.