Super Tuesday primary: Trump wins Virginia, North Carolina; Joe Biden Tennessee, Oklahoma
Super Tuesday is the biggest day so far in the 2024 race for the White House, the day when most states vote in the presidential primary calendar.
On March 5, voters across 16 US states and one territory voted for presidential candidates, as President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, two bitter rivals, hurtle towards a rematch in November’s general election. Meanwhile, Trump’s last remaining rival, Nikki Haley, will be searching for some rationale to continue her increasingly implausible bid.
Nominating contests were held in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and the US territory of American Samoa.
SUPER TUESDAY PRIMARY: THE LATEST
Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee.
Donald Trump swept Republican presidential nominating contests in Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee on Tuesday, Edison Research projected, as he sought to force rival Nikki Haley from the race on the primary calendar’s biggest day and set up a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden. Trump, who frequently denigrates migrants, has promised to mount the largest deportation effort in US history if elected.
Based on the result of each contest, party officials known as delegates are awarded to the top candidates. A certain number of delegates is needed to formally anoint the nominee at each party’s convention this summer. On Super Tuesday, about one-third of the total delegates – 865 Republican and at least 1,420 Democratic – are up for grabs.
The Trump campaign has projected he will win at least 773 delegates on the day and clinch the nomination later in March. He currently has an estimated 244 delegates, while his Republican rival, Nikki Haley, has 43. A minimum of 1,215 delegates are needed to win the Republican nomination, while 1,968 is the magic number for the Democrats.
President Joe Biden is all but certain to seal his party’s nomination, despite long-shot challenges from Congressman Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson. On February 27, the Biden campaign had a setback in Michigan, when 13 per cent of voters declared themselves “uncommitted” amid a campaign to register a protest ballot over the President’s support for Israel.
Meanwhile, with a double-digit lead in the polls, Donald Trump – the Republican front-runner, will be hoping to finally knock Haley out of the race. Nikki Haley is still standing despite only racking up a single win in a string of nominating votes so far and deep-pocketed donors closing their wallets. Although she has no clear path to victory, Super Tuesday may be her last chance to impede Trump’s momentum or expose his potential vulnerabilities heading into the general election.