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6 months ago
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UPDATED, with latest results: Donald Trump and Joe Biden dominated a majority of Super Tuesday contests this evening, making it all the more certain that the November election will be a rematch.
Biden and Trump were projected to be the winners, by a wide margin, of party primaries in Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Maine, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Alabama and Tennessee. Biden also was projected to win Vermont and Colorado.
The lingering question was how well Nikki Haley does in the contests and whether it is enough of a showing to continue in her bid for the Republican nomination.
One of her best chances of an outright win was in Vermont, where the Republican race was too early to call.
But Trump has scored lopsided margins of victory in other states.
“It is pretty clear Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee,” said CNN’s John King. “Let’s keep and open mind, but the math doesn’t lie.” Pundits began to focus on where Haley’s voters would go — to Trump or Biden — if she drops out.
As Trump’s last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, Haley has tried to draw on disaffected Trump voters as well as some disappointed Democrats, but she has won just one primary, in the District of Columbia.
On NBC News Now, Ali Vitali reported “pretty much alone” at Haley headquarters, where there was no watch party and the candidate was not expected to speak. “And here’s the problem with something like that, for Nikki Haley to come out and say I’m going to stay in this race for as long as I’m competitive,” Vitali said. “People will make their own judgments as she has pointed out about what it looks like to be competitive. But it also helps if you’re the candidate that you can lay out what you think is competitive. And if she’s not going to talk tonight, it’s really hard for her to do that.”
That said, pundits pointed to Haley’s showing as still significant — and a warning sign for Trump. On Fox News, commentator Karl Rove said that despite Trump’s dominance, “the high command of team Trump ought to be concerned about unifying the Republican party,” noting with a whiteboard the states where Haley was getting 25% or more of the vote.
“There’s still some work to be done to unify the Republican party, and that is going to depend a lot on his tone tonight and whether he stops doing things like calling her Birdbrain and threatening that if you give money to her campaign, you’re going to be permanently banned.”
Some 16 states and one territory were voting on Tuesday. They included Virginia, Vermont, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maine, Oklahoma, Alabama and Tennessee, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas and Utah. A Democratic caucus also is being held in American Samoa. Earlier this evening, Iowa Democrats revealed the results of an all-mail in caucus, with Biden winning more than 90% of the vote.
Networks devoted extensive resources to Super Tuesday, even though the competitive landscape is much more muted than in cycles past. Major news networks featured countdown clocks to the first polls closing at 7 p.m. ET. All three broadcast networks were planning primetime specials devoted to the results. Earlier this evening, CNN and MSNBC released some exit poll information from selected states, including North Carolina and Virginia, showing majorities of Republican voters still don’t believe the 2020 election was legitimate and that they would still support Trump even if he was convicted of a crime.
As much as Trump and Biden were expected to dominate the evening, they were not expected to clinch their party’s respective nomination just yet. That could come later this month. Trump needs 1,215 delegates; Biden needs 1,968.
Some of the more suspenseful races were down ballot.
In California, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), all Democrats, and Republican Steve Garvey were the highest profile candidates vying for a rare open U.S. Senate seat. The top two finishers, regardless of party, will advance to the November election.
Other races on the radar include Schiff’s 30th district congressional seat, where actor Ben Savage was among a field of 15 candidates seeking to advance to the general election. In the race for Porter’s seat, State Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat, is running against attorney Joanna Weiss. The race has been notable because United Democracy Project, a campaign PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has spent $4.6 million against Min, according to Semafor. On the Republican side, former assemblyman Scott Baugh was the most prominent candidate, having narrowly lost to Porter in 2022.
In the 22nd district, Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), one of two Republicans remaining in the House who voted to impeach Trump, is fighting to hold on to his seat. While he faces a challenge from another Republican, there was the possibility that Democrats will split the vote and be left off the ballot in the general election.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon faced a crowded field of challengers in his race for reelection. Gascon has been the target of two recall efforts.
In North Carolina, voters were selecting party candidates to face off in the open governor’s seat. Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor, was projected to win the Republican nomination, despite a record of making antisemitic and anti-LGBT comments. The state’s attorney general, Josh Stein, won the Democratic primary.
