Joe Biden and Donald Trump were both anticipated to easily secure wins on Super Tuesday. Early results show that Biden and Trump secured victories in their primary elections in Virginia, North Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Colorado, and Minnesota. In addition to that, Biden secured victory in the Democratic caucus in Iowa and Vermont.
This primary campaign season in the United States is experiencing a lack of competitive tension not seen since the 1970s when political primaries began to dominate the nomination process.
Neither the current president nor the former president has secured the nomination of their respective parties, but both are expected to do so within the next two weeks.
Biden Dominates Democratic Presidential Primary
Biden needs 1,968 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination. Heading into Super Tuesday, he had 206 delegates. Today's primaries and caucuses resulted in an additional 1,420 delegates being allocated.
If Biden continues to dominate primary contests, he could potentially secure the nomination on the first ballot as early as 19 March, pending results from Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio.
Democratic candidates have the opportunity to secure delegates by receiving 15% or higher of the vote in a congressional district. California's 424 Democratic delegates are the most significant prize of the evening. California is known for its slow election count, and final results may not be available until Wednesday morning, but this could be Marianne Williamson's opportunity to secure more delegates.
Mail-in candidate votes usually require several days to count, but many are closely monitoring for protest votes like "uncommitted" or "none of the above" to show dissatisfaction with the Biden administration's stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict. The campaign has made significant progress following a powerful performance in Michigan last week.
William Galvin, the secretary of state for Massachusetts, informed the press today that in the event that a significant number of voters choose "no preference", a delegate could be allocated to that choice.
Trump Continues to Advance GOP Primary
Trump had 273 delegates going into Super Tuesday, needing 1,215 to secure the nomination at the Republican National Convention. Super Tuesday presented 865 delegates, with Nikki Haley's ongoing campaign preventing Trump from securing all of them.
Based on tonight's results, the soonest Trump could clinch the nomination is on March 19th after the primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio. Trump received a last-minute break in Colorado as the US supreme court ruled on Monday that states cannot remove a presidential candidate from the ballot without following the 14th amendment, and he was predicted to win Colorado.
Haley emerged victorious in the District of Columbia primary on Sunday and in Vermont today, making history as the first woman to secure a Republican presidential primary win. Only approximately 2,000 individuals participated in the primary election.
Meanwhile, Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley competed for the GOP nomination, with Haley making a last-minute appeal to voters in the commonwealth during a recent appearance. Haley had just secured her first major win in Washington, DC.
Biden and Trump are close to securing their parties' nominations on Tuesday, the most significant day of the primary campaign. Despite some voters desiring a different matchup than the one from four years ago, both candidates were in a strong position.
Super Tuesday showcases elections in 16 states and one territory, spanning from Alaska and California to Vermont and Virginia. There are hundreds of delegates up for grabs, the largest number in the race for any party.
The evening began with Biden securing victories in Virginia, Vermont, and Iowa, where Democrats had conducted a presidential preference contest whose results were only made public on Tuesday.
Both Biden and Trump, aged 81 and 77 respectively, continue to be the center of attention within their parties, despite concerns about their age and lack of widespread popularity among the general public.
Both candidates can potentially become their party's presumptive nominee as early as March 12 for one and March 19 for the other. However, unlike most previous Super Tuesdays, both nominations are essentially decided, with Biden and Trump already focusing on a rematch of the 2020 general election.
Even though Biden and Trump have been the main figures in their respective parties, polls indicate that the general public is looking for a different dynamic in this year's election compared to the 2020 race. According to a recent poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, most Americans believe that neither Biden nor Trump possess the mental sharpness required for the job.
The days leading up to Tuesday showcased the distinctiveness of this year's campaign. Instead of touring the states with primaries, Biden and Trump hosted competing events last week along the US-Mexico border, both aiming to gain an edge in the escalating immigration discussion.
Presidential Candidates' Conflicts
Following the unanimous Supreme Court decision on Monday to reinstate Trump on primary ballots after efforts to exclude him due to his involvement in the Capitol riot, Trump highlighted the 91 criminal charges against him to criticize Biden for using the courts against him.
The president plans to uphold policies that have led to significant job creation, a robust economy, higher wages and household wealth, as well as reduced prescription drug and energy expenses, according to White House communications director Ben LaBolt.
LaBolt highlighted the difference in priorities between Trump and himself, emphasizing the focus on benefiting billionaires and corporations through tax breaks, restricting rights and freedoms, and weakening democracy.
The Biden campaign highlighted Trump's controversial statements likened to Adolf Hitler, where he claimed immigrants were "poisoning the blood" of the US and joked about becoming a dictator upon returning to the White House.
At a recent event for Black conservatives, Trump mentioned that he felt African Americans could relate to his four criminal indictments. That statement prompted criticism from Democrats nationwide for equating personal legal issues with the historical injustices experienced by Black individuals in the United States.
The former president has defeated over a dozen major Republican challengers and now only has Haley remaining. She has demonstrated impressive fundraising abilities and secured her first primary win over the weekend in Washington, DC, a city controlled by Democrats and with a small number of registered Republicans. Trump mocked Haley for being called the queen of the swamp.
Trump's successes, while impressive, have revealed weaknesses with important voter groups, particularly in college towns such as Hanover, New Hampshire, where Dartmouth College is situated, or Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, as well as regions with significant numbers of independent voters. That includes Minnesota, a state the former president did not win in his otherwise dominant Super Tuesday showing in 2016.
Nevertheless, if Haley were to win any Super Tuesday contests, it would be considered an unexpected outcome. Conversely, if Trump were to win all contests, it would further increase the pressure on her to drop out of the race.
Biden is facing challenges of his own, such as low approval ratings and polls indicating that a significant number of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, are not in favor of the 81-year-old running for office again. Last week, the president's comfortable victory in the Michigan primary was slightly overshadowed by a "uncommitted" campaign led by activists critical of the president's approach to Israel's conflict in Gaza.
Biden is currently the oldest president in history, and Republicans focus on any verbal mistakes he makes. His team is confident that doubtful voters will be convinced once they see that either Trump or Biden will be re-elected in November.
Trump is currently the same age Biden was during the 2020 campaign, and he has raised concerns about his fitness with recent mistakes, like incorrectly implying he was running against Barack Obama, who departed the White House in 2017.
Key Down-Ballot Primaries
Amid the intense spotlight on the presidential race, it's crucial not to overlook the significance of down-ballot contests. California voters are closely following the competitive down-ballot race to fill the seat previously held by Dianne Feinstein, the late US senator. In California, the top two candidates from the primary are placed in a runoff election.
Out of the 27 candidates, Adam Schiff, the US representative known for his opposition to Trump in Congress, was predicted to secure the leading position. Katie Porter, a Democratic congresswoman, Steven Garvey, the Republican former baseball player, and Barbara Lee were behind Schiff in the polls.
However, voters in California showed little enthusiasm, and experts predicted that the state might experience its lowest voter turnout ever. Texas hosted state and federal legislative primaries on Tuesday, offering Texan voters a showdown between Republican candidates over state politics. Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has been actively supporting challengers to incumbents who voted for his impeachment on corruption allegations last year.
Dade Phelan, the Texas House of Representatives speaker, was the primary focus. Paxton, Trump, and Matt Rinaldi have all thrown their support behind David Covey in a primary battle against Phelan, inundating his house district with aggressive and well-financed attack ads.
Meanwhile, a Democratic candidate is emerging to challenge Ted Cruz, the US senator who won the Republican nomination without facing any significant GOP opponents. The candidates are Democratic Representative Colin Allred and Roland Gutierrez, who has gained national attention as a gun control advocate after the Uvalde shooting.
Alabama voters participated in the election for the recently redrawn second congressional district. Last year, the US supreme court compelled Alabama to revise its congressional map, ruling it as a racial gerrymander that unlawfully reduced the political influence of Black voters. Following the redrawing of their districts, two white Republican congressmen, Jerry Carl and Barry Moore, competed for a single seat.
Over 6,000 voters in the second district were sent postcards containing inaccurate voting details before the primary, as per a county official who blamed a software glitch.
Tom Parker, the chief justice of Alabama's supreme court, who recently made a ruling on the personhood of frozen embryos, was not up for election tonight. Alabama has a rule that prevents judges over the age of 70 from seeking re-election; his current term will conclude in 2025. Sarah Stewart has won the Republican nomination to succeed Parker.
Stewart currently serves as an associate justice on the Alabama supreme court and played a role in the court's majority decision on the embryo case.
Last year, the congressional maps in North Carolina were redrawn by the Republican state legislature following their majority win on the state supreme court. Therefore, the current group of 14 congresspeople is expected to shift from a 7-7 split to a 10-4 Republican majority.
Five representatives have chosen to step down from Congress and not run in the new district elections: Democratic representatives Jeff Jackson, Kathy Manning, and Wiley Nickel, as well as Republican representatives Dan Bishop and Patrick McHenry.
The seats that are expected to change hands have sparked intense primary battles, especially in the 13th congressional district, which now forms a horseshoe around suburban Raleigh.
The first congressional district in North Carolina's coastal north-east has traditionally had a Democratic, predominantly Black majority. Lawmakers adjusted the boundaries to make it more favorable for a Republican candidate. Don Davis defeated the 2022 Republican candidate, Sandy Smith, a businesswoman and frequent contender, by a margin of four points. Smith has a primary challenger this year.
Meanwhile, Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor, has secured the Republican nomination for governor, to replace North Carolina's term-limited Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. Robinson, the first Black lieutenant governor of North Carolina, has a track record of making sexist and inflammatory remarks, especially concerning Jews.
Robinson characterized the movie Black Panther as being made by an agnostic Jew and brought to the screen by a satanic Marxist. He proceeded to mention that it was only designed to extract money from your pockets. Robinson believes that COVID-19 is a conspiracy aimed at undermining Donald Trump.
Josh Stein, the North Carolina attorney general, will be Robinson's opponent in November. The Democratic candidate is poised to become North Carolina's inaugural Jewish governor.
