Super Tuesday live – results: Trump and Biden storm to victory as Haley picks up shock win in Vermont
Vermont #Vermont
Nikki Haley has beaten Donald Trump in Vermont’s Republican primary in a close fight that came down to the wire, a surprise on what was otherwise a dominant Super Tuesday for the front-runner in which he is projected to have won more than a dozen primaries, including such large states as California and Texas.
Declaring victory at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Tuesday night, Mr Trump said: “They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one.
“They tell me the pundits and otherwise that there’s never been one like this… has never been anything so conclusive.”
As it stands, Mr Trump looks all but certain to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate having already chalked up big wins in Iowa, the US Virgin Islands, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, Michigan, Idaho, and Missouri.
Despite adding to her win on Washington DC on Sunday, Ms Haley is widely expected to drop out imminently.
President Joe Biden also dominated the Democratic race as expected but there was an upset in the US territory of American Samoa, where he was beaten by little-known entrepreneur Jason Palmer.
Key Points
Trump storms toward Republican nomination as he sweeps Super Tuesday primaries
Haley beats Trump in Vermont – marking her second win of primary season
Trump gives rambling victory speech where he claims US elections are ‘third world’
Biden suffers rare loss in American Samoa caucus
North Carolina governor race won by conspiracy theorist with Holocaust denialism past
Biden admonished again by ‘uncommitted’ campaign in Minnesota
10:50 , Joe Sommerlad
President Biden received another warning about his reluctance to stand up to Israel over Gaza in Minnesota, a week on from the “uncommitted” campaign picking up 100,000 votes in the Michigan Democratic primary, when its organisers had targeted just 10,000.
Fellow Democrat Adam Schiff was also targeted by protesters on the issue as he gave his victory speech in California – and handled it pretty well, all things considered.
Voices: ‘I wrote the Nikki Haley campaign song being trashed all over the internet. How embarrassing’
10:30 , Joe Sommerlad
“As a white, middle-aged, gay New York musician, my voting record is very liberal. The only time I’ve ever voted for a Republican candidate was for New York City mayor Rudi Giuliani. We have all seen how that turned out,” writes Larry Dvoskin for Indy Voices.
“So, when legendary investor Tim Draper asked me to write a song to his lyrics in support of Republican Nikki Haley’s presidential run, I hesitated. Tim, a libertarian iconoclast in the field of finance, was one of the first investors in Hotmail, Twitch, Skype, Coinbase, and even Tesla before Elon Musk. He helped launch companies that are now worth over ten billion dollars. In other words, he has a good track record of knowing what he’s talking about.
“As we all know, Nikki Haley is a fighter and she didn’t fold to Trump like all the other candidates. People who have directly opposed Trump for any reason run a great political risk.
“I didn’t know much about Nikki Haley when the request came through — just that she was the former US Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, and her husband is a major in the National Guard. But I felt strongly that it was good for someone to stand up to Trump, especially a female candidate of color. I also have my own reservations, like many voters from both political parties, about re-electing older past presidents like Biden and Trump. We need younger leaders and a fresh start to bridge the divides in this country.”
I wrote the Nikki Haley campaign song being trashed all over the internet
Trump and Biden storm ahead in delegate count
10:15 , Joe Sommerlad
Here’s how the delegate count now stands in the two races, according to the AP.
In the Republican corner, where 1,215 is needed to win the nomination:
Donald Trump 947
Nikki Haley 86
Other 12
In the Democratic corner, where 1,968 is needed to win the nomination:
Joe Biden 1,422
Uncommitted 6
Other 2
Super Tuesday was bad for Haley. But the results expose Trump’s weaknesses as well
10:00 , Joe Sommerlad
Nikki Haley’s campaign was left in the dust by Donald Trump’s on Tuesday night in the kind of showing that could severely weaken her ability to press on towards the GOP convention in July.
The former governor of South Carolina was only projected to win one state, Vermont, on Tuesday as her opponent cleaned up with victories in more than a dozen others likely to include the two largest prizes of the night: California and Texas.
Should Haley prevail over the former president in the northeast, it will be with a slim margin of victory eclipsed by the wide gulfs separating her from Trump in every other state.
Her opponent is now in a clear position to secure enough delegates to win the nomination outright within a matter of weeks if not days.
John Bowden has more.
Super Tuesday was bad for Haley. But the results expose Trump weaknesses as well
Biden defeated in American Samoa by 11 votes
09:45 , Joe Sommerlad
The president suffered a minor embarrassment in the US overseas territory – which he also lost to Mike Bloomberg in 2020 and which cannot actually vote in November’s election – by losing to little-known entrepreneur Jason Palmer, who picked up 56 per cent of the vote to Biden’s 44 per cent.
They will split the territory’s six delegates, three apiece.
Trump claims US elections are ‘third world’ despite sweeping Super Tuesday primaries
09:30 , Joe Sommerlad
In a rambling 20-minute address loaded with false claims and familiar grievances, the front-runner for the Republican party’s nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in November’s general election called US elections “third-world” – while simultaneously celebrating his own primary wins.
“In some ways we’re a third-world country,” he said.
“We’re a third-world country at our borders and we’re a third-world country at our elections. And we have to stop that.”
Here’s Alex Woodward.
Trump calls US elections ‘third world’ despite sweeping GOP primaries
More than 60% of Americans doubt both Biden and Trump’s mental capabilities, new poll finds
09:00 , Joe Sommerlad
A new poll found that six in 10 Americans doubt both the mental capacities of Joe Biden and Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
President Biden is 81-years-old — already the oldest president to ever serve — and Trump is 77-years-old.
Approximately 63 per cent of respondents said that they are not very or not at all confident in Biden’s mental abilities. Fewer, but still more than half — 57 per cent — of the respondents said they felt the same about Trump.
The findings were part of a new Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research survey to gauge voter confidence in the two men who will likely be on the November ballot.
A similar poll was conducted specifically about Mr Biden’s memory in January. At that time only about half of those polled expressed similar concerns, suggesting the public has grown more troubled over the last few months.
Independents were far more likely to express concerns over Biden’s mental acuity, with 80 per cent reporting they questioned the president’s ability to govern. Of the same group, 56 per cent expressed similar concerns about Trump.
When asked if they approved of Biden’s governing, only 38 per cent of the respondents answered in the positive. Approximately 74 per cent of Democrat respondents said they approved of Biden’s job thus far, while 20 per cent of Independents and only six per cent of Republicans shared those feelings.
The poll breaks down Biden’s performance in a number of key areas, and approval ratings differed between issues.
Graig Graziosi has more.
Poll finds Americans concerned over Biden, Trump mental capabilities
Trump projected to win Utah
08:45 , Joe Sommerlad
The Republican front-runner is being projected to win the Utah caucus, his 14th and last win out of a possible 15 on Super Tuesday.
Haley voters in North Carolina may not back Trump in November
08:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump calls US ‘third-world country’ after Super Tuesday wins
08:15 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Haley’s campaign refutes calls for her to drop out of the race
07:47 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Nikki Haley’s campaign spokesperson, Olivia Perez-Cubas, has refuted calls from some Republicans for her to withdraw from the race.
“Unity is not achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re united,’” Ms Perez-Cubas said in a statement on Tuesday. “Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.”
Super Tuesday was bad for Haley. But the results expose Trump weaknesses as well
07:45 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Nikki Haley’s campaign was left in the dust by Donald Trump’s on Tuesday night in the kind of showing that could severely weaken her ability to press on towards the GOP convention in July.
The former governor of South Carolina was only projected to win one state, Vermont, on Tuesday as her opponent cleaned up with victories in more than a dozen others likely to include the two largest prizes of the night: California and Texas. Should Ms Haley prevail over the former president in the northeast, it will be with a slim margin of victory eclipsed by the wide gulfs separating her from Mr Trump in every other state.
Read the full piece here:
Super Tuesday was bad for Haley. But the results expose Trump weaknesses as well
Donald Trump wins Alaska primary
07:37 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Donald Trump has won the Alaska Republican primary, according to AP. The state will allocate 29 Republican delegates based on the results of the caucus.
Georgia commission will soon target prosecutors as Fani Willis faces scrutiny from Republican lawmakers
07:30 , Alex Woodward
A committee created by Georgia’s Republican-dominated state legislature with authority to discipline and remove prosecutors could soon derail a criminal case against Donald Trump.
The state’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp is set to approve a measure that effectively removes certain guardrails for the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, which the governor signed into law last year.
Republican officials have repeatedly targeted Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her case against the former president and more than a dozen of his allies charged under the state’s anti-racketeering law for a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
But GOP lawmakers have denied that the commission was established to take aim at Ms Willis, who was elected to office in 2020 and has served as Fulton County’s chief prosecutor since January 2021.
After creating the commission last year, Mr Kemp said the group would target “far-left prosecutors” who are “making our communities less safe.”
“I am not going to stand idly by as rogue or incompetent prosecutors refuse to uphold the law,” Mr Kemp said in October. “We are sending a message that we will not forfeit public safety for prosecutors to let criminals off the hook.”
Shock American Samoa result spoils Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday clean sweep
07:14 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Out of 91 ballots cast in the territory’s caucus, little-known candidate Jason Palmer won 51 to Biden’s 40.
Read the full piece here:
Shock American Samoa result spoils Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday clean sweep
Mayra Flores and Vincente Gonzalez headed for a rematch in Texas’ 34th district
07:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Former Representative Mayra Flores has won in her Republican primary and is now headed for battle against Democratic representative Vincente Gonzalez in Texas’s 34th district later this year.
Ms Flores initially secured her congressional seat during a special election with low voter turnout in June 2022, marking her as the first Mexican-born woman to serve in Congress. However, in the general election of November 2022, she was defeated by an 8-point margin by Gonzalez, who previously served the neighbouring 13th District.
VIDEO: Representative Ken Buck explains why he isn’t running for re-election
07:00 , Gustaf Kilander
Here’s every member of Congress who isn’t seeking re-election in 2024
06:30 , Kelly Rissman
If a presidential election year wasn’t enough in Washington DC, this year will also see a lot of new faces in Congress, as many members have decided to not seek re-election, with many citing frustration with the chambers’ productivity as their reason for stepping down.
Nine Senators and 42 Representatives have announced their intentions to step down from their current post in 2024, with some running for different elected positions and others leaving politics altogether. Some of those could still run for their current seats if they do not win primary elections.
The mass Congressional exodus includes several controversial seats, which could alter the control of each chamber and numerous Committee chairs.
Here is a list of every member of Congress who has announced that they won’t seek re-election in 2024:
Here’s every member of Congress who isn’t seeking re-election in 2024
Holocaust denier, ex-sports stars and a battle for Feinstein’s seat: Key results from Super Tuesday
06:07 , Maroosha Muzaffar
While the presidential primaries were top of the agenda, a trove of down-ballot races played out on Super Tuesday:
Read the full piece here:
Super Tuesday 2024: Key down-ballot race results
Dean Phillips loses his congressional district
05:36 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Congressman Dean Phillips, one of a tiny selection of challengers to Joe Biden’s candidacy for November, has lost the primary vote in his own congressional district, according to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.
First elected in 2018, he secured only 14 per cent of the primary vote in the 3rd District during the primary, barely surpassing “uncommitted” to take second place.
Joe Biden led the primary with 70 per cent of the vote in the district.
Mr Phillips’ best showing in the Democratic race happened in the unsanctioned New Hampshire primary, where he received 20 per cent of the vote. However, he was unable to secure any delegates, as New Hampshire’s primary did not adhere to the Democratic National Committee’s revised primary schedule.
Inside the battle for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat
05:30 , Katie Hawkinson
In the wake of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s death, the race to replace her seat has come down to three Democratic Representatives and two Republicans, one of them a former baseball star — with voters deciding which pair of candidates will proceed to the November ballot on Tuesday.
This race comes after Senator Laphonza Butler, who took over Ms Feinstein’s seat, decided against running for the full term. The state’s Senate primary race, set to happen on Super Tuesday, will determine which two candidates will advance to the November election. Voters will see all candidates on the same ballot, regardless of party.
The candidates include Democrats Katie Porter, Adam Schiff, and Barbara Lee, all currently serving in Congress, and Republican Steve Garvey, a former major league baseball player. Businessman and attorney Eric Early is also standing as a Republican.
Despite Ms Porter’s previous victory in flipping a GOP-held Orange County seat and her infamous “whiteboard of justice” that earned her viral fame, polls currently have her Democratic challenger Representative Adam Schiff as the winner of Tuesday’s vote.
A poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found that 24 per cent of likely primary voters support Mr Schiff, while 19 per cent said they supported Ms Porter. Mr Garvey secured 18 per cent of likely voters in the poll.
Meanwhile, Ms Lee got 10 per cent of the vote, while Mr Early had just 4 per cent.
Kyrsten Sinema announces she won’t run for Senate seat after leaving Democratic Party
05:00 , John Bowden
Kyrsten Sinema’s short but lively time in the US Senate is coming to an end.
The one-term senator from Arizona announced on Tuesday that she would serve the remainder of her term before stepping down from the Senate at the end of the year, rather than run for re-election. Following her win in a nail-biter election as a Democrat in 2018, Ms Sinema joined the Senate in January of 2019.
In that one term, she would become one of two holdout senators in the chamber who worked to thwart Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, while also emerging as an opponent to the idea of killing the Senate’s filibuster rule to allow the passage of voting rights legislation. She would go on to drop her party affiliation, becoming an independent, though she continued to caucus with Senate Democrats to protect the party’s majority in the chamber.
Her decision to stand down from a re-election fight comes as she was facing what could have been the political battle of her career. Running as an independent, her continued presence in the 2024 race was set to tee up a three-way fight between herself and the two major-party challengers for her seat — which polling indicates will most likely be Congressman Ruben Gallego for the Democrats, and news-anchor-turned-2020-election-conspiracist Kari Lake for the Republicans.
Adam Schiff advances in California special election
04:33 , Gustaf Kilander
Democrat Adam Schiff will advance to a special election to complete the term of late California Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Lincoln Project co-founder says ‘North Carolina is in play in November’
04:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Kamala Harris says ‘Trump has vowed to be a dictator on Day One’
04:29 , Gustaf Kilander
As we continue to watch results come in from states across the country, including my home state of California, this is an energizing moment for our campaign.
Americans of all backgrounds are showing that they sense the urgency of this election, and that they are ready to stand with President Biden and me in this fight to protect our fundamental freedoms.
Donald Trump has vowed to be a dictator on Day One. He has promised to weaponize the Department of Justice. And he has bragged that he is proud of his role in robbing women of their reproductive freedom.
He poses a fundamental threat to our democracy, and he must be stopped. During the upcoming State of the Union, President Biden will have the opportunity to report on the tremendous progress we have made when it comes to creating good-paying jobs, reducing costs, and helping America’s families build a better life.
He will also lay out our vision of what more we can accomplish, if we work together. This week’s events will serve as a springboard for the next, critical phase of the campaign.
In the coming days, I look forward to returning to three key battlegrounds: Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.
President Biden and I know reelection must be earned, and we will continue to put in the work to reach every possible voter. Winning the fight to protect our fundamental freedoms will require nothing less.
Kamala Harris
Democratic primary candidates head to Alabama runoff
04:23 , Alex Woodward
A landmark US Supreme Court decision last year effectively ordered Alabama’s Republican-dominated state legislature to redraw its congressional map, after courts found that the state’s electoral boundaries discriminated against Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
The newly drawn lines maintained the state’s sole district with a majority Black voting population – currently represented by Democratic US Rep Terry Sewell, the state’s only Black member of Congress – and created a second district with a Black voting age population of just under 49 per cent.
Alabama’s newly created 2nd congressional district includes parts of Montgomery and runs through the Black Belt to Mobile.
Those new boundaries could mean that voters will elect another Black Democratic candidate to the House in the fall, after a crowded field of Republican and Democratic candidates jumped into primary elections to represent the new district.
Democratic primary candidates Shomari Figures and Anthony Daniels – both of whom are Black – will head to a runoff after Super Tuesday elections.
Trump and Biden win California
04:15 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump and President Joe Biden will win their respective races in California, AP projects.
Colin Allred declares victory in Democratic senate primary
04:09 , Gustaf Kilander
Colin Allred has declared victory in the Democratic senate primary in Texas to take on Republican Ted Cruz.
Democratic nominee for governor says abortion will be central to campaign
04:07 , Gustaf Kilander
Trump claims US elections are ‘third world’ despite sweeping Super Tuesday primaries
04:03 , Alex Woodward
Donald Trump declared victory from a stage at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida after projected Republican primary election victories in 11 states in a sweep of Super Tuesday states.
In a rambling 20-minute address loaded with false claims and familiar grievances, the frontrunner for the GOP’s nominee to face Democratic president Joe Biden in November’s general election called US elections “third-world”.
“In some ways we’re a third-world country,” he said. “We’re a third-world country at our borders and we’re a third-world country at our elections. And we have to stop that.”
The former president has maintained a false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” and “rigged” against him, and his inflated claims – spanning more than a decade – have animated spurious legal challenges and Republican-led attempts to challenge results and craft legislation to do what Mr Trump failed to do in the courts.
Mr Trump has won every 2024 Republican primary election thus far, with his chief GOP rival Nikki Haley winning primaries in Vermont and Washington DC.
“November 5 is going to go down as the single most important day in the history of our country,” Mr Trump told his supporters on Tuesday night. “We’re going to win this election because we have no choice. If we lose this election we won’t have a country anymore.”
Exit poll show Haley winning DC suburbs after notching capital primary win
04:00 , Gustaf Kilander
Nikki Haley wins Vermont Republican primary marking her first Super Tuesday victory
03:52 , Katie Hawkinson
Nikki Haley won the GOP Presidential primary in Vermont on Tuesday, marking her first state victory.
Her victory in Vermont marks the first time the former South Carolina governor has won a state primary during her campaign. Donald Trump, however, has already beaten Ms Haley in eleven state primaries this Super Tuesday. As of late Saturday, the Republican presidential primary in Alaska, California and Utah have yet to be called.
On Sunday, Ms Haley also won the GOP primary in Washington, DC.
Haley wins Vermont in first Super Tuesday victory
03:39 , Gustaf Kilander
Nikki Haley will take her first state on Super Tuesday, winning Vermont, AP projects.
Nikki Haley clings on to relevance as Trump steamrolls through Super Tuesday
03:32 , John Bowden
Nikki Haley’s campaign was left in the dust by Donald Trump on Tuesday night in the kind of showing that could severely weaken her ability to press on towards the GOP convention in July.
The former governor of South Carolina was only projected to win one state, Vermont, on Tuesday as her opponent cleaned up with victories in more than a dozen others likely to include the two largest prizes of the night: California and Texas. Should Ms Haley prevail over the former president in the northeast, it will be with a slim margin of victory eclipsed by the wide gulfs separating her from Mr Trump in every other state.
Her opponent is now in a clear position to secure enough delegates to win the nomination outright within a matter of weeks if not days. Ms Haley has yet to issue a statement about the results of the night; she had previously vowed to remain in the race through Tuesday night but could see her presidential hopes come to an end very soon. A total of 865 Republican delegates were at stake today, with Mr Trump set to win the lion’s share; he needs 1,215 to clinch the nomination and walked into Tuesday with more than 200.
Super Tuesday reasonably couldn’t have gone much worse for Ms Haley. She had campaigned in Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts and a handful of other states with big plans to win them from Mr Trump; she is not likely to come within single digits of Mr Trump in a single one, excluding Vermont. Her lack of support from conservative Republican voters continues to cast a long shadow on her chances of winning the nomination, especially including the large segment of the party that still believes in conspiracies about the 2020 election.
VIDEO: Super Tuesday: Voters reveal why they won’t be voting for Trump
03:30 , The Independent
Trump recalls debate with Hillary Clinton in rambling speech
03:29 , Gustaf Kilander
Mr Trump told the Mar-a-Lago crowd on Tuesday: “Remember when I had the debate with Hillary Clinton? She said ‘Look, look at him. Look at that personality. He’s going to cause wars’, I said ‘No, my personality is going to keep us out of wars’ and that’s what happened.”
Biden says Trump is ‘determined to destroy our democracy’
03:24 , Gustaf Kilander
Tonight’s results leave the American people with a clear choice: Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?
Four years ago, I ran because of the existential threat Donald Trump posed to the America we all believe in.
Since then, we’ve made enormous progress: 15 million jobs, wages rising faster than inflation, taking on Big Pharma and the gun lobby — and winning. But we have more to do.
If Donald Trump returns to the White House, all of this progress is at risk. He is driven by grievance and grift, focused on his own revenge and retribution, not the American people.
He is determined to destroy our democracy, rip away fundamental freedoms like the ability for women to make their own health care decisions, and pass another round of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy — and he’ll do or say anything to put himself in power.
Today, millions of voters across the country made their voices heard — showing that they are ready to fight back against Donald Trump’s extreme plan to take us backwards.
My message to the country is this: Every generation of Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy.
Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights.
To every Democrat, Republican, and independent who believes in a free and fair America: This is our moment. This is our fight.
Together, we will win.
Joe Biden
‘We’ve watched our country take a great beating’
03:22 , Gustaf Kilander
Mr Trump said on the stage in Florida that “We’ve watched our country take a great beating over the last three years, and nobody thought a thing like this would be possible”.
“We wouldn’t have Russia attacking Ukraine. We wouldn’t have Israel being attacked. Iran, as you know, was broke, when I was running things. They were broke. They didn’t have money for Hamas. They didn’t have money for Hezbollah,” he added.
‘Never been anything so conclusive’, Trump says
03:20 , Gustaf Kilander
Mr Trump took the stage at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night saying: “They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one.”
“They tell me the pundits and otherwise that there’s never been one like this has never been anything so conclusive,” he added after sweeping the states called so far. “This was an amazing, an amazing night, an amazing day. It’s been an incredible period of time and [in] our country’s history. It’s been sad in so many ways, but I think it’s going to be inspiring because we’re going to do something that frankly nobody has been able to do for a long time.”
Biden wins Utah
03:13 , Gustaf Kilander
Joe Biden will win the Utah Democratic primary, AP projects.
Massive gender split in California exit poll
03:00 , Gustaf Kilander
Alabama picks new state Supreme Court justices
03:00 , Alex Woodward
Weeks after a state supreme court decision that threatens the future of in vitro fertilization in Alabama, voters on Super Tuesday decided the court’s next slate of justices in a closely watched Republican primary election.
Last month, Alabama’s Supreme Court defined frozen embryos as children, expanding the scope of so-called “personhood” embraced by Christian fundamentalists and anti-abortion groups who believe that life begins at conception – and underscoring the far-reaching impacts of Roe v Wade’s collapse.
The ruling drew widespread condemnation and alarm, with fertility clinics across the state fearing swift legal scrutiny and their forced closure while families were left in heartbreaking limbo.
Republican justice Sarah Stewart, who currently sits on the court and concurred with the controversial decision, is the projected winner of the Republican primary for the next chief justice. She will now face Democratic candidate Greg Griffin, a Montgomery County circuit judge.
Alabama’s 72-year-old outgoing chief justice Tom Parker – a proponent of Christian nationalist doctrine who cited the Bible in the court’s IVF ruling – is unable to seek another term; the state forbids judges older than 70 to be elected.
Dean Phillips congratulates Joe Biden with self-deprecating tweet
02:50 , Gustaf Kilander
Minnesota Democratic Rep Dean Phillips who challenged President Joe Biden for the nomination wrote on X on Tuesday night: “Congratulations to Joe Biden, Uncommitted, Marianne Williamson, and Nikki Haley for demonstrating more appeal to Democratic Party loyalists than me.”
Biden loses American Samoa caucus
02:48 , Gustaf Kilander
President Joe Biden faced his first loss in the US territory of American Samoa on Tuesday night where he lost the Democratic caucus to unknown candidate Jason Palmer by 51 votes to 40.
Watch live: Trump reacts to Super Tuesday wins as Vermont remains neck and neck
02:46 , Julia Saqui
Warning: the following livestream has not been independently fact-checked and may contain misinformation. The Independent strives to counteract misinformation across its platforms. Click here for the latest on the 2024 US Presidential Election: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics
Donald Trump is due to speak at his Mar-a-Lago estate on 5 March as Tuesday’s primary results continue to roll in. The former president has swept the Super Tuesday races that have been called so far.
As it stands, Donald Trump looks all but certain to be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee once again in 2024, having already chalked up big wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the US Virgin Islands, South Carolina, Michigan, Idaho and Missouri primaries and had any doubts about his place on ballot papers dispelled by the US Supreme Court, which ruled on Monday that states have no authority to disqualify candidates.
Super Tuesday is the biggest date in the primary calendar – voters in 16 states and one territory go to the polls.
Only the well-funded but under-performing ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley remains to challenge him.
Ms Haley and Mr Trump were neck and neck in Vermont as votes were counted on Tuesday night.
She did pick up a much-needed win in Washington DC’s primary on Sunday.
Elon Musk meets Trump as ex-president looks to boost his war chest, report says
02:45 , Mike Bedigan
Donald Trump reportedly met with billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk as he looks to secure further donors for his 2024 presidential bid.
The meeting between the former president and the Tesla boss, the second richest person on earth according to Bloomberg, and other Republican donors, occurred on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida.
Three sources with knowledge of the meeting confirmed details to The New York Times.
It comes as Mr Trump was looking for a clean sweep of victories on Super Tuesday which would edge him closer to a rematch for the Oval Office with Joe Biden on 5 November.
According to the New York Times, the former president and his team are working to find additional major donors to shore up his finances as he heads into an expected general election against Mr Biden.
It is not yet clear whether Mr Musk plans to spend any money supporting Mr Trump, though his recent social media posts suggest he thinks that Mr Biden’s time in office should come to an end.
Gaza ceasefire is ‘in hands of Hamas’, says Biden
02:30 , Holly Patrick
A ceasefire in Gaza is “in the hands of Hamas,” Joe Biden said as he spoke to reporters on Tuesday, 5 March.
The US president repeated a claim by secretary of state Antony Blinken, who said there is an opportunity for an immediate ceasefire but the responsibility was on the group.
“The Israelis have been cooperating. We need a ceasefire,” Mr Biden said.
Hamas has said: “It is now in the hands of the Americans, if they are serious about achieving a ceasefire before Ramadan, to exercise enough pressure on the Israelis.”
Trump projected to win states where he was initially removed from ballot
02:30 , Alex Woodward
Donald Trump is projected to win the Republican nomination for president in Colorado and Maine, where a state supreme court and top elections official, respectively, disqualified him for the presidency under the scope of the 14th Amendment, which bars anyone who “engaged in insurrection” from public office.
His victories in those states came just one day after the US Supreme Court ruled that only Congress, not individual states, has the authority to disqualify insurrectionists in federal elections, marking a reversal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s landmark decision that found Mr Trump ineligible for office for his actions on January 6.
The Supreme Court’s decision was unanimous, but the ruling did not include any discussion on the central premise of the decisions in Maine and Colorado, which found that Mr Trump “engaged in insurrection” by fuelling a mob that stormed the US Capitol.
The high court’s three liberal justices sharply disagreed that only Congress can act, writing that the court’s conservative majority were attempting “to insulate all alleged insurrectionists from future challenges to their holding federal office.” The conservative majority effectively determined that an insurrectionist candidate could run for and be elected to office as long as they have the support of the controlling political party in Congress, the liberal justices argued.
Trump storms toward Republican nomination as Haley’s Super Tuesday hopes dwindle
02:28 , Eric Garcia
Former president Donald Trump continued his march to the Republican nomination with victories in North Carolina, Virginia and a host of other Super Tuesday contests.
The twice-impeached and four-times-indicted former president cruised to victory in Texas, Virginia, Colorado, Arkansas and North Carolina, trouncing former South Carolina Governor governor Nikki Haley. The contests also come as states including California wait to be called.
Republicans held primary contests in 15 states on Super Tuesday – including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia – as well as caucuses in Alaska and Utah. Super Tuesday typically marks the halfway point in primary contests and candidates who dominate on Super Tuesday typically go on to win the nomination of their party.
Super Tuesday puts up 865 delegates up for grabs, with the biggest states being Texas at 161 delegates and California with 122 delegates. The nominee for the Republican Party needs 1,215 delegates. So far, Mr Trump has won every contest in the GOP primary, losing only the District of Columbia, which Ms Haley won.
Mr Trump’s victories come as some polling shows him beating President Joe Biden. A New York Times/Siena College survey released this weekend showed Mr Trump beating Mr Biden handily. Mr Trump handily beats Vice President Kamala Harris in the same survey.
In addition to Mr Trump’s personal victories, lower-ballot candidates also showed his influence. In North Carolina, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson – a hard-right Maga Republican who has made a series of homophobic and antisemitic remarks – won the Republican nomination for governor in a state Mr Trump won.
Trump wins Minnesota
02:27 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump will win the Republican primary in Minnesota, AP projects.
Biden wins Minnesota
02:25 , Gustaf Kilander
Joe Biden will win the Democratic primary in Minnesota, AP projects.
Trump wins Colorado
02:13 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump will win the Republican primary in Colorado, AP projects.
Biden wins Colorado
02:07 , Gustaf Kilander
Joe Biden wins the Democratic primary in Colorado, AP projects.
Trump and Biden win Arkansas
02:05 , Gustaf Kilander
Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump will win their respective primaries in Arkansas, AP projects.
Texas results: Trump, Biden, and Cruz win
02:04 , Gustaf Kilander
Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump won their respective primaries in Texas.
Meanwhile, Sen Ted Cruz won his primary to run for re-election in the state in the autumn.
Conspiracy theorist with a history of Holocaust denialism becomes nominee for governor
02:02 , Alex Woodward
North Carolina Lt Governor Mark Robinson is the Republican nominee for the state’s next governor, according to preliminary reporting from the Associated Press.
He will face Democratic nominee and current state attorney general Josh Stein in a state that Donald Trump only narrowly won in 2020. The candidates will compete in November to replace term-limited Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.
Robinson – a conspiracy theorist with a history of Holocaust denialism and sexist, anti-Islam and anti-transgender remarks – has recently vowed to make abortion illegal and arrest trans people for using bathrooms consistent with their gender. He has called LGBT+ people “filth” and suggested trans people should “find a corner outside somewhere to go.” If he wins in November, the state would have a Republican-led “trifecta” with GOP leadership in the state House and Senate and the governor’s office, giving Republicans wider latitude to pass legislation that has repeatedly faced Governor Cooper’s roadblocks.
Over the weekend, Trump endorsed Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Majority of California Haley voters say they won’t back nominee regardless of who it is
02:00 , Gustaf Kilander
Trump and Haley neck and neck in Vermont
01:59 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are neck and neck as votes are counted in Vermont.
Ms Haley is in desperate need of a messaging victory to infuse her fledgling campaign with some momentum.
So far, Mr Trump has won every contest except for the District of Columbia.
At one point during Tuesday evening, the difference between the candidates was down to a single vote.
With 46 per cent of the votes counted, Mr Trump was ahead by 204 votes – 13,605 to Ms Haley’s 13,401.
Trump wins Massachusetts
01:49 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump will win the Republican primary in Massachusetts, AP projects.
Trump and Biden win Alabama
01:47 , Gustaf Kilander
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden will win their respective races in Alabama, AP projects.
California’s Senate race
01:45 , Eric Garcia
The race to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein will inevitably produce a Democrat who is less conciliatory to Republicans than Feinstein.
As The Independent’s Katie Hawkinson broke down, Adam Schiff has become the frontrunner for the Senate race given his time as the lead impeachment manager for Trump’s first impeachment trial and his time atop the House Intelligence Committee before Kevin McCarthy kicked him off. Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and much of Democratic leadership lined up behind Schiff, as has much of the state’s Latino power players given his years representing the Los Angeles area.
But many progressives see Schiff as too moderate given his opposition to a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and his previous vote for the war in Iraq.
The progressive vote is currently split between Representative Katie Porter – who, like Allred, flipped a suburban district in formerly archconservative Orange County – and Representative Barbara Lee, a stalwart left-wing Democrat who was the only member of Congress to vote against the use of force in Afghanistan after 9/11.
The split vote almost guarantees that Schiff will face former San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers player and Republican candidate Steve Garvey. Given the chances of a Republican majority in the Senate and a Trump presidency, the Golden State’s choice of a senator will determine what kind of approach it wants to take against the GOP.
Biden and Trump win Maine
01:33 , Gustaf Kilander
Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump will win their respective races in Maine, AP projects.
Biden wins Massachusetts
01:32 , Gustaf Kilander
Joe Biden will win the Democratic primary in Massachusetts, AP projects.
Republican congressman says he’s retiring as he doesn’t want to ‘lie’ for Trump or his party
01:30 , Katie Hawkinson
Republican congressman Ken Buck has further explained his decision not to run for re-election, citing his refusal to lie for the GOP and the Republican presidential candidate — presumably, Donald Trump.
Mr Buck, who has represented Colorado’s 4th Congressional District since 2015, is best known for being an anti-Trump Republican. Now, he says he’s giving up his seat after becoming disillusioned with some members of his party.
“But really we’re at a time in American politics, that I am not going to lie on behalf of my presidential candidate on behalf of my party,” Mr Buck said on NewsNation earlier this week. “And I’m very sad that others in my party have taken the position that as long as we get the White House, it doesn’t really matter what we say.”
The Colorado representative also cited personal reasons for stepping down.
“I’m at a point in my life where I want to do different things,” he said. “I want to enjoy my family more, I want to do less business travel and more recreational travel. There are a lot of things that went into the decision.”
Mr Buck has made similar comments before, expressing his concern with some politicians’ “departure from reality.”
Trump and Biden win in Oklahoma
01:18 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump and Joe Biden both win their respective races in Oklahoma, AP projects.
Texas’s Democratic primary
01:15 , Eric Garcia
Few Republican senators enrage Democrats – and to be honest, some Republicans – as much as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. In 2018, former congressman Beto O’Rourke got within single digits of the man Trump once called “Lyin’ Ted.” Since then, Texas has become purpler, specifically the suburbs of Houston, where Cruz lives, becoming more Democratic, and Democrats flipping two House seats the same year as the 2018 Senate race.
Cruz has also made himself a lightning rod on the national stage, given his leading the charge to object to the 2020 presidential election results and his hightailing it to Mexico during a storm in 2021. Given Florida’s continued drift rightward, Democrats see Texas as their main longshot attempt to keep the Senate and flip a seat when they are otherwise playing defence.
Texas Democrats mainly have two choices in who they can pick to run against Cruz. On one end, much of the Democratic establishment endorsed Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker who flipped a seat in the suburbs of Dallas in 2018. Allred’s attempt to form a blockade on January 6 to protect his colleagues from rioters offers a potent contrast to Cruz’s attempts to subvert the election results.
Going with a Democrat who represents the suburbs also shows that Democrats see that as their future to winning the Lone Star State. Conversely, state senator Roland Gutierrez came to national prominence after the shooting in Uvalde, which is in his heavily Hispanic home district. In 2020, Democrats’ hopes of flipping Texas crumbled amid a total collapse in the Hispanic areas including in the Rio Grande Valley. Gutierrez’s victory would signal Democrats want to go all-in with Hispanics.
Trump and Biden win respective races in Tennessee
01:10 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump and Joe Biden will win their respective primary races in Tennessee, AP projects.
Democratic Governors Association calls Republican North Carolina nominee ‘dangerous conspiracy theorist’
01:04 , Gustaf Kilander
Mark Robinson and Josh Stein to face off in North Carolina governor’s race
01:03 , Gustaf Kilander
Mark Robinson will win the North Carolina Republican primary for governor, AP projects.
He’s set to go up against Democrat Josh Stein.
Trump wins North Carolina
01:01 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump will win the North Carolina Republican primary, AP projects.
‘The voters are responsible’
01:00 , Gustaf Kilander
Tom Nichols of The Atlantic noted on X late on Monday that “I am not amazed by Trump voters (anymore), but I am amazed how other Americans make excuses for them: It’s the media, it’s that they’re busy, they work too much so they don’t know, they don’t get the full story… They support Trump because they like him – for many reasons”.
“Stop blaming the media and the economy and gas prices and Russian spies and whatever. This is a democracy. The voters are responsible,” he added.
All eyes on California Senate primary
00:45 , Oliver O’Connell
In the wake of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s death, the race to replace her seat has come down to three Democratic Representatives and two Republicans, one of them a former baseball star — with voters deciding which pair of candidates will proceed to the November ballot on Tuesday.
Katie Hawkinson breaks down what is happening in the Golden State:
Inside the battle for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat
Biden campaign announces fourth month in a row with record fundraising
00:40 , Gustaf Kilander
The Biden campaign has said that February was the fourth month in a row that the campaign beat its own fundraising record.
Deputy Campaign Manager Rob Flaherty said in a statement that “this Super Tuesday, the split screen between our campaign and Donald Trump’s operation (if you can call it that!) couldn’t be more stark: President Biden continues to see record-breaking grassroots enthusiasm around a historic and winning agenda, while Donald Trump is poised to enter the general election broke, saddled by his unwavering support for the extremism Americans repeatedly reject at the ballot box – undermining our democracy, tax giveaways to the rich, and a national abortion ban.
“While Trump spends his limited funds on various other… issues, President Biden’s campaign is using this grassroots momentum to build a cutting-edge and winning campaign for this November,” he added.
Biden wins North Carolina
00:39 , Gustaf Kilander
Joe Biden will win the Democratic primary in North Carolina, AP projects.
North Carolina gubernatorial election
00:30 , Eric Garcia
Democrats have long hoped to win back North Carolina ever since Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to win the state. Since then, North Carolina has always remained just out of reach for Democrats. Despite this, in 2016, Democratic attorney general Roy Cooper beat incumbent governor Pat McCory to win the governorship after McCrory signed legislation that banned transgender people from using the bathroom aligned with their gender, which led to boycotts from Bruce Springsteen to the NCAA, which is almost sacrosanct in the state that produced Michael Jordan.
Cooper, a white Democrat, would win re-election in 2020, the same year Mark Robinson, a Black Republican with a history of making antisemitic, homophobic and racist remarks, became lieutenant governor.
Robinson has since become a favourite of Trump, making him the presumptive nominee. With Cooper termed out, the race for governor could have an effect on the top of the ticket. Conversely, Josh Stein, North Carolina attorney general and a Democrat, is the likely Democratic nominee for governor. But in a sign of how much the state’s changed, while Cooper hailed from a white working-class area of the state, Stein hails from the suburbs of Raleigh.
If Robinson is too radioactive for North Carolina, it might drag Trump on the ticket or even boost Biden. Incidentally, Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned heavily in North Carolina, including in the state’s HBCUs. For more on the Tar Heel state, read my colleague Ariana Baio’s breakdown.
Trump wins Virginia
00:27 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump will win the Republican primary in Virginia, AP projects.
Biden wins Vermont
00:25 , Gustaf Kilander
Joe Biden wins the Democratic primary in Vermont, AP projects.
Joe Biden wins Virginia primary
00:15 , Gustaf Kilander
00:15 , Oliver O’Connell
North Carolina voter’s sexist reason for not voting Nikki Haley
A beginner’s guide to Super Tuesday 2024
00:07 , Joe Sommerlad
Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the US presidential primary season, arrives on 5 March and promises to have a decisive – if perhaps somewhat anticlimactic – impact on the respective Republican and Democratic races.
As it stands, Donald Trump looks all but certain to be the Republican party’s presidential candidate once again in 2024, having already chalked up big wins in the Iowa, US Virgin Islands and North Dakota caucuses and the New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, Michigan, Idaho and Missouri primaries.
All but one of his challengers has long since fallen away, leaving only the well-funded but under-performing ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley still swinging.
She picked up a much-needed win in Washington DC’s primary on Sunday, her first of the season, beating Mr Trump by 62.3 per cent of the vote to his 33.3 per cent, scooping up 19 delegates in the process.
That results breathes some welcome new life into her campaign just in time for Super Tuesday after she suffered the humiliation of scoring fewer votes than the “none of these candidates” box on Nevada ballot papers and then lost in her own home state of South Carolina.
Her win also means we could now find ourselves with a more interesting evening indeed on Tuesday once the results begin to come rolling in.
The Democratic contest is meanwhile even more one-sided, with President Joe Biden seemingly nailed-on to be his party’s candidate again as he seeks a second term in the White House, despite concerns about his advanced age and consistently poor polling.
Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips and the self-help guru Marianne Williamson (who suspended her campaign only to then revive it) remain the president’s last remaining rivals and both are surely too low-profile to make an impact, Mr Biden having comfortably won the New Hampshire primary without even appearing on Granite State ballots thanks to a grassroots write-in campaign.
Here’s everything you need to know about Super Tuesday in good time for its arrival.Haley will most certainly lose tonight’s Super Tuesday contests
00:01 , Eric Garcia
Nikki Haley will most certainly lose tonight’s Super Tuesday contests. The former South Carolina governor unsurprisinly won the Washington, DC primary this weekend. But tonight, she faces a much tougher go at it on Tuesday than in previous contests. But if she’s going to be even remotely competitive against Donald Trump, she will need to perform well in two regions.
Harris County, Texas and Orange County, California are historic bastions of the exact type of wealthy, college-educated voters who have fled the Republican Party since Mr Trump took over.
Ronald Reagan, the former California governor turned saint of the Repiublican Party, famously said Orange County, located just outside of Los Angeles, is where “conservatives go to die. The median income in Orange County according to the US Census is $109,361, much higher than the national $74,580 median income. In addition, almost 43 per cent of the population has at least a bachelor’s degree and 69 per cent of the population is white.
But since the Trump revolution, it’s become fertile territory for Democrats, as it voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and again for Joe Biden in 2020. Democrats have begun to flip House seats there.
That being said, some Reagan Republicans who are amenable to Ms Haley’s message of tax cuts and a robust foreign policy remain. If Haley registers at least 30 per cent in Orange County suburbs.
Voters who register no party preference cannot vote in the Republican presidential primary, meaning the independents voters who have kept Haley afloat will not be able to vote in the GOP primary.
The dynamics in Harris County are similar. Harris County, the home of Houston, is flush with cash thanks to the state’s robust oil industry. Historically the home of the Bush dynasty after a Connecticut prep named George Herbert Walker Bush made his money in the energy sector and settled and became chairman of the Harris County GOP, helping to build the Texas GOP.
The University of Houston and Rice University are located there, though 33.2% have at least a bachelor’s degree. Degree attainment is lower there at $70,789, but the suburbs have higher earners. But the suburbs remain fairly upper-class and Barack Obama began to win the suburbs of Houston and it hasn’t looked back. In the same way, Ms Haley will need to overperform. Unlike California, Texas has an open primary, which means she can probably overperform there compared to Orange County.
The future of both parties will be defined on Super Tuesday — but not by the presidential contest
00:00 , Eric Garcia
We’re finally here! Super Tuesday, the March Madness of presidential primaries. Except in this case, we know that Donald Trump and Joe Biden – the respective number one seeds in their parties – will win the whole thing. Tonight, 15 states, and American Samoa, will hold their primaries.
Despite Nikki Haley’s insistence that she is in the race to win it, she will face an avalanche of closed-primary states such as California and Oklahoma and states with heavy Maga contingents like Texas, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas. On the Democratic side, while some states have “uncommitted” on their ballot, don’t expect as high numbers as Michigan saw as a protest against Joe Biden’s support for Israel.
Regardless of how November turns out, the 2024 campaign will almost certainly be the final campaign for Trump, 77, and Biden, 81. Both men have made their marks on their parties: Biden as a Senator for 36 years, a vice president and now president; while Trump harnessed the power of white grievance about immigration to take over the Republican Party and in turn made it more attractive to non-college-educated voters white and non-white alike.
But either way, both men will soon exit the political arena and elected officials in their parties will either stay on the trail they blazed or move in a different direction. These are the three major races to watch on Super Tuesday that could dictate the future of the Republican and Democratic Parties.
VIDEO: Voters in 15 states head to the polls for Super Tuesday
Tuesday 5 March 2024 23:52 , The Independent
Super Tuesday: Key races to watch
Tuesday 5 March 2024 23:45 , Joe Sommerlad
The presidential race is not the only contest voters will be weighing in on on Super Tuesday and some of the down-ballot races are likely to prove far more nail-biting.
Here’s your guide to the other key races to look out for:
Super Tuesday 2024: Key races to watch