With Super Tuesday just one day away, Americans could soon have a clear picture of who exactly will be squaring off in the presidential election in November, despite polling and the current delegate count strongly suggesting a Biden-Trump rematch.
Former President Donald Trump scored victories in Michigan, Idaho, and Missouri on Saturday ahead of his anticipated big night on Super Tuesday. Trump currently leads contender former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with 244 delegates against just 43. Haley won her first primary Sunday night in Washington, D.C.
In all, 854 delegates will be at stake on Super Tuesday. However, even if Trump sweeps the 16 states, he would still be short of the 1,215 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination.
Texas is one of the states that will hold its primary on Super Tuesday. Polling shows Trump with a substantial lead over Haley. FiveThirtyEight has Trump commanding 78.4% of Texas Republicans’ support as of March 3, marking a 64-point lead over Haley.
Trump was in Texas last week, where he spoke in Eagle Pass. He criticized President Joe Biden and his administration’s policies, which he argued have resulted in an unprecedented number of unlawful migrants entering the United States, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Haley has pledged to stay in the race “until the bitter end,” but the pressure to drop out could become too much for her campaign without some positive signs on Tuesday. Haley lost to Trump by 60 points in Michigan and lost her home state of South Carolina, where she was twice elected governor by margins of more than 20 points.
In the Democratic primary, where Biden faces no serious candidate, some Michigan Democrats registered their disapproval of the president last week.
The state allows primary voters to choose “uncommitted” on their ballots, and more than 100,000 people opted to make such a mark instead of voting for the president. Biden still handily won the state, but the “protest vote” suggests that not everyone in the state is happy with the administration’s policies.
Reuters reported that the protest was pushed by the state’s large Arab American population, many of whom are unhappy with Biden’s continued efforts to arm Israel in its war with Hamas-led terrorists in Gaza.
“Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations. Tens of thousands of Michigan Democrats, many of whom voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his re-election due to the war in Gaza,” the Listen to Michigan campaign said in a statement.
While Biden said earlier in the week that a ceasefire in Gaza “might happen in about a week,” negotiators representing Hamas, Israel, Qatar, and Egypt were less positive on progress, Reuters reported. Israel has been in discussions with mediators for the last week to arrange a ceasefire and prisoner swap before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In addition to Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and the territory of American Samoa will hold primary elections on Tuesday.
