05 March 2024 , 20:57
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Former President Donald Trump won't win the Republican presidential nomination Super Tuesday, despite looking the favourite to edge out rival Nikki Haley.
As the 77-year-old edges closer to a second showdown with Joe Biden to secure the most important seat in the White House at the upcoming general election. As voters head to the polls for the GOP today across 15 states to choose which candidate they want to represent them later this year.
However, today won't be the day for Trump whose nomination is now looking inevitable. That's because there are only 874 Republican delegates, of 2,429 available, up for grabs and the former President needs around 1,000 more to get him over the line. Taking to social media today, he said: "It’s big stuff and it’s the single most important primary day of the year."
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Voters took to the polls today to choose their Republican candidate for an upcoming general election (Getty Images)The winning candidate will ultimately need 1,215 delegates to capture the nomination. In the Democratic contest, 1,421 delegates, representing roughly a third of all delegates, are up for grabs on Super Tuesday, and Biden will need 1,969 delegates to officially win the nomination.
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Trump has already won 244 delegates from the early voting contests,according to Associated Press, so he needs roughly 1,000 more to capture the nomination. He is unlikely to cross that threshold on Super Tuesday, but he will likely win several hundred delegates , bringing him within striking distance of an official victory. Trump could bring an end to the Republican primary as soon as this month.
Specific states’ rules on allocating Republican delegates could work to Trump’s advantage on Tuesday. For example, officials in California recently changed primary rules allowing any candidate who captures over 50% of the vote to receive all of the state’s 169 Republican delegates. Now that the Republican primary is a two-person race between Trump and Haley, the former president is expected to easily win all of California’s delegates, Fox News reports.
Trump has swept all but one but one of the first nine contests on the GOP, including North Dakota. Another strong showing by the former president in Tuesday's primaries will set him up for a rematch with President Biden. Trump said: "If every single conservative, Republican, and Trump supporter in these states shows up on Super Tuesday, we will be very close to finished with this primary contest. Republicans will then be able to focus all of our energy, time, and resources, on defeating crooked Joe Biden."
The states which are taking part in nominating contests today include California, Texas. Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. Two states, Alaska and Utah, are holding caucuses.
Nikki Haley is rivalling Trump, but not picking up anywhere near enough votes to threaten him (Getty Images)The overwhelming picture is that the president holds a strong lead over Haley - who is a former two-term South Carolina governor who served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration. California has 169 delegates at stake, while others have a "winner-take-all" rule.
Predictions from Trump's campaign last month predicted he would clinch the nomination by at least March 19. He has been dominated the GOP race which peaked last summer when there was more than a dozen challengers. The former president kicked off the nominating calendar with double-digit wins in the Iowa caucuses and in the New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Michigan primaries.
Trump secured 39 delegates up for grabs Saturday at Michigan's GOP's party convention - hours later he was successful at the Missouri caucuses and Idaho caucuses. Speaking at a rally in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, he said: "We’ve been launching like a rocket to the Republican nomination."
Trump spokesman Steve Cheung added: "Republican voters have delivered resounding wins for President Trump in every single primary contest and this race is over. Our focus is now on Joe Biden and the general election."
Donald Trump is set to face Joe Biden in a rematch for the White House (AFP via Getty Images)The former president also won a major court victory on Monday, as the Supreme Court sided unanimously with Trump in his legal challenge to the state of Colorado’s attempt to kick him off the 2024 primary ballot. But Haley, who remains in the GOP nomination race at least through Super Tuesday, was victorious in Washington D.C.'s Republican primary.
Speaking on social media she said: "Republicans closest to Washington’s dysfunction know that Donald Trump has brought nothing but chaos and division for the past 8 years. It's time to start winning again and move our nation forward. As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I'm not ready to get out yet. I'm still sitting there fighting for the people that want a voice."
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Biden is expected to win by a landslide in the nominations with 1,420 Democratic delegates, thanks to plenty more on Tuesday. He is edging closerto the 1,968 needed to lock up renomination.