After a clear victory in the US Republican presidential primaries on Super Tuesday, Donald Trump has practically secured his candidacy against incumbent Joe Biden in the November election. Trump won Tuesday in 14 of the 15 states where his party held primaries. His only remaining party rival, Nikki Haley, is dropping out of the Republican presidential race.
Haley said on Wednesday in Charleston in her home state of South Carolina that she was very grateful for the “great support” she received from all parts of the country. “But it is now time to suspend my campaign.”
The former governor and ex-ambassador did not recommend Trump. The right-wing populist now has to “earn” the support of the moderate Republicans who voted for them in the primaries. “We must turn away from the darkness of hatred and division,” Haley added.
Biden and Trump immediately called on Haley's supporters to join them on Wednesday. Trump invited people to become part of “the largest movement in our nation’s history.” Biden praised Haley for telling “the truth about Trump” and called on her supporters to switch to his camp.
Haley only won on “Super Tuesday” in the small New England state of Vermont. The former governor of South Carolina and ex-ambassador to the UN had already lost almost all of the previous primaries since January. She was only able to beat Trump in the capital, Washington. The 52-year-old was therefore under strong internal pressure before Super Tuesday to drop out of the race so that the party could unite behind Trump.
With Haley's current exit, Trump is de facto certain of becoming the presidential candidate. The candidate against Biden will be formally nominated at a Republican party conference in July. On “Super Tuesday”, the right-wing populist secured hundreds of additional delegate votes for the nomination party conference with his primary election victories in 14 states – including the most populous US states California and Texas.
According to calculations by US media, after “Super Tuesday” Trump collected a total of around a thousand of the at least 1,215 delegate votes that he needed for his nomination. After Haley's exit, the remaining Republican primaries are purely a formality. In the next week or two, the ex-president is expected to collect the remaining delegate votes needed, even if the primary elections run until the beginning of June.
In front of supporters at his private estate Mar-a-Lago in the state of Florida, the most controversial US politician in decades spoke of a “fantastic evening”: “They don't call it 'Super Tuesday' for nothing.”
President Biden's Democrats also held primaries in 14 states on Tuesday, and the result of weeks of postal voting in Iowa was also announced. Not surprisingly, Biden won all 15 states. An exception was the US territory of American Samoa, where businessman Jason Palmer won against Biden in a vote with fewer than 100 participants.
Biden's re-candidacy is all but certain since he has no serious rivals in his party. The Democrats will choose their presidential candidate at a party conference in August.
However, according to surveys, the prospect of a repeat of the 2020 election duel between Biden and Trump does not spark much enthusiasm among US voters – which is partly due to the fact that the incumbent president is 81 years old and the ex-president is 77 years old. “Biden is too old, and Trump is a little too crazy,” said voter John Campbell in Quincy, Massachusetts.
According to polls, despite his scandal-ridden presidency (2017 to 2021), the storming of the Capitol by hundreds of his supporters on January 6, 2021 and the four criminal indictments brought against him, Trump has a good chance of defeating Biden in November.
Biden warned on election night that Trump was “determined to destroy our democracy.” The right-wing populist will “do or say anything to bring himself to power.”
