Donald Trump won most of the states at stake on Tuesday in the big election day of “Super Tuesday”, confirming his triumphant march towards the Republican nomination against his rival Nikki Haley and paving the way for his return match with Joe Biden.
Nikki Haley wins Vermont
The 77-year-old right-wing ex-president was declared the winner of 12 out of 15 states by several American media. Among them California, North Carolina and Texas. Donald Trump hailed “a wonderful evening, an incredible day” in front of his supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. But Nikki Haley deprived him of a grand slam by winning Vermont. The results from the remaining states should be known overnight.
Biden wins the first 13 states at stake
On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden, 81, is seeking a second term and faces no serious opposition. He won the first 13 states at stake on Tuesday evening. Donald Trump is “determined to destroy our democracy” and he is “focused on his own revenge and revenge, not on the American people”, he said in a communicated.
There is virtually no suspense in this primary process as the two candidates are almost going it alone, each in their own party. Voting took place in 15 states, from Maine to Alaska.
The Trump team predicts a victory “on March 19” at the latest
Since January 15 and despite his legal troubles, Donald Trump has won almost all the primaries organized by his party. Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the UN, poses as the candidate who will be able to restore “normality” in the face of “Trump’s chaos”. But most Republican voters are turning a deaf ear to his plea.
Apart from victories on Sunday in the capital Washington and in Vermont on Tuesday, she has had a series of bitter defeats, including in the state of which she was governor, South Carolina. Will she stay in the race if the bad news continues to fall? It remains vague. “We’re going to continue through Super Tuesday,” she said in late February. “I didn’t think any further in terms of strategy.”
At the party organized at Mr. Trump’s house in Florida, the latter’s victory was in no doubt. In the ballroom of Mar-a-Lago, under the huge chandeliers and golden ornaments, many guests proudly displayed their red caps stamped “Make America Great Again”. “I expect Nikki Haley to drop out,” said Kenny Nail, head of a local Republican Party chapter. “President Trump will be the last one standing in the Republican primary”. The primaries can in theory stretch into the summer. But the Trump team is planning a victory “on March 19” at the latest, after votes notably in Georgia and Florida.
Biden facing the Americans on Thursday
Donald Trump wants to be able to concentrate as soon as possible on his duel with President Biden, before being sucked into his legal meetings. His first criminal trial begins March 25 in New York.
Joe Biden is on the verge of being a candidate for re-election. The candidacies of two Democrats launched in pursuit of him, the elected representative of Minnesota Dean Phillips and the best-selling author Marianne Williamson, have never really aroused enthusiasm, despite recurring criticism of the president’s age or his support for Israel.
This “Super Tuesday” is therefore at most a formality for Joe Biden. But the leader will defend his record and unfold his vision for America on Thursday during a major general policy speech to Congress, the traditional “State of the Union”. Struggling in the polls, the outgoing president “must use this last opportunity to address millions of Americans to present the contrast between his vision and what life will be like under Donald Trump,” says political scientist Wendy Schiller.