Anyone expecting a major surprise on Super Tuesday was likely to be disappointed — unless you were betting on an upset in American Samoa.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the Democratic and Republican frontrunners, respectively, cruised to victory in the vast majority of the Super Tuesday contests, which accounted for nearly a third of the overall delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
While neither candidate received enough delegates to clinch, both frontrunners are well on their way to cementing a 2020 election rematch in November, leaving any potential long shot challengers in the dust.
The night was no doubt a disappointment for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who did score an upstate over Trump by winning Vermont.
The former president, on the other hand, won contests in Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Minnesota, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Utah and California. A Republican primary in Alaska had not yet been called as of midnight Wednesday.
“They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one,” Trump said in remarks at his Florida estate, later adding: “This was an amazing night, an amazing day.”
Trump attacked Biden over his usual stump topics, including the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, while contending that his victories on Tuesday will help to unify the party.
“We have a great Republican party with tremendous talent and we want to have unity and we are going to have the unity and it will happen very quickly. I’ve been saying lately, success will bring unity to the country.”
Despite Trump’s calls for unity, Haley’s Vermont victory — her first state win in the election cycle, just days after she won the Washington, D.C, primary — denied Trump a 50-state sweep in the Republican primary. But she was unable to pick up other states that might have offered her more favorable demographics, like Vermont and Maine.
Her campaign’s future is unclear after Tuesday, with no public events scheduled as of yet. A spokesperson for Haley’s campaign seemed to reject those calls for unity.
“Unity is not achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re united.’ Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump,” said Haley national spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas. “That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.”
Biden similarly barnstormed the evening’s contests, winning all of the states up for grabs, including Vermont, though he lost to an unknown challenger in American Samoa’s caucuses, a contest in which less than 100 people participated. (Biden lost the contest by 11 votes.)
“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?” Biden asked in a statement Tuesday night, painting his 2020 opponent and likely 2024 foe as an enemy of both progress and American democracy writ large.
“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,” Biden said. “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,” he vowed.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, called the results “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,” she said. “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.”
Signaling the unusual nature of this primary election, Biden and Trump campaigned on the same day last week at the U.S.-Mexico border, trading blame for the current state of immigration, rather than stumping in states holding primary contests.
And after Super Tuesday, both candidates will be heading to battleground states: Trump and Biden will both be heading to Georgia on Saturday for another dueling visit. Biden will also be traveling to Philadelphia on Friday, while Vice President Harris will be heading to Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona “in the coming days.”
There were several other prominent down-ballot races on the Super Tuesday docket, including the North Carolina governor’s race, which will feature Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson squaring off in a purple state both parties are hoping to win in November.
In the race to replace the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Rep. Adam Schiff, who became a household name during the Trump administration as a prominent critic of the former president, will face off against Steve Garvey, a former player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres running for the Republican nomination.
California has a top two primary system, meaning that the two candidates who receive the most votes regardless of party affiliation make it to the general election ballot. While Republicans have not won a U.S. Senate race in California since the 1980s, Garvey, a GOP challenger with major name recognition in the Golden State, is hoping to change that.
There was also a tight Democratic primary to challenge Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The Republican will face U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL player and moderate Democrat who broke with his party over President Biden’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Joseph Konig
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