Super Tuesday Blowout

By Jason Collins

Super Tuesday Ends Republican Primary

Buckle up because it was a decisive day in the world of American politics thanks to Super Tuesday, a presidential primary election day where 15 states all voted for their desired presidential nominee. It’s kind of like the Super Bowl but for politicians, and here’s what transpired at the Republican primaries. 

The 15 states and how it works 

Super Tuesday was aptly named considering how many states all hosted the presidential primaries on the same day, both Democrats and Republicans.

The 15 states include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. 

What makes Super Tuesday so important is that it offers the nominees the opportunity to win around one-third of all delegates needed for the nomination and is usually a strong indicator of who the political nominee from each party will be. This year, there is no suspense over who will lead the Democratic and Republican parties. Joe Biden was always a foregone conclusion for the Democrats despite worries about his age and mental acuity. And for the Republicans, the race for the Republican nomination officially ended here.

On the fateful Tuesday, there were 874 out of 2,429 total delegates available to win, with the total needed to win the nomination at 1,215. So far, Trump had won 244 delegates and after Tuesday, he achieved so many delegates winning by such a large margin that even Nikki Haley finally realized the Republican Party that she was trying to reach had no interest in hearing her message. 

Nikki Haley suspends campaign 

Heading into Super Tuesday the fact that Haley was still in the race was surprising. Haley, who’s the former governor of South Carolina, went into Super Tuesday confident in her performance, hoping that her messaging to Democrats and Independents would earn her some popularity over MAGA Trump. However, this wasn’t the case. She suffered a serious beating in many of the states losing by at least 50 points. 

Trump even won Haley’s home state of South Carolina previously, by 20 points. Trump won 59.8% of the votes, whereas Haley won 39.5%. While this is still a loss, the gap between the two of them seemed close enough for Haley to push on to Super Tuesday. A rather remarkable denial of facts for the ex-governor. Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin told The Hill, “I think we’re all very open-eyed about that. But she is underscoring the fundamental weakness of Donald Trump, and it should be a five-alarm fire for the party, but for some reason, it is not.”

Haley’s campaign and surrogates seemed to be dwelling within an alternate reality as if they had all jumped into a Delorean and were campaigning in 2004. Displacement from the current Republican base’s wants and dreams was a major disconnect. When Trump was asked by a reporter during a speech what he thought about Haley still being in the race, this is what he said,

No, I don’t care if she stays in. Let her do whatever she wants. It doesn’t matter.

Haley’s persistence in continuing her Quixotic battle did have two minor payoffs. She managed to beat Trump in the Washington DC primary, which is more of a symbolic win than anything else. Haley won 62.8% of the votes, whereas Trump only earned 33.3%. This win makes her the first ever woman to win a Republican primary, and that’s not all. Haley also won the primary in the state of Vermont by a slim margin, with 49.9% of the votes, and Trump with a close 45.9% of the votes. Haley can always say she won one state in a Republican Primary which isn’t easy to do, ask Ron DeSantis.    

However, this was not enough and now Haley suspended her campaign the day after Super Tuesday. Haley told supporters,

The time has now come to suspend my campaign, I have no regrets.

While Haley told supporters “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him.” She hasn’t endorsed him yet if she ever will.

Did Haley ever really have a shot? Right from the start Haley had been competing with a big-name brand: the MAGA brand. Since 2020, Trump has had his MAGA supporters before his 2024 campaign began meaning Haley was already on the back foot. This doesn’t mean she didn’t accomplish anything. In fact, her ability to be the last woman standing against the other Republican men and go head-to-head with Trump is an achievement on its own. Haley staked herself as a moderate alternative to conservative Trump and for a while that worked for her. She didn’t support the federal abortion ban but instead took a pro-choice stance which was different for a Republican. She supported foreign policy, like sending aid to Ukraine and Israel. She pushed for the country to raise the retirement age. During her campaign, Haley put up an admiral performance. But her positions were not the positions of the vast majority of Republicans in 2024. The America First, isolationist, secure the border energy of the Republican base did not find Haley compelling.    

Michigan primary results 

Before Super Tuesday, the state of Michigan hosted its primary on February 27th with Trump defeating Haley. Haley gained 4 delegates and managed to earn 296,390 of the votes, while Trump won 759,280 votes, which is a 68.1% domination of the primary. This was another big win for Trump and one he celebrated by saying,

We have a very simple task: we have to win on November 5, and we’re going to win big. We win Michigan, we win the whole thing.

Michigan, along with Georgia, will be the two pivotal states in the 2024 general election. Trump’s strong showing in the state, along with over 100,000 people casting a no-confidence vote in Joe Biden due to his support for Israel in their ongoing slaughter of Palestinian civilians puts Michigan up for grabs in November.

Results of Super Tuesday 

Looking back over the results of Super Tuesday there’s one clear thing; Trump is the undisputed winner of the Republican Primary. Trump won every state except for Vermont, where Haley managed to pull out a narrow victory. So, here’s your round-up of the results. 

Two of Trump’s biggest wins came from California and Texas which saw him earning 330 delegates in those states alone. In California, he gained 169 delegates and in Texas, he gained 141 delegates. Haley was non-competitive in these huge sample sizes of the electorate. During the election watch party, Trump had told partygoers at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach,

They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one. And they tell me, the pundits and otherwise, that there’s never been one like this.

Other big wins for Trump included the state of North Carolina, where he gained 53 delegates, and 51 in Tennessee where Haley earned not a single one. In other states like Alabama, Utah, and Maine, Trump won at least 40 delegates for each state. In many states, Trump beat Haley by 50 or more points. Primary voters couldn’t have been more clear, the Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump.

Dominating this round of primaries in historic fashion, Trump’s comeback from 2020 when some thought he would become a pariah in American politics is complete. Overall, Trump gained 893 delegates of the 1,215 needed. On Tuesday, he gained an impressive 722 delegates compared to Haley’s 23 delegates. That, is a blowout. In total, Haley has 66 delegates, and the likelihood of her reaching 1,215 before Trump was low, nearly mathematically impossible leading to the suspension of her presidential campaign. 

Rematch

The results of Super Tuesday crystallized the match-up everyone thought would happen: Trump will be the Republican nominee going up against Joe Biden in the November elections. Trump – Biden II, the rematch is coming, whether Americans want it or not.

Every electorate is different. Trump has made large gains among Black men and Latino voters cutting into Biden’s core base. Biden is bleeding voters from his left flank through his support of Israel over the Palestinians. Trump won’t get every Republican who voted for Haley. After Super Tuesday Nikki had two options: struggle behind Trump winning 3 delegates at a time while helping Joe Biden or resign her campaign and unite behind Trump. She withdrew from the primary but hasn’t committed to endorsing or campaigning for Trump. With the GOP now firmly Trump’s party, Haley has one choice: fall in line and support Trump or end up a pariah like Liz Cheney. Haley is a young woman in political terms, only 51, so it seems logical she wants a career in politics in 2028 or beyond. If she is going to find that place in the Republican Party she will need to carry the flag for the party that chosen, without much doubt, that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president of the United States.