Although both candidates have low approval ratings, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump easily won Tuesday's statewide primary contests across the nation, paving the way for a historic rematch of the general election in November.
Trump easily defeated his lone opponent, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who no longer has a realistic chance of winning the nomination. Trump garnered Republican votes in twelve states, including delegate-rich California and Texas. According to Edison Research, Nikki has only won once tonight, in Vermont.
Trump nearly secured his third straight presidential nomination on Super Tuesday, despite a long list of criminal accusations. He had performed admirably in 15 states where over one-third of Republican delegates were in his grasp.
Once the results were evident, Trump and Biden turned their attention to each other. Delivering a triumphant speech from his Florida estate, Mar-A-Lago, Trump emphasized Biden's immigration policies, branding him the "worst president" ever.
He claimed that migrant crime was taking over their cities, although crime statistics do not support his claim.
Biden described Trump as a threat to American democracy in a statement. He said that after the results, the American people now have a clear decision to make: move forward or let Donald Trump lead them back to the chaos and darkness that marked his presidency?
Though activists opposed to Biden's strong support of Israel organized a protest vote in Minnesota, which produced surprisingly strong results, Biden was expected to easily win the Democratic races.
According to Edison, the percentage of "uncommitted" votes in Minnesota was close to 20% when over half of the total votes were collected. This figure was greater than the 13% that a comparable campaign in Michigan garnered the previous week. Despite this, Biden prevailed in Minnesota and fourteen other states, including an Iowa mail-in vote that concluded on Tuesday.
He did lose one caucus to businessman Jason Palmer, who received 51 votes against Biden's 40 in American Samoa territory.
There doesn't seem to be much desire among Americans for another campaign with Trump (77) and Biden (81), the first rematch in US presidential history since 1956. Trump and Biden are both rated poorly by voters, according to opinion polls. The economy and immigration were Republican voters' top concerns.
In those states, the majority of Republican voters declared that they supported expelling illegal immigrants. If elected, Trump, who regularly disparages immigrants, has pledged to carry out the biggest deportation operation in American history.
Both Biden and Trump show weakness
Voters were casting ballots in down-ticket contests too.
Democratic US Representative Adam Schiff, who spearheaded the prosecution of Trump during his initial impeachment trial, proceeded to the general election in California to replace the late US Senator Dianne Feinstein. Steve Garvey, a former baseball player and Republican who defeated Democratic US Representative Katie Porter in the race, will be his opponent.
Because of California's unique electoral system, which sees the top two candidates advance without regard to their party, Schiff's campaign decided to take a different approach. He ran commercials aimed at bolstering Garvey's support among Republicans, thinking that Garvey would probably be a less strong opponent in November than Porter in the Democratic-leaning state.
Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, emerged victorious in the Republican contest for governor. Robinson, who would become the first Black executive in state history, has come under fire for making derogatory remarks toward Muslims, women, and LGBTQ individuals.
He will go up against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in one of the country's most fiercely contested gubernatorial races.
Pop superstar Taylor Swift did not specifically support any politicians in her Instagram message, but she did urge her followers to cast their ballots. The Biden team is hoping that Swift will support him in the end, just as she did in 2020.
Trump may have certain vulnerabilities in the general election, as highlighted by Haley's challenge. Her support among independent, educated, suburban voters — who may be especially important in battleground states come November — has propelled her to 40% of the vote in some state elections.
In North Carolina, around one-third of respondents stated that if Trump were found guilty of a crime, he would not be suitable to hold the position of president; in Virginia, however, 53% of voters said he would be suitable if convicted.
The first criminal trial for Trump is set to start in New York on March 25. He is accused of fabricating business records to hide payments of hush money to a porn star while he was running for president in 2016.
Apart from the New York case, Trump is also charged with federal and state offenses related to election meddling in Georgia, though it's not clear if either case will get to trial before the election on November 5. Federal accusations are also pending against him for keeping secret papers after leaving the government.
In each of the four criminal cases, Trump has entered a not-guilty plea.
Biden also has his own shortcomings, which include widespread concern over his age. As of right now, he is the oldest president of the United States ever.