Biden, Trump, both win Massachusetts and several other early Super Tuesday states
President Biden and former President Donald Trump were swiftly declared the winners of their respective primaries here in Massachusetts not long after polls closed while voters were still in line in other Super Tuesday states.
The Bay State was called for Trump just before 9 p.m., about half an hour after Biden’s win was declared. Virginia was declared for Trump and Biden by the Associated Press not long after polls closed at 7 p.m. and North Carolina was called for both men a half-hour later.
Results out of Oklahoma and Tennessee came shortly after 8 p.m., and Iowa, which held its Republican caucus earlier this year, was called for Biden before 8 p.m.
Both candidates also won in Maine shortly after 8:30 p.m. Not long after, Trump and Biden were both declared the winners in Arkansas and Alabama within hours of those polls closing. Biden also won Vermont quickly, with Republican results still up in the air as of presstime.
Their projected wins all but guarantee that the 2024 presidential election will mirror the 2020 contest, with only the occupant of the White House changed.
Both campaigns went into the day understandably certain they were about to walk away the winners.
“This Super Tuesday, the split screen between our campaign and Donald Trump’s operation couldn’t be more stark: President Biden continues to see record-breaking grassroots enthusiasm around a historic and winning agenda, while Donald Trump is poised to enter the general election broke,” Biden-Harris 2024 Deputy Campaign Manager Rob Flaherty said in a statement before the polls closed.
“MAGA,” Trump said via his Truth Social media platform before the polls closed. “AMERICA FIRST!”
“THANK YOU, VIRGINIA — MAGA,” he said after that race was called.
Not long after, he wrote, “THANK YOU, NORTH CAROLINA—MAGA.” That all-caps theme continued throughout the evening.
Though their victories aren’t enough to propel either man forward in the delegate count such that they can claim to have clinched the nomination on Tuesday, the numbers don’t lie and they spell disaster for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s campaign or that of any other outsider hoping to unseat either incumbent party leader.
Early results out of Virginia, for example, showed author Marianne Williamson beating U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips with less than 6% of the vote and despite the former previously suspending her campaign (she later reversed after a third place showing in Michigan).
In order for Trump to win the Republican nomination, he needs to secure 1,215 delegates out of 2,429. With 865 delegates available on Tuesday, and after Trump won all the proceeding contests excepting Washington D.C., it’s likely his pre-Super Tuesday count of 276 will jump to about 1,100 by the time the dust settles on Wednesday.
In order for Biden to lock up the Democratic nomination, he’ll need 1,968 delegates out of 3,934. Even if he won 1,420 delegates available on Tuesday on top of the 206 he won before then, he’d still be over 300 delegates shy of wrapping up the race. An effort to send Biden a message over U.S. involvement in the war between Israel and Hamas resulted in two delegates being awarded to “uncommitted” after the Michigan primary last month.
Both candidates will likely know mathematically that they are the nominee, if they ever had any doubts, by March 19, when Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio will hold their elections.
This is a developing story and it will be updated.