WASHINGTON – Super Tuesday put former President Donald Trump within reach of clinching his third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, but it may be Republican voters in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington who put him over the top.
The four states have a combined 161 delegates at stake on Tuesday, and Trump will need to win the lion’s share of them in order to become the presumptive nominee. But with his main rival for the nomination, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, no longer in the race, there are no remaining obstacles in his way.
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President Joe Biden also won hundreds of delegates on Super Tuesday and could officially clinch the nomination on Tuesday.
The Associated Press allocated delegates from Delaware and Florida to Biden on Friday, as both states have canceled their Democratic presidential primaries, with all their delegates going to the sitting president. With that allocation, Biden’s first possible date to clinch moves up to March 12, when he needs to win just 40% of the available delegates to do so.
Biden will be on the primary ballots in three states on Tuesday, Georgia, Mississippi and Washington. He is the only candidate on the ballot in Mississippi. The date will also mark the conclusion of party-run contests in the Northern Mariana Islands and Democrats Abroad, an organization of Democratic U.S. citizens who live in other countries. Democrats Abroad functions like a state for the purposes of the presidential nomination process.
Biden will face self-help author Marianne Williamson in four contests. He will also face a rematch with Democrat Jason Palmer in the Northern Marianas primary. Palmer unexpectedly won a 91-person vote in American Samoa on Super Tuesday, picking up three delegates along the way. “Uncommitted” has also won delegates in Michigan, Minnesota and Hawaii and will be on the ballot Tuesday in Washington.