Trump looks to knock out rival Republican Haley in Super Tuesday voting

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© Reuters. People arrive at a polling location during the Super Tuesday primary election, in Rio Grande City, Texas, U.S., March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr
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By Joseph Ax and Gram Slattery

FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) – Donald Trump aimed to knock his sole remaining challenger for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination, Nikki Haley, out of the running on Super Tuesday, which would allow him to focus his campaign energy on Democratic President Joe Biden.

The former president, who has dominated the Republican campaign from the start despite his litany of criminal charges, has swept all but one of the contests so far, winnowing a sprawling Republican field of candidates down to two.

While Trump cannot win enough delegates to formally clinch the nomination on Tuesday, when 15 states hold Republican contests, another dominant performance would further pressure his remaining rival. The day’s contests will award more than one-third of Republican delegates – and more than 70% of the number needed to secure the nomination.

The first polls were due to close at 7 p.m. EST (0000 GMT) in Vermont and Virginia, with voting wrapping up in Alaska at midnight EST (0500 Wednesday GMT).

Biden is expected to win Tuesday’s Democratic contests easily, though activists opposed to his Israel policy are calling on Muslim Americans and progressives to vote “uncommitted” in Minnesota in protest.

Haley, a former U.N. ambassador under Trump, has faced mounting questions about how long she will continue her long-shot campaign, particularly after losing her home state of South Carolina 10 days ago.

“As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I’m not ready to get out yet,” she told Fox News in an interview.

Trump was leading Haley in every Super Tuesday state where public polling data was available, according to poll tracking website 538.

But Haley allies see a narrow window of opportunity to win states such as Virginia, Massachusetts and Vermont, which have more of the wealthy, college-educated voters who tend to support her candidacy.

Trump told Fox in a separate interview that his focus was on Biden, adding: “We’re going to win every state tonight.”

Biden said in an interview on Power 98 FM, a hip-hop and R&B radio station that serves Charlotte, North Carolina, that the elections were a chance to take on “the extreme division and violence the MAGA Republicans are pushing,” using the acronym for Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

Voters were also casting ballots in down-ticket races, including two key contests in California to identify potential successors to the late Democrat Dianne Feinstein in the Senate and recently deposed Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives.

Control of the Senate next year could hinge on which party wins an Arizona seat in the upper chamber this November.

That Senate race received renewed scrutiny on Tuesday when independent U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat, said she will not run for reelection in the highly competitive state.

TAYLOR SWIFT WEIGHS IN

Pop megastar Taylor Swift encouraged her fans to vote in a post on Instagram, though her reach may have been limited by an extensive outage that affected that social media site and Facebook, both of which are owned by Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META).

“I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today,” Swift wrote, without mentioning any specific candidate.

Trump’s advisers have said they expect him to eliminate Haley mathematically no later than March 19, when two-thirds of the states will have voted. Trump is scheduled to begin his first criminal trial six days later in New York, where he is charged with falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 presidential run.

Haley’s challenge has highlighted some of Trump’s potential general election vulnerabilities. She has reached 40% in some state contests and argues that shows independents and moderate Republicans harbor unease about a second Trump term.

“She’s a solid alternative to Trump,” Mac Seidel, a retired IT worker from Southlake, Texas, said at a Haley rally on Monday night. “She’s supporting the moderates out there.”

Seidel said he voted for Trump twice, but his conduct around the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters and the unprecedented 91 criminal charges facing the former president make him an unacceptable choice now.

Trump faces federal and state charges for election interference, though it is unclear whether either case will reach trial before November’s election. He also faces federal charges for retaining classified documents after leaving office.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four criminal cases.

Katherine Meredith (NYSE:MDP), a 65-year-old homemaker, voted for Trump in California’s Huntington Beach, which includes a significant Trump base despite California being deeply Democratic.

Meredith, a two-time Trump voter, said she didn’t even consider Haley: “I don’t like how she’s dividing the Republican Party. I think a lot of her issues are Democratic. I think she’s causing a big divide.”