Former President Donald Trump pulled further away from Nikki Haley and closer to clinching the Republican presidential nomination with a dominating performance on Super Tuesday.
Decision Desk HQ declared Trump the winner in 13 of the 15 states in play, including California Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and Virginia.
"They call it Super Tuesday for a reason," Trump said at a boisterous celebration at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. "This is a big one. And they tell me, the pundits and otherwise, that there's never been anything so conclusive. This has been an amazing night and an amazing day. This has been an incredible time in our country's history."
Haley's performance in Vermont, which had an open primary where Democrats and independents could vote in the GOP contest, was the only thing that prevented a clean sweep by Trump. Vermont was finally called for Haley more than three hours after polls closed. She had 50.5% of the vote to Trump's 45.7% with 99% of the votes totaled.
Trump won the two biggest prizes: California, which had 169 delegates at stake, and Texas, with 150 (11 more will be awarded at the state GOP convention in May).
Trump's emphasis on the crisis at the southern border certainly resonated with Texans. He had 76.7% of the vote to Haley's 18.3% with 53% of the votes totaled. He had a lead of 64.5 percentage points (79.4%-14.9%) over Haley in the FiveThirtyEight polling average entering Tuesday.
Trump's victory in California was called a minute after polls closed. Trump led Haley by 57.2 points (75.6%-18.4%) in California in the FiveThirtyEight average entering Tuesday.
A total of 865 of the 2,429 Republican delegates, roughly 35%, were up for grabs on Super Tuesday, with the Republican candidate needing 1,215 to clinch the nomination. Trump entered with 273 delegates to Haley's 43, and although he wouldn't clinch the nomination if he swept all the delegates – which was unlikely – a dominant performance will put more pressure on Haley to end her campaign.
The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration has resisted calls from Republicans nationwide to suspend her campaign, even after she lost her home state's primary to Trump by 20.3 percentage points.
Haley was coming off her first primary victory, in the District of Columbia, and until Tuesday, she had yet to finish close to the former president in any other state primary or caucus. Her best performance before Tuesday's victory in Vermont was in New Hampshire, an 11-point (44.3%-33.3%) loss. Voters not affiliated with the Democrat or Republican parties were allowed to vote in the primary, a reason many believed Haley performed so well.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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