Spanish.- The most important day on the US electoral calendar prior to the November presidential elections ended with an overwhelming victory for former President Donald Trump. The results are not surprising. They simultaneously reinforce the businessman’s pre-candidacy to become the nominee for the Republican Party to compete for the White House.
Republicans distributed 865 delegates out of the total 2429 this Super Tuesday, while in the Democratic Party, 1420 delegates out of 3934 were at stake, although in this case, it was merely a formality to bring President Joe Biden closer to the “magic number” that would officially make him the nominee of his party. However, on the opposite side of the aisle, things were slightly different. Virginia, the first of the states to report results, favored Trump with 66.2% of the votes and 31.8% for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, when the ballot review released by Fox News showed 71%. The former president obtained all 48 Republican delegates from that state.
Texas, with 46% of the ballots counted, also gave victory to Trump, who garnered 76.5% of the votes compared to Haley’s 18.3%. There, 161 delegates were at stake, the highest number of officials to be allocated after California, with 169. What this day shows is the Republican electorate’s desire for the former president to be the standard-bearer for the presidency. It also demonstrates that the legal cases against him only add to his candidacy’s popularity.
Trump wins, Biden pursued by blank votes
The Republican results of Super Tuesday make Trump the undisputed winner and the candidate for a rematch against Biden. He sealed his victory in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Maine, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, and Tennessee. By the early hours of March 6, he had secured 393 delegates compared to Haley’s 43 out of the necessary 1215 delegates, and out of the total 2429 in the Republican camp, this excluding the states where vote counting was still underway.
In Iowa, current President Joe Biden garnered 90% of the votes, almost 80% in Massachusetts, 93% in Maine, and 75% in Minnesota, to name a few of the states in contention. However, this Super Tuesday was a ceremonial act for the Democrats where Biden’s nomination was not questioned, but rather the dissatisfaction of his supporters.
For example, in Alabama, Biden had 90.5% of the votes followed by blank votes with 5.1%, even surpassing Democratic candidate Dean Phillips, who garnered 4.4% with 23% of the ballots counted, according to CNN projections. It may seem like a significant difference, but the positioning of blank votes indicates what could happen in the final race in November.
What will happen now?
The primary and caucus calendar will continue until early June. But both Trump and Biden are likely to secure the necessary delegates for each party a little earlier, as in 2016, when Trump reached the threshold for the nomination on May 26.
The fact is that more than half of the journey has already been completed. At the time of this publication, the results of the caucuses in Alaska and Utah were still to be added, as well as the primaries in California, where counting had not begun, and the definitive result in Vermont, where the difference between Haley and Trump was less than two points, which is why a winner could not be announced until every vote was counted.