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Trump and his “Super” Tuesday
The biggest prize of the evening for Trump has been the Lone Star state of Texas with its huge haul of 161 delegates.
Trump inches towards Republican nomination with Super Tuesday victory / Wikimedia Commons
The first results have started trickling in and Donald Trump is on a roll. The going seems to be bleak for Nikki Haley with perhaps only a slim chance in Vermont. Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas have been put in the Trump column.
The biggest prize of the evening for Trump has been the Lone Star state of Texas with its huge haul of 161 delegates.
If there was one event this political season that was a foregone conclusion it was Super Tuesday of March 5. The 45th President of the United States was expected to romp home with most of Republican delegates on Tuesday; and for the incumbent Democratic President, Joe Biden, there was no real contest at all.
The only interest in Biden was in the “uncommitted” votes that were going to be cast by way of protest, especially in Minnesota. Voting in the primaries closed between 7 pm and midnight, depending on the time zones of America, from the East to the West coasts to Alaska.
But the real interest in the Republican primaries of Super Tuesday was really whether Trump could pull off a 15 out of 15 and in the process deliver such a punishing blow to his only opponent Nikki Haley that she would be forced to call it quits.
Polls in nearly every one of the states in the fray on Tuesday--Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia—showed the former President holding a lead of between 27 and 42 points. Surveys have also shown that Trump doing his best with voters who call themselves Republican, those who do not have a four year college degree and people who identify themselves as white evangelical Christians.
Haley has done well with those with college degrees, suburbanites, moderate Republicans and Independents. But this has not been able to push her over the threshold for delegates.
Super Tuesday has different memories for Republicans and Democrats. For instance in 2016, candidate Trump managed to get 7 out of the 12 states that had their primary show; and in 2020 Biden got the better of Senator Bernie Sanders in 10 out of 14 states, including a strong showing in the South, to effectively end the Vermonter’s challenge.
But it has been quite some years to witness a rather “boring” Super Tuesday of 2024 with little or no slugfest to show for in both political camps, especially in a non-incumbent’s.
Heading into this Super Tuesday Trump had a total of 273 delegates compared to Haley’s 43. And Super Tuesday had a rich haul of 874 delegates, about one third of all 2429. For the Republicans a candidate needs to have 1215 delegates to get the nomination. The question is if Trump can cross the magic number on March 5 or will have to mathematically wait it out for the primaries of March 12 or even March 19.
The celebrations in the Trump and Biden camps would have to be tempered in a sober realisation of the long road still to November 5 and in all the areas that have to be covered. Former President Trump cannot afford to take consolation that he has tightened his grip in the Republican National Committee or for that matter within the Grand Old Party. His major worry is moderates, college educated, suburban voters and independents, all accounting to some 30 percent that his camp can ill afford to ignore.
President Biden’s problem is equally challenging, if not more. Given the fact that a good majority of Americans and within the Democratic Party are quite uneasy having him again on the ticket because of his age, mental acuity being two major factors.
Biden seems to be slowly losing valuable support from among progressives and independents, some of this on account of the immediate problem he faces with the disaster in the Gaza, perceived as ineffective foreign policy.
With battleground states once again showing signs of being critical to 2024, Trump and Biden have much ground to traverse over and beyond the worn out rhetoric.
Currently Editor in Chief, Dr. Sridhar Krishnaswami was Special Correspondent of The Hindu and Press Trust of India in Washington DC and has covered the Presidential elections of 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008ADVERTISEMENT
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