Trump wins caucuses of the Republicans in three states
Republican Party candidate Donald Trump (photo: Getty Images)
On Saturday, March 2, former President Donald Trump won three more Republican primary elections, defeating his rival Nikki Haley in Missouri and Idaho, and receiving all the remaining delegates from Michigan, according to the Associated Press.
Trump has won all three races so far by a significant margin. By mid-March, he may have enough delegates to become the sole candidate in the Republican Party primaries.
Michigan
At their convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Republicans allocated 39 out of 55 state delegates for the presidential election.
Trump easily won the primaries with a lead of over 40%, receiving 68% of the votes compared to Haley's 27% and securing 1575 votes from 39 precincts. His opponent, Nikki Haley, garnered 37 delegates from 263 Republicans present in the Boone County district.
However, a significant portion of the party’s grassroots force was skipping the gathering because of the lingering effects of a months-long dispute over the party’s leadership.
Michigan Republicans were forced to split their delegate allocation into two parts after Democrats, who control the state government, moved Michigan into the early primary states, violating the national Republican Party’s rules.
Missouri
Voters lined up outside a church in Columbia, home to the University of Missouri, before the doors opened for the caucuses. Once they got inside, they heard appeals from supporters of the candidates.
Supporters quickly gravitated to one side of the room or the other, depending on their preference for Trump or Haley. After choosing their side, there was little discussion among caucus attendees.
This year marked the first test of a new system largely run by Republican volunteers.
The caucuses were organized after GOP Gov. Mike Parson signed a 2022 law that, among other things, canceled the planned March 12 presidential primary.
Lawmakers failed to reinstate the primary despite calls to do so by both state Republican and Democratic party leaders. Democrats will hold a party-run primary on March 23.
Trump won twice under the old system of presidential primaries in Missouri.
Idaho
Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed cost-cutting legislation that was intended to move all the state’s primaries to the same date in May. But the bill inadvertently eliminated the presidential primaries.
The Republican-led Legislature considered holding a special session to reinstate the presidential primaries but failed to agree on a proposal in time, leaving both parties with presidential caucuses as the only option.
"I think there’s been a lot of confusion because most people don’t realize that our Legislature actually voted in a flawed bill. So the caucus is really just the best-case scenario to actually get an opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate and nominate them for the GOP," said Jessie Bryant, who volunteered at a caucus site near downtown Boise.
One of those voters was John Graves, a fire protection engineer from Boise. He said the caucus was fast and easy, not much different from Idaho’s usual Republican primary. He anticipated the win would go to Trump.
"It’s a very conservative state, so I would think that Trump will probably carry it quite easily. And I like that," Graves said.
The Democratic caucuses aren’t until May 23.
The last GOP caucuses in Idaho were in 2012 when about 40,000 of the state’s nearly 200,000 registered Republican voters showed up to select their preferred candidate.
This year, all Republican voters wishing to participate in the caucuses must come in person. They will vote after hearing short speeches from the candidates or their representatives.
If one of the candidates receives more than 50% of the votes statewide, they will receive all of Idaho's delegates. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, then each candidate who receives at least 15% of the total votes will receive a proportional number of delegates.
The Idaho Republican Party will announce the results after counting all the votes statewide.
In the 2016 primaries in Idaho, Trump placed second, behind Senator Ted Cruz from Texas.
Super Tuesday and Nikki Haley's chances
According to Bloomberg, the primaries will soon move to Super Tuesday on March 5, when 15 states will hold Republican Party nominating contests. Haley has pledged to stay in the race until then. She has continued campaigning and fundraising over the past week after a devastating loss to Trump last Saturday in South Carolina, where she served as governor twice.
The former US ambassador to the UN argues that she should stay in the race, despite slim chances, to give voters a choice other than Trump. She has been persuading voters that Trump's legal troubles will distract him from the campaign, making him a less desirable candidate to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden.
Despite the losses, Haley has beat expectations set by polls in several of the early voting states. She won more than 43% of the vote in New Hampshire and nearly 40% in her home state of South Carolina, both states where she spent significant time campaigning.
"There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative," Haley said last week.
With victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the US Virgin Islands, South Carolina, and now Michigan, Missouri, and Idaho, Trump has become the undisputed leader of the race, while Haley is hanging on thanks to support from sponsors interested in an alternative to the former president.
Caucuses are gatherings of supporters and party members. Unlike primaries, which are conducted by state governments before US presidential elections, caucuses are organized by the party apparatus. The results of caucuses determine the vote for the presidential candidate at the convention.
Presidential elections in the US
The presidential election in the United States is scheduled for November 5, 2024. According to forecasts, the main candidate from the Democrats will be the incumbent American leader, Joe Biden. From the Republicans, in addition to Donald Trump, former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is also participating.
At the end of February, Trump and Biden won their primaries in the state of Michigan.
In addition, Trump won the Republican primaries in South Carolina, the home state of his rival Nikki Haley.
Meanwhile, Trump is ahead of Biden in the results of a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College.
