- Biden won first round of contests on Tuesday with Iowa caucuses
- Trump looking for a massive sweep of states
- 15 states hold nominating contests on Super Tuesday
Donald Trump won Virginia shortly after the first two states closed their polls on Super Tuesday as he hopes for a massive sweep of victories that will knock rival Nikki Haley out of the race.
The former president is waiting to hear if he won Vermont, the other state that closed its polls at 7 pm ET, as he looks for a strong start on the biggest primary day of the year.
Haley was looking for a win in Virginia, similar to her victory in Washington D.C., her only win thus far in the Republican nomination contest. She was hoping Democratic crossover votes, moderate GOP voters and independents would rally to her side.
Voters cast ballots at a voting center in Los Angeles County, California, on Super Tuesday
Fifteen states hold nominating contests on Tuesday. Millions of voters will cast their ballots and hundreds of delegates are at stake – the biggest haul for any candidate thus far.
In the aftermath, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are expected to move much closer to their party’s respective nominations.
Biden started off the night by winning Iowa, where Democrats previously held their contest but released results Tuesday.
Trump is looking to sweep the 15 states holding Republican primaries on Tuesday. He still faces opposition from Haley but a series of victories will make it nearly mathmatically impossible for her to catch the former president.
Tuesday’s contests will award more than one-third of Republican delegates – and more than 70% of the number needed to secure the nomination.
Haley pledged stay in the race until the Super Tuesday contests but has not made any promises beyond that, and her campaign has not scheduled any public events on Tuesday or beyond.
Both the Biden and Trump camps have been preparing for a rematch even though the earliest either can become his party´s presumptive nominee is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden.
But, after Tuesday, the general election battle will be effectively underway. Both men are ready.
‘We have to beat Biden – he is the worst president in history,’ Trump said Tuesday on Fox & Friends.
‘If we lose this election, you´re going to be back with Donald Trump,’ Biden said on the DeDe in the Morning radio show in North Carolina. ‘The way he talks about, the way he acted, the way he has dealt with the African American community, I think, has been shameful.’
Donald Trump (left) is hoping for a big victory sweep on Super Tuesday that will knock Nikki Haley (right) out of the contest
Election workers process ballots at the Utah County Election Headquarters in Provo, Utah
Voters, however, do not seem enthusiastic about repeating the 2020 election, which Biden won and Trump falsely claimed victory. Polls show a majority of voters wanted an option other than Biden or Trump.
So now each campaign will have to focus on rallying their base and persuading independent voters to come to the polls in November.
On Saturday, Biden and Trump will hold separate campaign events in Georgia, a critical battleground state. Biden became the first Democratic since Bill Clinton to win it in 2020. Trump was convinced he had won it and now faces federal and state charges on his attempts to overturn results there.