The US president and his main rival are triumphing in their respective contests, multiple news agencies said
A voter enters a polling place in Mountain Brook, Alabama on March 5, 2024. © Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images / AFP
US President Joe Biden and his main challenger, former president Donald Trump, are dominating their respective primaries across the US on Tuesday, according to projections by multiple news agencies.
The voting held in several states on March 5 is crucial for determining who the Democrats and Republicans will formally nominate as their candidates for the presidential elections in November.
According to Reuters, Trump comfortably won the GOP challenges in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. His last-remaining Republican rival – former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley – currently holds a narrow lead over Trump in Vermont, CNN reported.
Trump celebrated his victory on Tuesday evening, vowing to unify the country. “We have a great Republican party with tremendous talent and we want to have unity and we’re going to have unity and it’s going to happen very quickly,” he said in a speech in Palm Beach, Florida.
Biden, meanwhile, won the Democrat vote in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, Reuters said, citing a projection from Edison Research.
The voting took place a day after the US Supreme Court struck down a decision by Colorado’s top court to bar Trump from the presidential ballot in November. The ruling effectively derailed the campaign waged by Democrat activists to disqualify Trump because of his controversial role in the riot at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Trump has long argued that attempts to prevent him from seeking a second term were a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The campaigning intensified in recent weeks, with Trump and Biden attacking each other’s record and character. The incumbent president and his aides have described Trump as a “threat to democracy.” Trump, meanwhile, questioned Biden’s mental fitness and claimed that the continuation of his administration would usher in “the collapse” of America.
