Key takeaways from Super Tuesday results

Voters in 15 states and American Samoa chose their preferred party candidates for president. Donald Trump posted a dominant performance, with wins in states across the country. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are expected to face off in a rematch in November. Here are some of the key takeaways from Super Tuesday.

The former president will walk away with a near-insurmountable lead in convention delegates, even if he will have to wait until next week to mathematically lock the Republican nomination. With Nikki Haley formally announcing on Wednesday that she will be dropping out of the race, Mr Trump’s nomination is just about certain. In Virginia, 64% said that they trusted Mr Trump on border security. In North Carolina, 32% of voters said that Mr Trump would not be fit to be president if convicted of a crime.

In Virginia, 40% said they wanted a candidate who shares their values and fights for people like them. Among North Carolina voters, only 21% said they would vote for the Republican nominee. Of course, opinions could change in the heat of the autumn general election campaign. Today, in state after state, there remains a large bloc of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump.

The former South Carolina governor chose not to hold a public event on the evening of Super Tuesday. Back in 2016, 75% of non-Trump voters in the Republican primary said they would be dissatisfied with Mr Trump as the eventual nominee. But in the end, 90% of Republicans backed Hillary Clinton. Haley pledged to stay in the race until Super Tuesday, hoping to add to her delegate total.

In all the other Super Tuesday contests, however, there simply weren’t enough anti-Trump voters to translate into wins or narrow defeats. She did not indicate what her future plans might be, but said she looks forward to being a private citizen. Will she ultimately back the former president, despite her recent sharp criticisms? Is she angling for an independent presidential bid?

With all the drama now stripped out of the nominating contests, the South Carolinian’s future is one of the few immediate sources of mystery. More than 100,000 voters - 12% of the total - turned out to cast ballots for the incumbent president. In North Carolina, 12% of voters opted for “no preference. In Minnesota, 20% of the vote garnered approximately 20%.

Pro-Palestinian groups are already targeting next week’s primary in Washington state, which has a sizeable left-wing activist population. The Biden campaign was hoping that Michigan, with its large population of Arab-Americans, was the beginning and end of the anti-Biden protest vote. Tuesday will have been a rude awakening. If you’re in the UK, ipientsign up here.

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