Donald Trump is looking to knock his only remaining GOP presidential contender, Nikki Haley, out of the race with voting going into Super Tuesday, allowing him to focus his next campaign energies on Democratic President Joe Biden, his most likely challenger . in the presidential elections in November, Reuters and News.ro report.

Tuesday, March 5, is a very important day in the American election calendar, known as Super Tuesday, as 15 US states and one US territory hold internal contests to nominate the Republican and Democratic nominees, respectively. Party, in the November presidential elections.

The Republican contest will determine 874 of the Convention’s 2,429 delegates, including the two most populous states, California and Texas. At least 1,215 delegates are needed for the nomination at the Republican National Convention in July, and Donald Trump is very close to that number.

The number of Republican delegates on the ballot on Super Tuesday by state is: Alabama (50), Alaska (29), American Samoa (9), Arkansas (40), California (169), Colorado (37), Maine (20) , Massachusetts (40), Minnesota (39), North Carolina (74), Oklahoma (43), Tennessee (58), Texas (161), Utah (40), Vermont (17), and Virginia (48).

Nearly a third of the Democratic delegates will also be up for grabs on March 5, with nominating contests in 14 of those 15 states as well as American Samoa. In Alaska, the Democratic vote will take place on April 6.

The first polling stations were to close at 19:00 local time (Wednesday, 02:00 Romanian time) in Vermont and Virginia, and in Alaska, voting will close at midnight (Wednesday, 07:00 Romanian time).

Former President Donald Trump, who has dominated the Republican campaign since the start despite a string of criminal charges, has won all but one race in Washington so far.

Even if Trump can’t pick up enough delegates to officially clinch the nomination on Tuesday, when 15 states hold Republican contests, another performance that would signal his absolute dominance would put even more pressure on his remaining challenger. The Super Tuesday contest will award more than a third of the GOP delegates – and more than 70% of the number needed to win the nomination.

As for Biden, he is also expected to easily win Tuesday’s Democratic primary, although activists who oppose his policies on Israel are calling on Muslim Americans and progressives to vote “not engaged” in Minnesota in protest.

The third-place finisher in the U.S. election race, Republican Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, is facing increasing questions about how long she will continue her long-running campaign, especially after losing her home state of Carolina to the South. , 10 days ago. “As much as everyone wants to push me out, I’m not ready to come out yet,” she said in an interview with Fox News.

Trump leads Haley in every Super Tuesday state for which polling data was available. But Gailey’s allies still see a narrow window of opportunity to win in states like Virginia, Massachusetts and Vermont, where there are more affluent, college-educated voters who tend to support her candidacy.

Trump, in a separate Fox interview, said he was focused on Biden, adding, “We’re going to win every state tonight.”

Biden said in an interview with Power 98 FM, a hip-hop and R&B station in Charlotte, North Carolina, that the election is a chance to confront the “extreme divisiveness and violence that they are fostering against MAGA Republicans,” using Trump’s acronym. “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

Voters also voted in smaller races on Super Tuesday, including two key contests in California to determine potential successors to the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and recently impeached Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives. Control of the Senate next year could hinge on which party wins Arizona’s seat in the upper chamber this November. That Senate race gained new attention Tuesday when independent U.S. Sen. Kirsten Sinema, a former Democrat, said she would not seek re-election in the hotly contested state.

Taylor Swift’s appeal to the voices affected by the fall of the Facebook network

Pop superstar Taylor Swift, the subject of conspiracy theories about alleged Democratic involvement, urged her fans to vote in a post on Instagram, though the reach of her call may have been limited to an extended one that affected the social network on Tuesday, as well as Facebook , both owned by Meta Platforms. “I wanted to remind you to vote for the people who represent you best. If you haven’t already, plan to vote today,” Swift wrote, without naming a specific candidate.

Trump advisers have said they expect him to mathematically eliminate Haley no later than March 19, when two-thirds of the states are on the ballot. In six days, Trump’s first criminal trial is set to begin in New York, where he is accused of falsifying tax returns to hide secret payments to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Haley’s challenge highlighted some of Trump’s potential vulnerabilities in the general election. She has reached 40% in some states and says that shows that independents and moderate Republicans are eyeing Trump’s second term with trepidation.

“She’s a credible alternative to Trump,” Mac Seidel, a retired IT worker from Southlake, Texas, said at Haley’s rally Monday night. Seidel said he voted for Trump twice, but his behavior during the Jan. 6, 2021 storm at the U.S. Capitol, in which supporters attacked him, and the unprecedented 91 criminal charges the former president faces make him an unacceptable choice now.

Trump faces charges of meddling in federal and state elections, though it’s unclear whether any of the cases will go to trial before the November election. He also faced federal charges of possessing classified documents after he left the White House. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all four criminal charges.