Biden and Trump Clinch Nominations, Kicking Off General Election
President Joe Biden on March 12 secured the Democratic nomination after an overwhelming win in swing-state Georgia, as his rival, former President Donald Trump, won enough delegates to clinch the Republican nomination when several primaries were called later that evening.
“I am honored that the broad coalition of voters representing the rich diversity of the Democratic Party across the country have put their faith in me once again to lead our party—and our country—in a moment when the threat Trump poses is greater than ever,” President Biden said in a statement shared by the White House upon his becoming the presumptive Democratic Party’s nominee.
“I believe that the American people will choose to keep us moving into the future. With every crisis, America has always emerged stronger and more united on the other side. This November will be no different — and I believe we will do it together,” he said.
President Trump also easily won the Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington Republican primaries on Tuesday.
President Trump acknowledged his win via a statement put out on his Truth Social account and via a 3-minute-plus video posted by the Trump campaign on X.
“The Republican National Committee has just declared us the official nominee,” President Trump said in the video. “But most importantly, we now have to go into victory because our country is in serious trouble. We have millions and millions of people flowing in. We have no respect on the world stage. What we say doesn’t mean a thing anymore. And to have that happen is unthinkable. We have an economy that, outside of certain little areas, is doing very poorly. And we have something very, very important. We have United States military that has to be taken care of.”
He then spoke of his opponent.
“But now we have to get back to work because we have the worst president in the history of our country. His name is Joe Biden, sometimes referred to as crooked Joe Biden, and he must be defeated. Our nation is failing We’re a nation that is in serious decline. We’ve never had a situation like this.”
Pollster Rich Baris dubbed March 12 “mini Super Tuesday” because several states were holding presidential-preference contests. These primaries come a week after Super Tuesday, March 5, when both men scooped up hundreds of delegates across more than a dozen contests.
Other than Georgia, two other states held Republican and Democrat primaries: Mississippi (40 Republican delegates and 35 Democrat delegates) and Washington (43 Republican delegates and 72 Democrat delegates).
Additionally, Republicans voted in Hawaii, which carried 19 delegates.
On the Democrat side, Democrats Abroad, an organization of U.S. citizens who live outside the United States, is treated as a state for the presidential nomination process. That group carried 13 delegates.
Other than Georgia, two other states held Republican and Democrat primaries: Mississippi (40 Republican delegates and 35 Democrat delegates) and Washington (43 Republican delegates and 72 Democrat delegates).
Additionally, Republicans voted in Hawaii, which carried 19 delegates.
On the Democrat side, Democrats Abroad, an organization of U.S. citizens who live outside the United States, is treated as a state for the presidential nomination process. That group carried 13 delegates.
Voters in the Northern Mariana Islands carried 6 delegates. There, the president faced off against Democrat Jason Palmer once again. With a surprise 91 votes cast in American Samoa on Super Tuesday, Mr. Palmer, a little-known presidential candidate, defeated President Biden unexpectedly, gaining 3 delegates. President Biden received the remaining 3 delegates in American Samoa.
That outcome in American Samoa was among a few signals that President Biden did not perform as well as would be expected for a typical incumbent president.
Despite the fact that President Trump faced well-funded intraparty opponents and President Biden did not, President Trump clinched the nomination at the same time as the incumbent.
As an incumbent, President Biden “should have run the table” and should not have divided the delegates in American Samoa, nor should he have lost delegates because of “uncommitted” votes cast as a protest against him, Mr. Baris told his “Inside the Numbers” podcast audience on March 11.
President Biden lost a total of 20 delegates because of those protest votes in Michigan, Hawaii, and Minnesota. But those numbers mattered little. On March 8, The Associated Press assigned all 224 delegates from Florida and 19 from Delaware to the sitting president. That was because neither of those states is holding a primary this year.
Mr. Baris wrote in a blog post that the White House “kept all other options off the ballots in those states, which triggered a rule regarding these states not being permitted to conduct uncontested primaries.”
Remaining Contests a Formality
Additional contests are set from now until early June, but those primaries have become formalities. President Trump and President Biden will be vying largely for bragging rights because they have both clinched their delegate counts, and all major intraparty opponents have dropped out of the race.
After the primaries are over, each party must make its nominee choice for the Nov. 5 ballot official. Delegates will vote at the Republican National Convention, set for July 15 to 18 in Milwaukee; the Democrats’ convention is set for Aug. 19 to 22 in Chicago. Barring circumstances that could cause a brokered or contested convention, a Biden-Trump rematch is almost assured.
But they might face a multiway general election against one or more independent candidates vying for votes. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine safety advocate and environmental lawyer, is among several independent candidates who are still actively pursuing the presidency.
Last week, the Biden campaign kicked off the general election season with a $30 million ad spend.
The campaign also announced that it had its “best fundraising day since launch” on March 7, the day President Biden delivered his third State of the Union address.
The president’s speech came amid mounting concerns about his age and mental fitness in a critical election year.
A New York Times/Siena College poll recently showed that President Biden’s age is increasingly worrying Americans, including those who supported him in 2020.
According to the poll, 61 percent of respondents believed President Biden was “just too old” to be an effective president. The poll was conducted two weeks after a special counsel raised concerns about his mental sharpness and characterized him in a report as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Another poll by Bloomberg News/Morning Consult found President Biden is trailing President Trump in a hypothetical general election in all swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Many respondents expressed concerns about President Biden’s age.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Janice Hisle reports on former President Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2024 general election ballot and related issues. Before joining The Epoch Times, she worked for more than two decades as a reporter for newspapers in Ohio and authored several books. She is a graduate of Kent State University’s journalism program. You can reach Janice at: janice.hisle@epochtimes.us
