March 5 was Super Tuesday — the biggest election day of the year until the one in November! With former President Donald Trump projected to win 14 of the day's 15 GOP presidential nominating contests, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced Wednesday morning that she is suspending her campaign.
It was also the first downballot primary day of 2024, with important contests for Senate, House and governor in states like Alabama, California, North Carolina and Texas.
538 reporters, analysts and contributors broke down the election results as they came in with live updates, analysis and commentary. Read our full live blog below.
While we wait for polls to close and results to come in, I'll muse about the bigger picture here. Depending on how things go, this might be the end of Haley's candidacy. But either way, we should think about what's at stake in the contest between her and Trump. Broadly speaking, she has increasingly presented herself as the Trump/MAGA alternative. In some ways, she's made this distinction clear, most recently by suggesting she might not stick with her pledge to support the party nominee, and denouncing his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
But the rest of her candidacy has been mostly about other stuff — how she'd be more competitive against Biden, and about giving voters a choice in the primary. On one of the main issues that set Trump apart from the rest of the GOP field in 2016, immigration, Haley has also been very conservative, signing one of the toughest state bills when she was governor of South Carolina and adopting Trump's language about toughness at the border. As in 2016, Trump seems poised to soundly defeat his primary rivals. But in terms of the real GOP alternatives to Trumpism, it's definitely not 2016 anymore.
—Julia Azari, 538 contributor
11:17
Super Tuesday may be Haley's last stand against Trump for GOP nomination
Republican National Committee spokesperson Madison Gesiotto Gilbert joined "The Big Story" to discuss the GOP's plans to support its nominee and take on President Joe Biden in November.
North Carolina Republicans aren’t worried about Trump’s indictments
The main concerns about the top candidates didn’t resonate with primary voters in North Carolina. Seventy-five percent of likely North Carolina Republican primary voters said that Trump’s criminal indictments were not a serious consideration for them, according to a February poll by Emerson College/The Hill, while 25 percent said the indictments raised “serious doubts” in their minds about voting for Trump. Democratic primary voters in the state were more worried about Biden’s age than Republican primary voters were about Trump’s indictments: 34 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said Biden’s age raised serious doubts about voting for him, while 66 percent said it was not a consideration.
No surprises so far in the Tar Heel state tonight: ABC News projects Trump will win the GOP primary and Biden will win the Democratic primary. I can also report that ABC News has projected Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has won the Republican primary for governor.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538
5:00
Trump, Biden projected to win North Carolina primaries
ABC News projects that Donald Trump will win the North Carolina Republican primary and President Joe Biden will win the North Carolina Democratic primary based on an analysis of the exit poll.
ABCNews.com
Mar 05, 2024, 7:22 PM EST
6 downballot races to watch in North Carolina
There are a handful of particularly hot downballot contests in North Carolina worth paying attention to tonight. You can read about them in more detail in my preview from last week, but here's a quick recap to get you up to speed.
Neither the Democratic nor Republican primary for governor is competitive, but they're worth paying attention to because this race will be competitive come November. If Republican front-runner Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson — a deeply conservative Christian and controversial figure — wins the nomination and defeats Attorney General Josh Stein, who is leading the Democratic race, it would give Republicans a governing trifecta in the state for the first time in eight years.
Mark Robinson, lieutenant governor of North Carolina, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, Feb. 22, 2024.
Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Thanks to redistricting, North Carolina's 1st Congressional District is expected to be the state's only competitive congressional race this fall. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Davis will be squaring off against one of two Republicans: Jan. 6-attending, MAGA firebrand Sandy Smith and retired U.S. Army Colonel Laurie Buckhout, a wealthy businesswoman who has spent more than $1 million of her own money boosting her campaign.
Congressional candidate Sandy Smith is seen during a Save America rally for former President Donald Trump at the Aero Center Wilmington, Sept. 23, 2022, in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Allison Joyce/Getty Images
Then there are four safely Republican open seats elsewhere in the state, where the GOP primary will effectively decide the next representative. In the 6th District, the six-candidate field includes Bo Hines, a former wide receiver for North Carolina State University who ran unsuccessfully in 2022. In the 8th District outside Charlotte, the two GOP front runners are state Rep. John Bradford, who has poured $1.3 million of his own money into his campaign, and Baptist minister Mark Harris, whose 2018 congressional win was thrown out due to allegations of ballot fraud.
In the 10th District, state Rep. Grey Mills is hoping to upset front-runner Pat Harrigan, a gun manufacturer who was the Republican nominee in the 14th District in 2022. And in the 13th District, there are no fewer than 14 candidates running — this one looks like a jump ball and may even go to a May 14 runoff if none of the candidates can clear 30 percent of the vote.
I'll have more on these races and more from the Tar Heel State soon! Polls close at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
