Super Tuesday primaries 2024: Trump and Biden dominate, Haley drops out

538 tracked how Trump and Haley did, plus key U.S. House and Senate races.

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.


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Biden and Trump are officially presumptive nominees

While we're still tracking a few lingering House races from Super Tuesday, four more states — Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington — held presidential nominating contests yesterday, enabling both Biden and Trump to cross a significant milestone. According to ABC News's delegate estimates, last night Biden passed 1,968 delegates, mathematically clinching him the Democratic nomination. Similarly, Trump last night passed 1,215 delegates, mathematically clinching him the Republican nod.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


What races are we still waiting on?

As we wait for the final winners of Super Tuesday's primaries to be projected, here's where things stand in the races we're tracking:

- California's 16th District: With 57 percent of the expected vote reporting, Democrat Sam Liccardo has 22 percent, Democrat Joe Simitian has 18 percent, Democrat Evan Low has 16 percent and Republican Peter Ohtaki has 13 percent. This is a solid blue district, so we expect two Democrats to advance to the general election.

- California's 20th District: ABC News has projected that Republican Vince Fong (currently at 39 percent with 52 percent of the expected vote counted) will take one of the general-election slots, but the other is still up for grabs between Republican Mike Boudreaux (25 percent) and Democrat Marisa Wood (22 percent).

- California's 22nd District: With 50 percent of the expected vote counted, Republican incumbent David Valadao has 34 percent, Democrat Rudy Salas has 28 percent, Republican Chris Mathys has 22 percent and Democrat Melissa Hurtado has 15 percent. Democrats were afraid of getting shut out of the general election in this swing seat, but that doesn't look likely to happen now.

- California's 31st District: Democrats should maybe be more worried about a lockout in this open, safely Democratic seat. With 70 percent of the expected vote in, Democrat Gil Cisneros has 21 percent, Republican Daniel Martinez has 21 percent and Republican Pedro Casas has 19 percent.

- California's 45th District: ABC News has projected that Republican Rep. Michelle Steel will advance to the general; she has 57 percent of the expected vote with 82 percent reporting. Her November opponent will either be Democrat Derek Tran (16 percent) or Democrat Kim Nguyen-Penaloza (14 percent).

- North Carolina's 8th District: With 97 percent of the expected vote in, Republican Mark Harris is at 30.4 percent, just barely above the threshold to avoid a runoff. The Associated Press has already declared him the winner.

- Texas's 32nd District: Similarly, with 99 percent of the expected vote in, Democrat Julie Johnson is at 50.4 percent, which would just barely be enough to avoid a runoff. If she does face one, it would be against fellow Democrat Brian Williams, who is at 19 percent of the vote.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


A projection in California's 30th District

Good morning! We continue to track the handful of House races that still don't have winners, mostly in California. As a reminder, California votes almost entirely by mail, and while ballots had to be postmarked by March 5, they can arrive as late as March 12 and still count. Therefore, there are still thousands of ballots out there to be counted, so we could be waiting for several days.

In the meantime, though, we can cross one unresolved congressional race off the list: In California's 30th District, ABC News reports that Democrat Laura Friedman and Republican Alex Balekian are projected to advance to the general election in November. The 30th District is the seat that Schiff is leaving behind to run for Senate, and it's safely Democratic, so Friedman, a former film producer and state assemblywoman, should have no problem winning in the fall. The primary result is kind of a lucky break for her, actually, as there was a chance that she was going to face a fellow Democrat like Anthony Portantino or Mike Feuer in November, which would have been a dogfight.

P.S. People with long memories might remember that "Boy Meets World" star Ben Savage was also running for this seat, but he ended up finishing seventh with just 4 percent.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


The field is set in California's 47th and 49th

ABC News is also projecting the general-election candidates in two California House races:

- In the 47th District, Republican Scott Baugh and Democrat Dave Min have advanced out of the top two primary, leaving Democrat Joanna Weiss out in the cold. This is the seat that Democratic Rep. Katie Porter vacated to run for Senate, and it will be tough for Democrats to defend. Some Democrats are worried that Min's DUI arrest last year could drag him down.

- In the 49th District, Democratic Rep. Mike Levin and Republican Matt Gunderson have advanced to the general election. Biden carried this district by 11 points in 2020, so it'll probably stay in Democratic hands, but it's not out of the question that Gunderson could win in the fall.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


6 downballot races to watch in Texas

The race for Senate in Texas will surely be one of the most closely watched races of the year. There are nine candidates running in the Democratic primary to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, but the front-runner is Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL player and civil rights attorney who has represented the Dallas area since 2019. Allred has raised the most funds (to the tune of $21 million) and attracted donations from party influencers. The biggest question tonight is whether Allred can pull more than 50 percent of the vote and avoid a May runoff.

There are also a handful of U.S. representatives in Texas with at least some danger of losing their seats tonight, as Jacob covered earlier. Keep your eyes on Houston Democrat Lizzie Fletcher in the 7th District, who is facing a challenger from the left in Pervez Agwan; Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee in the 18th District, whose run for Houston mayor last year destabilized her campaign against former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards; and Republican Tony Gonzales in the 23rd District, who is facing multiple challengers and may also end up in runoff territory.

And there are some open seats up for grabs, creating hotly contested primary races. In the 12th District around Fort Worth, it's the familiar GOP battle between results-focused conservatism of the old guard versus the firebrand populism of MAGA. State Rep. Craig Goldman represents the establishment candidate, while business owner John O'Shea fills the role of MAGA candidate. In the 26th District, two far-right candidates are leading a slate of 11 to fill the open seat in this deep-red stronghold: Brandon Gill, who heavily promoted his father-in-law, Dinesh D'Souza's, conspiracy-theory-laden film "2000 Mules" on his website, and Southlake Mayor John Huffman. And lastly, with Allred making a play for the Senate, his Dallas-area 32nd District is up for grabs. Ten Democrats are running in the primary, though two in particular seem to be leading the pack: state Rep. Julie Johnson and trauma surgeon Brian Williams.

If you're interested in reading more on these races, check out my full preview from last week. Otherwise, I'll have more on these races and other takeaways from Texas after polls begin to close there at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Kaleigh Rogers, 538