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.
Latest headlines:
Harrigan wins in North Carolina's 10th
Overnight last night, ABC News projected that firearms manufacturer Pat Harrigan will be the GOP nominee in North Carolina's 10th District. He defeated more conservative Republican Grey Mills 41 percent to 39 percent. The 10th District is a solidly red seat currently represented by retiring Rep. Patrick McHenry, and Harrigan should have no trouble winning it in the fall.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
The uncommitted campaign against Biden expands
Last night, the "uncommitted" campaign made headway in a few more states. After a protest vote for Biden's response to Israel's war against Gaza helped net over 100,000 uncommitted votes in last week's Michigan Democratic primary, supporters of the Listen to Michigan campaign expanded their efforts to other states with "uncommitted" or similar language as an option on primary ballots.
With 89 percent of the expected vote reporting, 19 percent of Democratic primary voters in Minnesota voted uncommitted, eclipsing the 13 percent reached last week in Michigan. That means "uncommitted" will send at least 8 (and up to 11) delegates from Minnesota to the Democratic National Convention in August, per the latest ABC News projections.
"No preference" also garnered 13 percent of ballots cast in North Carolina and 9 percent in Massachusetts, while 8 percent of primary voters in Colorado chose "noncommitted." However, those aren't enough to meet their respective states' thresholds to send a delegate to the national convention. (That's 15 percent in all three of those states.)
—Irena Li, 538
The first big endorsement of the general election?
While Haley called on Trump to earn Republicans' votes, Mitch McConnell suggested that he already has. "It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States," McConnell said in a statement. The rest was pretty standard endorsement fare, going on to tout Trump's accomplishments on tax reform and judicial appointments, and criticizing Biden.
It's an undramatic end to the minor drama over whether the soon-departing majority leader would endorse Trump, with whom he's undoubtedly had a rocky relationship. In the end, McConnell waited until just after Trump's final major opponent dropped out to fall in line. With one of the last major (potential) party holdouts in his corner, the general election train is in full swing for Trump.
—Tia Yang, 538
The new delegate math
According to the latest numbers from our colleagues at ABC News, Trump has 1,051 of the 1,215 delegates he needs to mathematically clinch the Republican nomination for president. Haley's withdrawal from the race puts him on track to reach that magic number next Tuesday, March 12. A total of 199 delegates will be allocated between now and then, and presumably Trump will win all or almost all of them.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Is he even real?
Jason Palmer's (currently down) campaign website features a page called PalmerAI, where a deepfaked video of today's Democratic winner in American Samoa can answer any and all questions you might have about him or his campaign. Talk about uncanny valley.
—Irena Li, 538