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:
Texas GOP primary voters thought today’s presidential race could be close
With 24 percent of the expected vote reporting, Trump is leading in Texas by 53 percentage points. Despite Trump's 65-point lead in the polls, likely GOP primary voters in Texas thought the race would be close in pre-election polling. In a February survey from the University of Texas at Tyler, just 17 percent of likely GOP primary voters in the state thought Trump would win by a large margin, while 21 percent thought that Trump would win in a close election. Another 6 percent said they thought Trump would win, but weren't sure of what the margin would be. Most of the rest, 46 percent, said they weren't sure who would win, and just 3 percent thought Haley would win.
—Mary Radcliffe, 538
Trump is projected to win Tennessee
ABC News projects that Trump will win the Tennessee Republican primary, his fourth win of the evening (and the night is young). Demographically, Tennessee was one of the best states for Trump, and it hasn't let him down tonight: He's currently leading 81 percent to 16 percent.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
What Trump's edge in Virginia looks like
Trump looks well on his way to a clear victory in Virginia. With 46 percent of the expected vote reporting, he leads Haley 66 percent to 32 percent.
If we look at a map of Virginia's counties and independent cities, we can see how Haley failed to break through. To be competitive, Haley needed to perform well in the state's three major metro areas: Northern Virginia outside of the nation's capital, around the state capital of Richmond and in Hampton Roads, the southeast corner of the state. Yet she's mostly striking out so far.
So far, she only leads in the inner D.C. suburbs (including the state's largest county, Fairfax) and in the city of Richmond proper. She will probably gain as Fairfax reports more, but critically, Trump leads in Loudoun and Prince William counties, the other two big population centers in Northern Virginia. Trump is also ahead around Richmond and leads everywhere in Hampton Roads. And his strength in the rural areas is very strong, much as was the case in the 2016 GOP primary here. Haley holds leads in the city of Roanoke and in the Albemarle County-Charlottesville City area, but it's far from enough to make the race interesting.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538
Biden is projected to win in Vermont and Oklahoma
ABC News also projects that Biden will win in Vermont and Oklahoma, two of the states I'm watching tonight. Biden is a favorite to win across the country, but there is still a Democratic primary tonight.
—Monica Potts, 538
More House projections
Here are a few more projections from our colleagues at the ABC News decision desk:
- In California's 40th District, a swing seat, Republican Rep. Young Kim will face off against Democrat Joe Kerr in November.
- In Alabama's 2nd District, Democrats Shomari Figures and Anthony Daniels will advance to an April 16 runoff, the winner of which will be favored to win this newly drawn seat in November.
- In North Carolina's 6th District, Republicans Addison McDowell and Mark Walker will advance to a May 14 runoff. The winner will be virtually guaranteed to be heading to Congress next year, as this district was recently redrawn to be safely Republican.
- In California's 20th District (Kevin McCarthy's old seat), Republican Vince Fong will be one of the candidates advancing to the November general election. His opponent is still TBD.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538