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:
In North Carolina's 1st District, Republicans may nominate a woman
Most of the Republicans that emerge from the GOP primaries in North Carolina today will be men. But in the 1st District, Democratic Rep. Don Davis awaits today's outcome, which will determine if he'll face Republican MAGA-firebrand, Sandy Smith (again), or wealthy businesswoman, Laurie Buckhout. As we wrote earlier, the 1st District will likely be the state's sole competitive House race in November.
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor
Trump is winning where he and Cruz won in 2016
In the first 19 towns in Vermont with reasonably complete results, Trump's support this year correlates at around 0.60 with his support back in 2016, which is a pretty high correlation and similar to what we saw in New Hampshire. But as we've observed in other states, Trump is also doing well in the Vermont towns where Ted Cruz had more support in 2016. Since 2016, Trump has consolidated the GOP's right-leaning voters.
—Dan Hopkins, 538 contributor
Polls are closing in Oklahoma
We're still waiting on results in most races, but I'm also watching Oklahoma, where polls have just closed. Trump has a massive lead against Haley in recent Republican primary polling in Oklahoma, and, since the primary is closed, Haley can't count on independents and Democrats shrinking his margin against her. Trump won the state in the 2020 general election with 65 percent of the vote, making it one of his best states in the U.S., and Biden did not win a single county there.
Heavily evangelical, with a mix of Southern and Western spirit, Oklahoma remains one of the reddest states in the country. Whoever wins this primary race is almost certain to carry the state in November. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, the state's junior senator, has called on Haley to drop out if she doesn't win a single state tonight.
—Monica Potts, 538
The line between the primary and the general has gotten too blurry
The 2024 primary season has been weirder than I think anyone expected. The two parties feel like they have a lot of internal tension, but with a current and a former president seeking their parties' respective nominations, it hasn't been very competitive. One result of this has been that we've been looking for clues to the general — the Trump-Biden rematch — in the primary results. In turn, this has meant some overinterpretation of primary results — it's not a given that people who cast a vote for another candidate won't come home in the general.
It's also hard to compare the internal dynamics of the two parties and apply those to predictions for the general. Dean Phillips' candidacy, for example, has presented himself as a moderate, pragmatic alternative to Biden — but he's mostly emphasized the age difference. Some Democrats have been unhappy with the policies of the administration, especially on the Israel issue, but there hasn't been a progressive candidate to challenge him. Trump, on the other hand, has faced — and beaten — experienced opponents with more substantive disagreements. This makes it harder to use the primary as a direct roadmap to what the candidates' liabilities might be in the fall.
—Julia Azari, 538 contributor
Several incumbents ousted in the Texas state House
As we explained yesterday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Trump all set out to defeat several incumbent Republicans in the Texas state House yesterday (albeit for different reasons). The Associated Press has now projected winners in most of those races, and here's how they turned out: In total, at least eight Republican incumbents lost their primaries after being targeted by one of those three men. Another seven, including Speaker Dade Phelan, were forced into runoffs.
Abbott's muscle looks like it was the most effective: Five of the 10 incumbents he targeted (over their opposition to his school-voucher plan) lost, and another three went to runoffs. Trump also did OK: Two of the eight incumbents he targeted lost, and three more went to runoffs. Paxton didn't have as high of a success rate: Only seven of the 35 incumbents he targeted lost, although seven more were forced into runoffs. That's maybe not too surprising, though, since unlike Abbott, Paxton didn't put a ton of money where his mouth was.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538