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:
ABC News projects Haley will win Vermont
And now ABC also projects that Haley will win Vermont. The race remains super close, however, and it’s not yet clear how delegates will be awarded.
—Monica Potts, 538
California voters don’t view either party favorably
Polls have now closed in California, where all parties run on a single primary ballot (other than in presidential races). Unfortunately, neither party is particularly popular in the state. According to a February survey from the Public Policy Institute of California, likely primary voters in California don’t have a favorable view of either political party: The Democratic party is underwater by 10 percentage points, with 44 percent of likely voters saying they have a favorable impression of the party and 54 percent saying they have an unfavorable view. The Republican party fares even worse, with a net favorability of -55 points, 22 percent favorable and 77 percent unfavorable.
—Mary Radcliffe, 538
Haley likely to win Vermont, but the critical margin is still up in the air
The New York Times and the Associated Press have projected that Haley will win the Republican primary in Vermont, making it the second win for her after Washington, D.C. (ABC News has not yet made a projection in this race.)
While Trump remains ahead on the delegate count, the win could give some juice to her campaign. She's vowed to stay in because she says that Trump and Biden are both too old and out of touch, and she has been capturing a sizable minority of primary voters who are unhappy with the former president in many states across the country. Still, she'll need to get a majority of the final vote to take all of the delegates, and that remains up in the air. With 92 percent of the expected vote in, she has 49.7 percent to Trump's 46 percent. If neither candidate reaches 50.1 percent, they'll split the state's delegates.
—Monica Potts, 538
Heading to a runoff in North Carolina’s 13th?
North Carolina’s 13th District is yet another Democratic-held seat that North Carolina Republicans redrew this year to be safely red. Unsurprisingly, the GOP primary attracted a wide field, and with 67 percent of the expected vote counted according to the Associated Press, attorney Kelly Daughtry is in first place with 29 percent, followed by former federal prosecutor Brad Knott with 18 percent, businessman DeVan Barbour with 17 percent and yet another businessman Fred Von Canon with 16 percent. As a reminder, if no one gets 30 percent, the runner-up is entitled to request a runoff.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
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