Former United States President, Donald Trump, on Saturday, March 2, 2024, easily won the Republican primaries in Michigan, U.S.
The party, before the primaries, had been riven by infighting in Michigan that some Republicans fear could hurt Trump’s campaign in the key battleground state as he gears up for the election in November 2024.
The former president also won the Missouri Republican caucus on Saturday, according to a projection by the Associated Press.
In both states, Trump trounced Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination, moving him closer to becoming his party’s White House standard-bearer and a likely general election rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
In Michigan, Trump beat Haley in all 13 districts taking part in the nominating caucuses, according to the state Republican Party.
Overall, Trump won with nearly 98 per cent support: 1,575 votes to just 36 for Haley.
The Michigan Republican Party’s chairman, Pete Hoekstra, called it “an overwhelming, dominating victory”.
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More than 1,600 party insiders participated in the presidential caucus in the western Michigan city of Grand Rapids, where they were choosing delegates for Trump or former U.N. Ambassador Haley for the party’s national nominating convention in July.
Republicans were also holding caucuses in Idaho on Saturday, one of the final contests for Haley to alter the course of the race prior to Super Tuesday on March 5, the biggest day in the primaries, when 15 states and one territory will vote.
With victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, South Carolina, and now Michigan and Missouri under his belt, Trump is far and away the frontrunner in the race, with Haley hanging on thanks to support from donors keen for an alternative to the former president.
For this election cycle, Michigan Republicans devised a hybrid nominating system, split between a primary and a caucus.
Trump won the primary convincingly on Tuesday, securing 12 of 16 delegates up for grabs. He took all of Michigan’s remaining 39 delegates at stake on Saturday.
At one of the 13 caucus meetings, the participants – knowing Trump would win easily – decided to save time by simply asking anyone who backed Haley to stand up. In a room of 185 voting delegates, 25-year-old Carter Houtman was the only person who rose to his feet.
“It was a little lonely,” Houtman told Reuters in an interview afterward.
Houtman said he would likely vote for Trump in November’s general election if he is the nominee but felt it was important to stand up for his beliefs on Saturday.
“I didn’t like the way that Trump handled himself after the last election,” Houtman said.
Dennis Milosch, 87, a Trump supporter, said the former president’s dominating win on Saturday underscored how the party has been transformed from one aligned with big business to one focused on the working class.
“Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he pays attention to, responds to, the average person,” Milosch said.
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