U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are projected to win Democratic and Republican primaries in key swing state Michigan, multiple U.S. news organisations reported Tuesday night.
NBC News, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and ABC News, among others, made the call just a few minutes after polls close in the northern state at 8:00 p.m. Central Standard Time (0200 GMT).
Biden easily defeated Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips, his only opponent left in the Democratic primary.
In Michigan, various activists, including younger voters as well as Muslim and Arab American voters, coordinated a campaign to cast their votes as “uncommitted” to protest the Biden administration’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Over 20,000 Democratic voters cast their ballots for the “uncommitted” option. To put this into perspective, Trump won the state by just 11,000 votes in 2016 over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
On the Republican side, Trump’s victory over former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley marks the fifth state the former president has swept in the primary.
Only 16 out of Michigan’s 55 presidential delegates will be decided based on the primary outcome, with the remaining delegates to be distributed at a Republican convention scheduled for March 2, when the remaining 39 delegates are allocated.
The economy is the top issue for 31 percent of Michigan voters, followed by immigration, threats to democracy, healthcare, housing affordability, education, crime, and abortion access, according to a new Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey.
Michigan is a key swing state in the U.S. presidential election. Trump narrowly flipped Michigan, also a Rust Belt state, in the 2016 presidential election, defeating Hillary Clinton by just 0.2 percent. Four years later, Biden won by 2.8 percent, bringing it back to the Democratic column.
Super Tuesday, the day in the presidential primary cycle when the most states vote, is fast approaching. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the Republican or Democratic conventions are normally distributed on this day. This year’s Super Tuesday falls on March 5, when some 15 states and one territory will vote.
The U.S. presidential primaries, extending through June, precede the Republican National Convention in July, where the party’s presidential nominee is officially selected by delegates, followed by the Democratic National Convention in August. The 2024 election day falls on November 5.
