Biden is asking U.S. military to help set up a temporary port off the Gaza coast for humanitarian aid
President Joe Biden will announce during the speech tonight that he will direct the U.S. military to help set up a temporary port off the Gaza coast. It will open a sea route for food and other aid for desperate Palestinian civilians trapped in the Israel-Hamas war. That’s according to senior administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press.
Democrats, including some of his closest allies, have become increasingly vocal about the need for the U.S. to act directly to ease civilian suffering in Gaza. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Associated Press that he will be looking for the president to give a forceful message on the need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Obviously [Biden] is going to talk about domestic issues. He’s going to talk about Ukraine. He’s going to talk about the awful attacks of October 7, as he should and Israel’s right to self defense,” the Maryland lawmaker said. “But I also think he should couple all of that with a clear message that the United States will not stand by and tolerate people starving to death.”
McConnell’s endorsement of Trump comes as he’s exiting his leadership role
Mitch McConnell has criticized Trump as “morally responsible” for the 2021 mob siege of the Capitol.
So even though he said Wednesday that “it should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support,” the endorsement was still a remarkable turnaround from the onetime critic.
While McConnell said early in the election cycle he would support the eventual Republican presidential nominee, his endorsement of Trump is a striking reunion for the two men, who have put political interests ahead of any personal displeasure with one another.
And McConnell’s stamp lends an imprimatur of institutional legitimacy to the indicted former president’s bid to return to the White House.
But it also comes as the Kentucky senator is stepping down from his own leadership role after his term ends, a position he has held longer than any other senator.
For the first time in more than 30 years, California won’t have a woman in the Senate
California, a Democratic stronghold and the nation’s most populous state, won’t have a woman in the Senate for the first time in more than three decades.
Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff will face off in November for the seat long held by the late Dianne Feinstein. She died last year.
The campaign marks a new era in California politics, which was long dominated by Feinstein and a handful of other veteran politicians.
Haley’s exit from the GOP race pushes off — again — the day Americans could elect a woman president
With the exit of Nikki Haley from the Republican 2024 race, America will have to wait longer to see a woman elected to the presidency.
She’s the latest in a long line of women with presidential hopes to crash against the monolith of a man — in this case, Republican Donald Trump.
This all comes 104 years after women gained the right to vote. And right now, women hold a record percentage of seats in Congress, occupy the vice presidency and sit in four of the nine seats on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Women CEOs run a record 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies, according to Forbes. Women are heads of state or government in 26 countries, according to the United Nations. Mexico is poised to elect its first female president.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
In fundraising email, Trump falsely claims Haley endorsed his candidacy
Trump’s campaign is falsely claiming in a fundraising email that Nikki Haley endorsed his candidacy.
Haley left the 2024 GOP contest on Wednesday. But she didn’t endorse the former president in her speech in Charleston, South Carolina. Instead, she challenged him to win the support of the moderate Republicans and independent voters who supported her.
Trump officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the message.
In a social media post, Trump continued to mock his former rival, while at the same time extending an invitation to “all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation. BIDEN IS THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY,” he wrote. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
It’s unclear if Haley’s supporters will unify behind Trump
Will Haley’s supporters unify behind Trump?
Nikki Haley’s defeat marks a painful, if predictable, blow to her supporters – those voters, donors and Republican Party officials who opposed Trump and his fiery brand of “Make America Great Again” politics.
She was especially popular among moderates and college-educated voters, constituencies that will likely play a pivotal role in the general election.
What isn’t clear yet is whether those supporters will default to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump, in a social media post on Wednesday, extended an invitation to “all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.” That comes after he had declared Haley donors would be permanently banned from his movement.
Israeli flag hung near voting machines in Virginia prompts concerns
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
An Israeli flag hung near voting machines in Alexandria, Virginia on Super Tuesday led to complaints from some Muslim residents. They were concerned about possible voter intimidation and whether rules for political materials at polling places were violated.
The flag hung behind a voting machine at the Beth El Hebrew Congregation precinct. Angela Maniglia Turner, director of the city’s elections and general registrar apologized to anyone who was made to feel uncomfortable or concerned.
“The layout of the polling place was not meant in any way to send a political or religious message,” Turner said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The city was made aware after a complaint by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. The group called on election officials to investigate the report and said: “such a display could be viewed as an act of intimidation targeting Muslim and Arab-American voters” amid the Israel-Hamas War.
“Any house of worship hosting a polling station should avoid placing political symbols in the view of voters,” CAIR said in a statement. “The only flag that should appear above a voting machine is the American flag.”
Even in her defeat, Haley’s campaign made history
Nikki Haley leaves the 2024 presidential contest having made history as the first woman to win a Republican primary contest. She beat Trump in the District of Columbia on Sunday and in Vermont on Tuesday.
She had insisted she would stay in the race through Super Tuesday and crossed the country campaigning in states holding Republican contests. Ultimately, she was unable to knock Trump off his glide path to a third straight nomination. She announced Wednesday she was dropping out.
Haley’s allies note that she exceeded most of the political world’s expectations by making it as far as she did.
Biden to Haley voters: Trump doesn’t want you, but I do
President Joe Biden is making an explicit appeal to Nikki Haley supporters to back him November. He is arguing that Donald Trump “doesn’t want” them.
Biden was reacting to the news that Haley, a former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor was leaving the Republican primary race by saying. He said: “Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters.”
Biden does, though. “I want to be clear,” he said in a statement. “There is a place for them in my campaign.”
The president added that he knew “there is a lot we won’t agree on” but that there would be common ground on core issues like preserving U.S. democracy and the rule of law and defending NATO.
Nikki Haley says she will suspend her presidential campaign. What does that mean?
When Nikki Haley said she would withdraw from the 2024 presidential race following her underwhelming showing on Super Tuesday, she did so using a phrase that would seem at odds with the finality of her announcement.
The former South Carolina Governor and U.N. ambassador said she would “suspend” her campaign. Not end, not conclude, not terminate – suspend.
Haley is hardly the first candidate to reach for the term. There are a number of reasons candidates do so. And one of the big ones has a lot to do with money.
Under federal election law, a candidate who has filed to run for office technically remains one until the after the election. But by declaring that they will “suspend” a campaign, a candidate is signaling to donors – both to their loyal supporters, as well as those who are backing their rivals — that they are shifting to the next phase. After a spirited campaign, that often includes the need to retire outstanding debts.
But the use of the term “suspend” also adheres to one of the longstanding axioms of politics: never close a door, never rule anything out.
This year, especially, there may be good reason for invoking the phrase as Donald Trump, the sole remaining Republican contender, navigates 91 criminal charges against him.
Should Trump receive a conviction, Haley could just as easily “unsuspend” her campaign.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
WATCH: Nikki Haley supporters consider voting alternatives after she ends her presidential campaign
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has suspended her campaign. The Associated Press asked Haley supporters who they will vote for as the country heads toward a likely 2020 election rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. (March 6)
McConnell endorses Trump for president
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump for president.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for the influential Kentucky senator who has blamed Trump for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
McConnell is the last top GOP leader in Congress to fall in line with Trump. McConnell declared his support in a statement issued after Trump’s Super Tuesday victories pushed the former president closer to the party’s 2024 nomination.
“It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States,” McConnell said.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
Haley encourages Trump to earn support of her backers as she suspends her campaign after Super Tuesday
Nikki Haley didn’t endorse Donald Trump as she dropped out of the race after Super Tuesday. Instead, she encouraged him to earn the support of moderate Republicans.
It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that.
Nikki Haley
Haley, a former South Carolina governor, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023. She spent the final phase of her campaign warning the GOP against embracing Trump, whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.
WATCH: Republican Garvey faces Democrat Schiff in California Senate race
Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff will compete in November for the U.S. Senate seat long held by the late Dianne Feinstein. They finished in the top two spots in California’s Super Tuesday primary. (March 6)
Haley is not planning to endorse Trump, sources say
Nikki Haley is expected to suspend her campaign for presidency in an announcement on Wednesday morning, according to three people with direct knowledge. When she does, she is not planning to endorse Donald Trump, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity. Instead, she is expected to encourage Trump to earn the support of the coalition of moderate Republicans and independent voters who supported her.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
Biden & Iowa: 4th time’s the charm
On his fourth try, Joe Biden finally won Iowa.
For decades, Biden had been rejected by its voters, from his first abortive run in the 1988 cycle to 2020, when he finished a distant fourth. In 2008, he won less than 1% of the caucus vote.
This time, Iowa wasn’t first and it was a primary, not a caucus, and Biden won easily.
His victory Tuesday came only after he was already an incumbent president — and after the state had been stripped of its prized leadoff role and voted along with the masses.
N.C. Governor’s race could echo Biden v. Trump
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson easily won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary. His incendiary rhetoric — he’s called Hillary Clinton a “heifer” and Michelle Obama a man — ensures a hotly contested general election in the crucial swing state that could spill over into the presidential race.
Robinson had no prior experience in public office before his 2020 election — and it shows.
He blasted the action hero movie “Black Panther” in 2018 as a “satanic Marxist production” made by a “secular Jew,” using a Yiddish slur for black people. He faced calls to resign in 2021 after likening gay and transgender people to “filth.”
His brash style earned plaudits from Trump, who on Sunday called Robinson “better than Martin Luther King” while offering his “complete and total endorsement.”
But it is also likely to motivate Democrats in the state to turn out in November to support state Attorney General Josh Stein — while raising oodles of advertising dollars to use Robinson’s own words against him.
Most House candidates who won primaries are guaranteed seats in Congress
Super Tuesday is so vast that there were primaries for more than one-quarter of all seats in the House of Representatives — 115 of 438. But only eight of those seats are likely to be competitive in November.
That astonishing statistic comes from Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Institute for Justice in New York. That means that most House candidates who won primaries Tuesday are guaranteed seats in Congress, just for securing the votes of the most motivated members of their parties.
Democratic Party of Hawaii holds presidential caucus
Democrats in Hawaii were scheduled to vote Wednesday on their party’s nominee for the president.
There has been little visible campaigning in the islands for the presidential race but incumbent President Joe Biden has a large advantage in the party’s caucus. Others on the ballot include U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson.
Adrian Tam, the interim chairperson of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, noted Biden’s success in states like Michigan where party contests have already been held.
“The American people really do have confidence in President Biden’s leadership. So, as expected, he does have the upper hand when it comes to our upcoming caucus,” Tam said. Even so, he urged party members to participate.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
One way to read Haley’s Vermont victory
Vermont was once a stronghold of old-guard Republicanism, exclusively electing GOP candidates to statewide office for more than a century. But the state that handed Haley her only win on Super Tuesday long ago ceded that reputation.
Now Vermont, which last swung for a Republican in a presidential contest in 1988, is perhaps better known for progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, the jam band Phish and a crunchy strain of back-to-earth lifestyle.
So, while Vermont handed Haley her first statewide victory, the state itself is decidedly not in step with Trump and the modern Republican Party.
In case you missed it: Trump’s estate was packed for a party
Among those attending Trump’s Super Tuesday remarks at Mar-a-Lago were staff and supporters, including the rapper Forgiato Blow and former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
The crowd erupted as Fox News, playing on screens around the ballroom, announced that the former president had won North Carolina’s GOP primary.
“They call it Super Tuesday for a reason,” Trump told a raucous crowd.
He went on to attack Biden over the U.S.-Mexico border and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, usual features of his speeches.
California primary outcome clears a path for Schiff to ascend to the U.S. Senate
If Adam Schiff wins a U.S. Senate seat in California in November, he’ll probably have two Republicans to thank.
The first is Donald Trump, whose attacks on Schiff helped turn him into a Democratic hero. (Trump holds a grudge because Schiff helped lead his first impeachment.)
The second is Steve Garvey, the former baseball star who decided to run for Senate this year. Garvey won enough votes to prevent another Democrat — either Katie Porter or Barbara Lee — from advancing to the general election in November.
Given Democrats’ advantage in California, the primary outcome clears a path for Schiff to ascend from the House to the Senate.
Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign and leave Donald Trump as the last major Republican candidate
NEW YORK (AP) — Nikki Haley will suspend her presidential campaign Wednesday after being soundly defeated across the country on Super Tuesday, according to people familiar with her decision, leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Three people with direct knowledge who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly confirmed Haley’s decision ahead of an announcement scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023. She spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning the GOP against embracing Trump, whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
Nikki Haley’s vanishing rationale
Haley won her first state of the primary season — Vermont — but that was no cause to talk about momentum.
She continued her long streak of losing big to Trump in Republican primaries in every region of the country. Her lone other victory had come in last week’s Washington, D.C. primary.
Tuesday’s defeats continued to erode the rationale for her insurgent challenge. She fell short even in states like Virginia, where the electorate, rich in college-educated suburban voters, played to her strength.
Super Tuesday was short on surprises, but full of drama ahead
Here’s a simple way to sum up the Super Tuesday results: anti-climactic.
The series of presidential nomination contests largely played out as expected. President Joe Biden crushed his Democratic opponents, except in America Samoa. Former President Donald Trump got closer to winning what would be his third Republican nomination, even if he lost Vermont.
Biden’s campaign said Democratic voters were united behind the president in their support for his reelection campaign.
But that doesn’t mean this election is without drama. Biden has elevated this potential rehash of 2020 as a debate about U.S. democracy surviving. Trump has pledged something of a restoration if gets back into the White House, with trouble for those who opposed him.
WATCH: Nikki Haley wins the Vermont primary in an upset victory over Donald Trump
By The Associated Press
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley scored an upset victory against former President Donald Trump, who was seeking a clean sweep of the Super Tuesday contests. (March 6)
WATCH: Surprise winner in American Samoa Democratic caucus
President Joe Biden was sweeping every Democratic contest on Super Tuesday — except for American Samoa. He fell short there to a previously unknown candidate named Jason Palmer.
Why AP called most Super Tuesday states for Trump
The Associated Press was able to call almost every Republican Super Tuesday contest for former President Donald Trump after initial results revealed no path for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley to overtake him.
In the night’s final call, the AP declared Trump the winner of Utah’s presidential caucuses at 3:39 a.m. EST with 65% of the votes counted and Trump holding 58% of them.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
AP Race Call: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential caucuses in Utah
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Trump the winner of the Republican presidential caucuses in Alaska
WASHINGTON — In the penultimate presidential contest of Super Tuesday, the AP was able to declare Trump the winner of the Republican presidential caucuses at 2:17 a.m. EST based on initial vote returns.
With almost 40% of the expected vote reported, Trump had a resounding lead over Haley. She wasn’t winning more than one-quarter of the vote in any district, and in the 12 districts that reported at least 99% of their expected vote in that first release, she was doing no better than one-fifth of the vote.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins Republican presidential caucus in Alaska
Where the delegate count stands
It’s getting pretty late in Washington, but as results from Super Tuesday continue to trickle in, the delegate allocations continue to trickle down.
At 1:55 a.m. ET, with only the presidential caucuses in Utah and Alaska left to report, here’s where the delegate count stands.
Trump has won at least 675 delegates from Super Tuesday states so far, bringing his total delegates to almost 800. At a minimum, he’ll receive 74% of the Republican delegates available on Super Tuesday.
The state in which he received the most delegates was California, where he received all 169 of the state’s delegates after finishing with a majority of the statewide vote.
Biden has won at least 607 delegates so far and has surpassed 800 total delegates. He swept the delegates in Vermont and Iowa. In one of the bigger surprises of the night, Biden wound up splitting the six delegates from American Samoa with unknown challenger Jason Palmer.
Schiff thanks supporters after grabbing spot for U.S. Senate race
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who was a leading voice during then-President Donald Trump’s two impeachments, thanked supporters as he celebrates winning a spot on the general election ballot in the race for a U.S. Senate seat once held by the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
“You had my back every step of the way,” Schiff said to the crowd. “I cannot thank you enough.”
His remarks were interrupted throughout by chants calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump and Biden move closer to November 2024 rematch
WASHINGTON — There weren’t a lot of surprises in the presidential contests by the end of Super Tuesday. Biden and Trump won almost everything.
Nikki Haley beat Trump in Vermont in an upset. And Biden lost American Samoa, a small U.S. territory.
Left to call at 1:45 a.m. EST on Wednesday were GOP-run events in Alaska and Utah. The AP was waiting for the parties to release the results.
Garvey hits the baseball puns after his win
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball star, did not shy away from baseball puns in a victory speech as he celebrates winning a spot on the general election ballot to vie for a U.S. Senate seat that was long held by the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
“Welcome to the California comeback,” he said to a crowd in Southern California. “What you all are feeling tonight is what it feels to hit a knockoff home run.”
A Republican has not won a Senate race in deep-blue California since 1988. Garvey will face off against House Democrat Adam Schiff in November.
Former Trump presidential campaign adviser advances in Texas
ROCKWALL, Texas — Katrina Pierson, a former Trump presidential campaign adviser, has advanced to a Republican primary runoff in Texas for a legislative seat in the Dallas suburbs.
Pierson’s opponent is Rep. Justin Holland, who was one of dozens of Republicans who voted last year to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Trump ally. The runoff is May 28.
It’s not the first time Pierson has run for office in Texas. She lost a run for Congress in 2014 before becoming a spokesperson for Trump’s presidential campaign.
Why are Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey advancing twice for the same seat?
WASHINGTON — Democrat U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican former baseball player Steve Garvey are headed for a November election to decide who will fill the U.S. Senate seat held for three decades by the late Dianne Feinstein. But it’s not just one term.
They’re competing to serve out the remainder of Feinstein’s term between the November election and the January inauguration of a new senator. And they’re also running for her full six-year term.
The strange scenario came about because Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed someone to the seat after Feinstein’s death. Election rules require a special election to fill the last bit of that term.
AP RACE CALL: Republican Steve Garvey advances to a special election to complete the unexpired term of the late California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Jason Palmer talks about his surprising win in American Samoa
WASHINGTON — Jason Palmer knows he’s a longshot for the Democratic presidential nomination. “When I started this race, I knew there was a 99% chance that Joe Biden would win,” he told The Associated Press.
But the 52-year-old Baltimore investor still managed to win four delegates in American Samoa on Super Tuesday, denying the president a victory there.
Palmer was attending an education conference in Washington when the results came in.“I found out that I had won because my phone started blowing up with friends and campaign staffers texting me,” he said.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP called the Democratic primary for Texas’ US Senate seat for Colin Allred
WASHINGTON — Allred will avoid a runoff and finish with at least 50% of the vote in the Democratic primary for Texas’ U.S. Senate seat, The Associated Press determined at 11:32 p.m. EST.
At the time of the race call, more than two-thirds of the expected vote had been reported. Allred was well above the margin he needed to avoid a runoff. The majority of votes left to be counted were in urban areas, particularly Austin and Houston — the places Allred was doing best. Most notably, Allred was winning around four-fifths of the votes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which had reported a majority of its votes.
Allred’s next-closest competitor, Roland Gutierrez, was doing best in the border counties in southern Texas. However, this region constitutes only one-quarter of the expected vote, and Gutierrez was not running up big enough margins to offset Allred’s advantage in the more populous counties.
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Haley’s campaign is ‘honored’ by the Super Tuesday support
By The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Nikki Haley’s national campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement tonight that the Republican candidate was honored to be the first GOP woman to win two presidential primary contests.
Perez-Cubas said, “Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success.”
Despite her win Tuesday and her primary win in Washington, D.C., Trump was notching more victories.
AP RACE CALL: Republican Steve Garvey advances to the November general election for U.S. Senate in California
The night’s final polls are closing
WASHINGTON — Voting is slated to end in Alaska for Republicans at 12:00 a.m. EST.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Adam Schiff one of the 2 winners of the California primary for US Senate
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to declare Schiff one of two winners of California’s open Senate primary at 11:30 p.m. ET because initial results from 30 counties showed Schiff with a lead big enough to ensure a top-two finish.
Schiff will also finish in the top two in the special Senate primary, which is being held to fill the final weeks of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term.
In California, all candidates run on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party. The AP will call the final winner when enough votes have been counted to determine who will finish second.
At the time the race was called, Schiff had more than twice as many votes as his next-closest competitor, with around one-fifth of the expected vote reported. Schiff was leading in the Bay Area and coastal counties and was narrowly trailing in the inland suburbs of Los Angeles and San Diego. Los Angeles County, the state’s largest county and home to around 20% of the electorate, did not report votes within the first 30 minutes after polls close. But based on analyses of the state’s voting history and the political leanings of different areas of California, the AP determined there was no scenario that would see Schiff fall to third place or lower.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
2 Democrats advance to runoff in Alabama’s redrawn second district
WASHINGTON —Two Democrats have advanced to a primary runoff election in Alabama’s newly-drawn 2nd congressional district. Anthony Daniels and Shomari Figures emerged from the crowded field. The district is closely watched by Democrats as a potential pickup opportunity in the U.S. House.
Because no candidate garnered more than 50% of the vote, the race now advances a runoff between Daniels and Figures. The runoff is set for April 16.
The new district was created after a federal court ordered Alabama redraw its congressional map to better represent Black voters, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court. The redrawn district includes parts of Montgomery and Mobile, as well as much of the region’s “Black Belt” where a majority of the state’s Black population resides.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Trump and Biden the winners of California’s presidential primaries
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to declare Trump and Biden the winners of their respective presidential primaries in California within 15 minutes of polls closing, based on initial returns that showed them with insurmountable leads.
At the time the races were called, there were Democratic results in eight counties and Republican results in six. Biden and Trump were winning in all counties with results.
Their primary performances were consistent with their past performances in the state: Four years ago, more than 6 million Californians cast their votes for Trump in the general election — a greater number of raw votes than any other state, including Texas and Florida. Still, Biden won the state by almost 30 percentage points.
California conducts its elections largely by mail and allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted, so its vote count often takes weeks, if not a month. The state will continue to report votes as they are processed and tallied.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
AP RACE CALL: Colin Allred wins Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas primary election
AP RACE CALL: Democrat Adam Schiff advances to a special election to complete the unexpired term of the late California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein
AP RACE CALL: Democrat Adam Schiff advances to the general election for U.S. Senate in California
Biden and Trump get closer to presidential nominations, but voters less than thrilled
WASHINGTON – This year’s presidential election increasingly looks like a sequel to 2020, not that voters are happy about that.
President Joe Biden got closer today in the Super Tuesday primaries to securing the Democratic nomination, just as former President Donald Trump continued to cement his status at the Republican frontrunner.
But a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggests that neither is that popular. Not that any national U.S. politician right now appears to enjoy broad support. Just 38% of U.S. adults had a favorable opinion of Trump. And Biden’s approval rating is 38%.
AP EXPLAINS: In Vermont, Haley again does best in Democratic areas
WASHINGTON — Vermont is an overwhelmingly Democratic state that holds open primaries, meaning that registered voters can choose which party’s primary to vote in. Haley has tended to draw support from non-Republican voters who cross over in these primaries: She won Democrats and independent voters in South Carolina and New Hampshire, according to findings from AP VoteCast, a series of surveys of primary voters.
In Vermont, she was doing best in the most Democratic areas, almost doubling Trump’s margins in both areas. Trump was winning the most Republican areas — home to about half the electorate. But his lead there was much smaller than Haley’s lead among the more Democratic-leaning areas, and there were not enough votes uncounted in these areas for him to overtake Haley.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
WATCH: AP explains Nikki Haley’s Super Tuesday win in Vermont
By The Associated Press
President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, are looking to all but clinch their party’s nominations as both are heavily favored in each of the 16 states and one territory holding Super Tuesday primaries on March 5.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Haley the winner of Vermont’s GOP primary
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to declare Haley the winner of the Republican presidential primary in Vermont based on vote returns that indicated she had opened a lead that Trump would be unable to overcome.
More than four-fifths of the expected vote had been counted by the time the AP was able to determine that Haley would maintain her lead in the state.
When AP called the race at 10:38 p.m. EST — more than three hours after polls closed — the area with the most votes uncounted was around the city of Burlington, where Haley was notching some of her best results.
Haley was doing better in areas where Biden notched big wins over Trump in 2020. While her biggest lead was in the Burlington area, she was also leading Trump in the central part of the state and the Upper Valley.
While Trump was ahead in the northernmost reaches and around Rutland, his leads there were not large enough to offset the margins Haley was running up in her best regions.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
Trump and Biden head toward 2024 rematch
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump have all but cemented a November rematch. And it’s increasing the pressure on Nikki Haley — Trump’s last major rival — to exit the Republican race.
Biden and Trump have each won Texas, Alabama, California, Colorado, Maine, Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota and Massachusetts. Biden also won the Democratic contests in Utah, Vermont and Iowa.
Haley won Vermont, but the former Republican president carried other states that might have been favorable to her such as Virginia and Maine. Those states have large swaths of moderate voters like those who have backed her in previous primaries.
Not enough states will have voted until later this month for Trump or Biden to formally become their parties’ presumptive nominees.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in California
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in California
Trump’s remarks were an abridged campaign speech
Donald Trump called Tuesday an “amazing night” but mentioned none of the states where he was competing and winning.
The former president was posting big wins in places like Massachusetts, Alabama and Texas but noted none of them nor what they meant.
Instead, he gave a much, much shorter version of his standard campaign speech, complete with a nostalgic look at his administration from 2017 to 2021, and an, at times, dark lament of the nation’s future, especially under Joe Biden.
Israel-Hamas war has some Democrats voting “uncommitted” in Biden protest
LITTLETON, Colo. — President Joe Biden still faces a protest vote as some people are casting their ballot for “uncommitted” because of his support of Israel.
U.S. Air Force veteran Keira Havens, 40, says she backed “uncommitted” over Biden’s response to the conflict.
“This is the only tool I have to put pressure on them right now, I’m going to use it,” Havens said.
The argument from other Democrats to vote for Biden because former President Donald Trump would be less supportive of Palestinians isn’t convincing to Marcus Casillas, 29.
“I firmly believe that in order for me to vote for someone, they need to earn the vote,” Casillas said. “I want to have belief in what I’m doing when I make that choice.”
Biden’s Super Tuesday focus is on Trump
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is choosing not to revel in his Super Tuesday nomination wins. Instead, he’s telling Americans it is time to defend democracy.
“My message to the country is this,” Biden said in a written statement from his campaign. “Every generation of Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights. To every Democrat, Republican, and independent who believes in a free and fair America: This is our moment. This is our fight. Together, we will win.”
Biden is casting Republican Donald Trump as someone willing to reverse his policies on taxes and improve affordability for prescription drugs. But, mostly, a written statement from the president was an admonition to voters about Trump’s time in office and that he cares about “revenge and retribution, not the American people.”
Voting out West to close soon
WASHINGTON — Polls are closing in California at 11 p.m. EST. Caucuses are expected to end in Utah for Republicans.
Haley’s Vermont victory will do little to change Trump’s dominance
WASHINGTON – Haley’s surprise victory in Vermont will do little to dent Trump’s primary dominance. The former president won 11 other states on Super Tuesday.
Haley is the last major rival to Trump standing in a once-crowded primary field. She has increasingly stepped up her attacks on the former president, arguing that he will lose in November to President Joe Biden if he clinches the party’s nomination.
Why AP hasn’t called the winner of the Democratic primary for Texas Senate
WASHINGTON — A familiar law is preventing The Associated Press from declaring a winner in the Democratic primary for the state’s U.S. Senate seat: the runoff rule.
Texas requires that contests where no candidate receives a majority of the vote advance to a runoff. While Rep. Colin Allred is currently above that threshold, there are so many uncounted votes remaining in Texas – concentrated particularly in the urban counties of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston – that the AP can’t definitively determine whether Allred will remain clear of the runoff threshold. Slightly more than half of the expected votes in the contest have been reported, so check back later as more votes come in for updates.
Trump offers little celebration in 20-minute speech at Mar-a-Lago
He condemned Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, foreign policy and especially the U.S.-Mexico border.
But he offered little in the way of prescriptions and instead ticked through, as he does, moments in his administration, several of them more than five years ago.
About as upbeat as it got: “We’re going to make America great again, greater than ever before.”
WATCH: AP explains Super Tuesday race calls in Arkansas, Alabama, Colorado, Texas and Minnesota
By The Associated Press
President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, are looking to all but clinch their party’s nominations as both are heavily favored in each of the 16 states and one territory holding Super Tuesday primaries on March 5.
Haley beats Trump in Vermont
WASHINGTON – The victory is an upset for Trump, who was seeking a clean sweep of the Super Tuesday contests. Vermont is Haley’s second presidential primary win. She also won in the District of Columbia.
AP RACE CALL: Nikki Haley wins the Republican presidential primary in Vermont
Biden asks whether America wants to move forward or allow Trump to ‘drag us backwards’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says tonight’s poll results are leaving Americans with a clear choice.
“Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?” he asked in a statement.
Biden said he ran four years ago because of the “existential threat” that Trump posed to the nation. And he’s said there’s been progress made but more to do.
“If Donald Trump returns to the White House, all of this progress is at risk. He is driven by grievance and grift.”
Trump is getting primary wins, but criminal cases still loom large
WASHINGTON — The criminal charges against former President Donald Trump have done nothing to hurt his appeal with most Republican voters.
Trump is collecting wins that put him closer to the GOP nomination and a likely 2020 rematch against President Joe Biden. But he’s still got looming court cases that range from his mishandling of classified material to his false claims about winning the 2020 election. Jury selection in his New York hush-money trial will begin March 25.
AP VoteCast found that 74% of South Carolina primary voters said the criminal charges are a political attempt to undermine Trump. Still, a third of Republican voters in that state also said he did something illegal in at least one of the cases.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Biden the winner of Utah’s Democratic presidential primary
WASHINGTON — The AP was able to determine Biden would pick up his 14th win of the night in Utah after initial returns — including a sizable report from the largest county in the state — indicated he had opened a sizable lead.
Polls closed for Democrats at 10 p.m. EST. Three minutes later, Salt Lake County — which is home to around 60% of the state’s expected Democratic electorate — released the results of more than 30,000 votes.
Biden had more than 40 times as many votes as his next-closest competitor. He had similar leads in the other counties that had released results at the time AP called the race at 10:05 p.m.
While Democrats in Utah held a primary, Republicans will select their presidential nominee via caucuses.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
Utah’s GOP caucus debates candidates before voting
BOUNTIFUL, Utah — One voter raised her hand to speak against Trump at her neighborhood’s Republican caucus. After she spoke, another stood. Then another. And another.
“I don’t believe this man has integrity,” Cathy Boyd said of Trump. “I don’t think he’s honest.”
The unique caucus process brought neighbors together for a civil debate before they cast their votes in a presidential preference poll to help allocate Utah’s 40 delegates.
![People line up during the Republican caucus at the Millcreek Junior High School on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Bountiful, Utah. Republican voters gathered at neighborhood precincts across Utah on Super Tuesday to select a presidential nominee through an in-person candidate preference poll. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/7e67a3d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5400x3600+0+0/resize/599x399!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Feb%2F93%2F5f764b0049e9ba3dc20c609b4f2a%2Fap24066118894414-1.jpg)
People line up during the Republican caucus at the Millcreek Junior High School on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Bountiful, Utah. Republican voters gathered at neighborhood precincts across Utah on Super Tuesday to select a presidential nominee through an in-person candidate preference poll. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Only a few voters opted to speak in front of the hundreds of Republicans gathered in the Millcreek Junior High School library. But of those who did, most urged their neighbors not to give up on GOP rival Nikki Haley.
Boyd is a retired teacher from the Utah School for the Deaf. She says Haley is the best option the party and the country have had in a very long time.
Nate Leishman, a welfare manager at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pleaded with his neighbors not to reelect a man who he said “seems to put himself over the American people.”
“Everything I value, Donald Trump seems to fight against,” Leishman said just before volunteers collected the preference poll ballots in large plastic bins.
Haley’s campaign pushed to the brink after Super Tuesday trouncing
NEW YORK — Nikki Haley has suffered a string of significant losses tonight. And it’s prompting allies to believe that the end of her 2024 presidential campaign may be near.
She didn’t make any public statements as officials counted ballots coast-to-coast late into the night. Privately, Haley’s team expected Republican rival Donald Trump to win almost every one of the evening’s contests, despite their best efforts to stop him.
Haley spent the night huddled with staff watching returns near her South Carolina home.
Trump is expected to win the necessary 1,215 delegates to become the GOP’s presumptive nominee later this month.
Trump takes the stage
Donald Trump is taking the stage at a ballroom in Mar-a-Lago.
He is entering to the strains of Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American,” standing for the entire song, as he does at all political events.
The ballroom is draped in gold curtains, as he strides the steps, the crowd cheering him as he stands in front of several American flags.
“They call it super Tuesday for a reason,” he said. “This is a big one. This was an amazing night.”
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Trump and Biden the winners of the presidential primaries in Arkansas and Colorado
WASHINGTON — Trump and Biden picked up another two states apiece, The Associated Press determined, as initial returns from Arkansas and Colorado showed insurmountable leads for the two front-runners.
In Arkansas, both presidential primaries were called within 30 minutes of polls closing. Colorado, which largely conducts its elections by mail, was faster, as the AP was able to determine Trump and Biden would win within 10 minutes of polls closing.
Both their leads in these initial returns were large enough that AP determined there was no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to overtake them.
Biden was leading comfortably in every region of Colorado. In the Boulder area, which is home to an estimated fifth of the state’s Democratic primary voters, Biden had more than 10 times as many votes as the next-closest competitor, the “noncommitted delegate” option. In Arkansas, Biden was winning nearly every vote in Pulaski County, home to Little Rock and an estimated quarter of the state’s Democratic primary voters.
Trump similarly led in every region of both states. In Arkansas, he was winning a narrow majority of votes in Pulaski County — the state’s most Democratic-leaning county — and a more comfortable majority of votes in the other regions. In Colorado, he also had larger leads in the more rural southern and eastern parts of the state. He was also still managing to win in the Denver and Boulder areas and their surrounding suburbs.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Trump and Biden the winners of the presidential primaries in Minnesota
WASHINGTON — The front-runners continue to log Super Tuesday victories, as Minnesota reported enough votes for The Associated Press to declare Biden and Trump the winners within 30 minutes of polls closing.
In initial returns from 13 counties across the state — which spanned all major regions except the core of the Twin Cities — both candidates were consistently leading. Trump was doing particularly well in southern Minnesota, while Biden had his largest lead in the northern part of the state. He was significantly ahead of Dean Phillips, who has represented Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District since 2019, in every county that reported results.
The AP also looked back at historical vote reports and found that Biden and Trump’s sizable leads were highly unlikely to dissipate. It found that, even if later updates swung the margin by an unprecedently large amount, both candidates would still maintain their leads.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
Trump gets ready to take the stage
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Trump will be taking the stage at his Super Tuesday victory party at 10:15 p.m. The room is packed with campaign staff, supporters, Mar-a-Lago members and reporters – some of whom have spent hours awaiting his remarks.
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Utah
North Carolina governor nominees play up their differences
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Democratic and Republican nominees for North Carolina governor are playing up their differences in speeches to supporters.
Josh Stein is the Democrat and the state’s current attorney general. Robinson, the state’s Republican lieutenant governor, is a former factory worker who has the endorsement of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
“Today we took an important first step, but we must be clear-eyed about the stakes of this election,” Stein said in a victory speech to supporters in Raleigh. “We’re at a crossroads,” he said. He told supporters Robinson’s vision was “bleak and divisive.”
Robinson described himself as an underdog.
“The differences could not be more clear,” Robinson said at a Greensboro victory party. “I’m sure the people of North Carolina will make the right choice.”
Here’s where you can track delegates in the Republican and Democratic presidential contest
WASHINGTON — Here’s the thing about the presidential nomination contests: It’s actually about delegates, not just racking up state victories.
Keep tabs on which candidates are notching delates with this tracker. So far, Trump has a pretty commanding lead over Haley. But the latest totals still have him needing more than 900 delegates of the 1,215 he needs to get the nomination.
President Joe Biden needs 1,968 delegates to secure the Democratic nod, and he’s got 375 as of now.
Polls are closing soon in 1 more state
By The Associated Press
Polls are closing in Utah 10 p.m. EST.
Utah voters planning for a GOP caucus with polite discourse and food
BOUNTIFUL, Utah — As voters in other states across the Mountain West line up at the polls, Utah Republicans are doing things differently.
Thousands of voters are flooding into Millcreek Junior High School, one of 2,300 neighborhood caucus locations around the state where residents will debate the candidates as a group before casting votes in a preference poll. Voters are bringing plates of food to eat during the coming debates.
![A Utah Republican caucus sign stands in front of Millcreek Junior High School Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Bountiful, Utah. Republican voters gathered at neighborhood precincts across Utah on Super Tuesday to select a presidential nominee through an in-person candidate preference poll. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/5b3e57d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5400x3600+0+0/resize/599x399!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fd5%2Fb6%2Ffc5bf5874a35a6285db4fb55470d%2Fap24066118611738.jpg)
A Utah Republican caucus sign stands in front of Millcreek Junior High School Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Bountiful, Utah. Republican voters gathered at neighborhood precincts across Utah on Super Tuesday to select a presidential nominee through an in-person candidate preference poll. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
“We want to have good, strong political discourse tonight,” said Lisa Fifield, the Bountiful, Utah, caucus director.
Utah’s 40 delegates will be distributed proportionally between the candidates unless one receives over 50% of the vote, which would earn them all of the state’s delegates.
WATCH: AP explains Super Tuesday race calls in Maine, Massachusetts and Tennessee
President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, are looking to all but clinch their party’s nominations as both are heavily favored in each of the 16 states and one territory holding Super Tuesday primaries on March 5.
Biden loses in American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the South Pacific
WASHINGTON — Jason Palmer defeated President Joe Biden in American Samoa, a tiny U.S. territory in the South Pacific. According to the local Democratic Party, Palmer won 51 votes and Biden won 40.
There were only six delegates up for grabs there in a contest that requires nearly 2,000, but it’s still a notable setback for an incumbent president. Palmer is a Baltimore-based investor.
This isn’t the first time that American Samoa has turned up surprising results in a primary. During the 2020 Democratic race, it was the only contest won by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor.
American Samoa, like other American territories, is awarded none of the electoral votes that ultimately determine the winner of the next presidential election. But territories do send delegates to party nominating conventions, meaning this will be residents’ only chance to provide input on the race for the White House.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP called winners of Texas primaries for president and the Republican Senate primary
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to declare Biden and Trump the winners of Texas’ presidential primaries and Cruz the winner of the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, based on an analysis of initial vote returns from across the entire state.
At 9 p.m. EST, when the final polls closed in the state, over 100 counties had reported almost half a million total votes. The votes came from every major geographic region in the state, with the biggest number coming from the Houston and Dallas areas.
The winning candidates were winning throughout the state. Biden’s best region was in the eastern part of the state and in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, while Trump and Cruz were both doing best in the eastern region and Houston areas.
AP compared places where votes have been reported to places where they have not and concluded that even if the trailing candidates exceeded expectations in the vote still to be counted, they couldn’t catch up with the leaders and therefore didn’t have a way to win.
▶ Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
Biden looks past Tuesday to State of the Union address
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is flying under the radar on Super Tuesday, looking ahead to his State of the Union address on Thursday. Biden was at the White House and did little official campaigning as the incumbent coasts toward his party’s nomination a second time. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that Biden would be “kept updated” throughout the evening. “He’ll be aware of what’s going on tonight as we see elections happening across the country,” she told reporters. “I just don’t have anything specific on that.” The low-key approach is part scheduling, as Biden spends hours in preparation sessions with top aides for Thursday’s big speech, and part by design, as he projects his focus is on the November race.
Phillips tries to laugh off another flop
WASHINGTON — Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, the only elected Democrat to challenge President Joe Biden in their party’s primary, isn’t coming close to winning anywhere on Tuesday — but he’s trying not to let it get him down.
“Congratulations to Joe Biden, Uncommitted, Marianne Williamson, and Nikki Haley for demonstrating more appeal to Democratic Party loyalists than me,” Phillips posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Phillips has remained in the race despite providing only token opposition to Biden and no real chance of challenging him nationally. His home state of Minnesota is among those holding a Democratic primary on Super Tuesday — but he isn’t expected to win there, either.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Minnesota
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Minnesota
Follow the AP’s 2024 elections tracker.
Why AP declared Trump and Biden the winners of the presidential primaries in Alabama
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to declare Trump and Biden the winners of their respective presidential primaries in Alabama at 8:45 p.m. EST as both continued to steamroll through Super Tuesday contests.
Alabama marked Biden’s 10th and Trump’s seventh victory of the night. Neither has lost a Super Tuesday state yet.
Biden was winning nearly all the votes reported at the time of the call and led in every region of the state. He was especially dominant in the Birmingham area and in the southern part of the state.
At the time of the call, Trump’s next-closest competitor was the “uncommitted” ballot option. He also was doing best in southern Alabama.
Biden’s campaign is betting the general election will be a referendum on Trump
WASHINGTON — The Biden campaign is hoping that tonight’s results will clarify the choice for voters this November. It’s an all-but-certain rematch between the incumbent president and Trump.
Biden’s team is making an all-in wager that it can make the general election into a referendum on Trump. They’re betting that voters who rejected Trump in 2020 — and GOP candidates in 2022 and 2023 — will do so again this November, even if they have little enthusiasm for Biden.
It’s clear many voters dislike both Biden and Trump — but Biden’s team is hoping that those who dislike their choices at the ballot box will break their way.
Here’s where Super Tuesday voting stands
WASHINGTON — The biggest night of the primary campaign is half over. So far, there haven’t been any surprises.
President Joe Biden has easily carried all the Democratic contests, winning Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Vermont.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump clinched Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Full results will take at least a few more hours. Voting in Alaska doesn’t end until 12 a.m. EST.
Although Biden and Trump are expected to be their party’s nominee, neither will be declared the “presumptive nominee” tonight. Trump won’t have enough delegates until March 12, and Biden will have to wait until March 19.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Colorado
No cyber threats to elections on Super Tuesday
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
CHICAGO — The first major voting date on this year’s primary calendar passed without major issues Tuesday.
There were no specific, credible threats or deliberate nefarious activities as states across the country held Super Tuesday elections, said a senior official for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who insisted on anonymity to discuss the elections.
The official said they are aware of social media outages Tuesday that caused widespread login issues for a few hours across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms, but they are not aware of any election nexus.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared winners in Tennessee, Massachusetts and Maine presidential primaries
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to call more Super Tuesday contests for Trump and Biden as early returns showed them with decisive leads. The race calls in Maine, Tennessee and Massachusetts were all made shortly after polls closed.
In both Massachusetts and Tennessee, Biden had no challengers on the ballot. In Tennessee, the only other option was “uncommitted,” which was in the single digits when AP called the race at 8:08 p.m. ET, less than 10 minutes after polls closed.
In Maine, AP compared places where votes have been reported to places where they have not, and concluded that even if the next-closest competitors – Haley on the Republican side and Phillips on the Democratic side — exceeded expectations in the vote still to be counted, neither could catch up with Trump or Biden.
Biden was winning nearly all the votes reported in Maine at the time of the call. Though Trump was winning a majority of voters across the state, he was less consistent: His leads among voters in high and moderate Republican areas of the state were much larger than his leads in high and moderate Democratic areas.
In Tennessee, Trump had commanding leads in every county that had reported results.
▶ Follow the full results.
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Colorado
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Arkansas
AP RACE CALL: Ted Cruz wins the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas’s primary election
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Texas
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Texas
Polls are closing in 2 more states
By The Associated Press
Polls are closing in Colorado and Minnesota at 9 p.m. EST. Last polls are closing in Texas. Caucuses are beginning in Utah for Republicans.
AP EXPLAINS: How AP declared the winners of North Carolina’s governor primaries
WASHINGTON — The general election contest in North Carolina was set some 30 minutes after polls closed when The Associated Press called winners of both the Republican and Democratic primaries.
With more than half of the state’s counties reporting results, Mark Robinson led the three-candidate GOP field in four of the state’s five regions. He had a small lead in the Charlotte area and was ahead by larger margins elsewhere in the state. He also won in moderate to heavily Republican areas.
Josh Stein had a double-digit lead over a more crowded field of Democrats. He was winning a majority of votes in all five regions of the state and was doing particularly well in the state’s two urban regions, around Charlotte and Raleigh, where roughly 40% of the state’s Democratic voters were expected.
Girl Scout sells cookies at Colorado polling site to encourage people to vote
LITTLETON, Colo. — At a polling site in Colorado, 8-year-old Kaiah Ezell is with her mom selling Girl Scout cookies and encouraging people to vote.” We are a big American family,” said mom Ally Ezell, 26.
Ezell, bedecked in American flag pants and a shirt stamped with “Patriot,” confirmed they’ll take Venmo to a customer buying shortbread. “Did you get a chance to vote today?” Ezell asked the customer. They had not.
She voted for Trump because “I personally think that our economy and our country were in the best spot when he was president” she said, adding that, with a fiancé who’s a veteran, her top voting issue was “getting back to patriotism.”Kaiah bounced around the truck bed, digging out cookies for customers and calculating the change, but isn’t following politics much yet.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Massachusetts
So much for the senator’s endorsement
WASHINGTON — Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins endorsed Nikki Haley in her home state. But Donald Trump easily won its GOP primary regardless.
It’s a reminder of the ways in which Trump has nationalized politics. Collins is a five-term senator, but her opinion turns out to carry little weight on presidential matters with her own constituents.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Alabama
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Alabama
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Arkansas
Voters misled about newly created Alabama congressional district ahead of casting ballots
WASHINGTON — Efforts to boost Black representation in Alabama were marred on Tuesday when more than 6,000 voters in the new 2nd Congressional District received postcards with incorrect voting information.
The postcards misidentified the voters’ district because of a “software glitch,” according to a county official. The official said anyone was still allowed to cast ballots for the right candidates when they went to their precincts.
Advocates expressed concern that the error could have discouraged turnout in the first election with new district maps.
North Carolina’s race for governor will have clear contrasts
North Carolina voters picked Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson to succeed the term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper.
WASHINGTON — Voters picked Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson to succeed the term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper. Their general election campaigns will show clear contrasts.
Stein would be the state’s first Jewish governor. The Harvard University-educated lawyer has an established focus on consumer rights.
Robinson is a former factory worker. As a city council member, he gave a viral speech in 2018 that catapulted him into public recognition and earned him an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Already North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor, Robinson would also be the state’s first Black governor.
WATCH: AP explains the first race calls of Super Tuesday
President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, are looking to all but clinch their party’s nominations as both are heavily favored in each of the 16 states and one territory holding Super Tuesday primaries on March 5.
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Maine
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Maine
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Massachusetts
Republicans head to polls in Alaska
Polls have opened in Anchorage as Alaska Republicans choose their preferred party nominee for president. The polls opened at 3 p.m. local time – with school letting out at Grace Christian Church, causing some traffic headaches. Volunteer Rick Whitbeck of Anchorage held up a ballot that each voter will receive.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Oklahoma
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Oklahoma
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP called North Carolina’s GOP primary for Trump
WASHINGTON — Trump picked up his second win of Super Tuesday when the Associated Press determined that he would win North Carolina, calling the race at 8 p.m. EST.
More than half the counties in the state had released results at the time of the call, which was made 30 minutes after polls closed.
Trump was leading Haley in initial returns by double digits in the three largest regions of the state. Though Haley was leading in the Charlotte area and the Raleigh/Durham Triangle area, the two more urban regions are small enough that her leads — if they remain — would not be big enough to offset Trump’s advantage in the rest of the state.
WATCH: Southern California voters discuss Biden and Trump ahead of likely rematch
President Biden and former President Donald Trump continue to dominate their parties despite both facing questions about their age and neither commanding broad popularity across the general electorate. (AP video: Haven Daley)
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Tennessee
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Tennessee
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP called North Carolina’s Democratic primary for Biden
WASHINGTON — It was Biden versus “no preference” in North Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary. The Associated Press was able to declare the president the winner minutes after polls closed, as Biden held a commanding lead.
Biden was the only named candidate on the ballot.
Twenty-three counties throughout the state had released votes when AP called the race at 7:38 p.m. EST. Biden was winning nearly all of the votes reported at the time of the call, which was made eight minutes after polls closed. The only other listed option was “no preference.”
Biden has received all 61 delegates that have been allocated so far Tuesday.
AP RACE CALL: Josh Stein wins Democratic nomination for governor in North Carolina primary election
AP RACE CALL: Mark Robinson wins Republican nomination for governor in North Carolina primary election
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in North Carolina
Trump’s ballroom party is a sharp contrast to his 2022 campaign launch
PALM BEACH, Fla.— Guests are jubilant and celebrating at Mar-a-Lago — a very different atmosphere from the fall of 2022 when Trump launched his third campaign for the White House in the same ornate ballroom with a staid announcement speech.
Trump was being blamed at the time for a slew of Republican losses and was widely seen as having an uphill path to the nomination. Now he is on the verge of clinching it — in record time.
Where things stand for Biden
WASHINGTON — It’s no surprise that President Joe Biden is notching easy victories in Super Tuesday’s primaries.
So far, The Associated Press has called Iowa, North Carolina, Vermont and Virginia with Biden. There are 12 additional states on Super Tuesday.
The Democrat is his party’s only major candidate, despite concerns among voters about the 81-year-old’s age. Biden has already spent the weeks leading up to the primary contests by focusing on his likely November opponent, former President Donald Trump, the 77-year-old Republican frontrunner.
Today’s results are likely to only intensify the rivalry between both men in what could be a long slog of a campaign. Biden has framed this race as a battle to protect democracy and constitutional values. The question is whether Biden can energize his voters for November.
Polls are about to close in 6 more states
Polls are closing in Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee at 8 p.m. EST. Most polls are closing in Texas. Polls are closing in Arkansas at 8:30 p.m. EST.
Trump supporters ready to party in Florida
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The crowd has packed into Trump’s victory party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.
There’s a bar and passed hors d’oeuvres, including empanadas and baked brie cheese. Staff and supporters are among the crowd, which includes the rapper Forgiato Blow. Fox News is playing on screens set up around the ballroom.
The crowd was erupting into cheers when an announcement that former Republican Donald Trump won North Carolina’s Republican primary flashed on the screen.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Trump the winner in Virginia’s GOP primary
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to declare Trump the winner of Virginia’s presidential primary at 7:25 p.m. EST because initial results showed he had an insurmountable lead over Haley. It was the first Super Tuesday victory for the former president.
Close to half of the state’s counties and cities had reported votes at the time of the call. Trump had nearly twice as many votes as Haley.
The former president was leading by double digits in four of the state’s five regions. Trump was doing best in the eastern region, which includes Richmond and is expected to be the site of the largest share of votes cast tonight.
Haley led in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, but the region is the second-smallest in the state, and her margin was not large enough to offset his advantage in the remainder of Virginia. Based on an analysis of the state’s voting history and the political leanings of different areas, the AP determined there was no scenario that would allow Haley to take the lead.
California Senate primary goes to ‘top two,’ regardless of party
WASHINGTON — California has Super Tuesday’s most hotly
anticipated and confusing primary contests.
Most states have separate voting for Democrats and Republicans, but California uses a “top two system.” That means the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election, regardless of party.
So the big question hanging over the Senate race is whether a Republican finishes in the top two or if the general election features a faceoff between two Democrats.
The leading candidates are Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball star, and Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. It’s possible the Democrats split votes and Garvey ends up leading the primary.
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in North Carolina
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Biden the winner in Virginia and Vermont
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press was able to declare Biden the winner of presidential primaries in both Virginia and Vermont because initial results showed the president with an insurmountable lead over his rivals.
In both states, Biden had received nearly all the votes reported at the time of the calls, which were made within 20 minutes of polls closing. He was not losing in a single county or township that had reported votes at the time of the calls.
In Virginia, the earliest counties to report included some from the region surrounding Richmond. The area has the largest estimated share of Democratic voters in the state. AP called the race at 7:09 p.m. EST.
In Vermont, Biden was performing equally well among voters who live in moderate Democratic and moderate Republican areas. The AP called the race at 7:20 p.m. EST.
Based on analyses of the two states’ voting history and geography, the AP determined there was no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to take the lead.
Crime is a major voter concern in Los Angeles
WASHINGTON — The blame game over crime could determine who serves as Los Angeles County district attorney.
Democrat George Gascón, a progressive prosecutor elected after the murder of George Floyd, is fighting to hold onto his job after surviving two previous recall attempts.
He faces 11 challengers in today’s nonpartisan primary. The two candidates with the most votes will face off in the general election in November.
Gascón’s critics have highlighted a series of robberies at luxury stores to suggest that lawlessness has been sweeping through Los Angeles. Property crime rose from 2022 to 2023. Violent crime slipped, but it’s still above prepandemic levels.
WATCH: Alabama voters go to the polls for Super Tuesday
Voters in Alabama came out to the polls on a rainy Super Tuesday to cast their votes for the 2024 Primary Election. (AP Video: Stephen Smith)
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Virginia
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Vermont
Haley has no events planned for today
WASHINGTON — The former U.N. ambassador has pegged her campaign to the biggest day of the primary season, crossing the country over the last several days to visit Super Tuesday states. But she is not holding any public events tonight. And she has no future campaign rallies listed on her website.
Her campaign says she’s spending election night in the Charleston, South Carolina, area and watching results come in with her staff. Says the campaign: “The mood is jubilant.”
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Virginia
Polls are about to close in 3 states
Polls are closing in Vermont and Virginia at 7 p.m. EST. Caucuses are beginning in Alaska for Republicans. Polls are closing in North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. EST.
WATCH: San Francisco voter says he’s ‘tense’ on Super Tuesday
Voters in San Francisco will weigh in on a pair of public safety measures on Tuesday’s ballot that reflect frustration over crime and drug use in the politically liberal city. (Mar 5) (AP video by Terry Chea) (AP production by Javier Arciga)
AP EXPLAINS: What to expect tonight
WASHINGTON — Super Tuesday is the biggest moment of the primary campaign. Since contests are spread out across several time zones from Maine to Alaska, results will be rolling in for hours.
Here’s the big picture:
- Biden and Trump are the clear favorites to clinch their party’s nominations. However, neither will be declared the presumptive nominee tonight. Trump won’t have enough delegates until March 12, and Biden will have to wait until March 19.
- The primary calendars don’t line up, which can be confusing. For example, Iowa Democrats voted today even though Iowa Republicans held their caucus in January.
- Sometimes The Associated Press will be able to project a winner very quickly after voting is over. Read more about that process here.
Here’s when polls are closing:
- The first results came from Iowa at 5:50 p.m. EST. Next up are Vermont and Virginia at 7 p.m. EST, also when Republicans will begin caucusing in Alaska. Voting ends in North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. EST.
- A cascade of states — Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee — finish voting at 8 p.m. EST. Most polls will also close in Texas around that time, but some will finish later because the state spans two time zones.
- Arkansas polls close at 8:30 p.m. EST, then Colorado and Minnesota at 9 p.m. EST.
- Utah is holding caucuses for Republicans and a primary for Democrats. The caucuses begin at 9 p.m. EST and polls close at 10 p.m. EST.
- California polls close at 11 p.m. EST, and voting ends in Alaska at 12 a.m. EST.
AP EXPLAINS: Why AP declared Biden won Iowa’s Democratic contest, and the state’s delegates
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has made its first race call of Super Tuesday, declaring Biden the winner of Iowa’s all-mail presidential preference vote.
The Iowa Democratic Party released the results of its all-mail presidential preference vote at 5:50 p.m. ET. That report showed Biden winning nearly all of the reported votes across the state.
Based on his margin in the statewide vote, the Associated Press determined Joe Biden won the race and would receive all 14 of Iowa’s statewide delegates.
Though the all-mail caucuses technically opened on Jan. 15, the day Iowa Republicans held the GOP caucuses, state party officials did not release results until Tuesday, which is also the final day for voters to mail in their ballot. Iowa Democrats will count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Tuesday, so a small number of votes could be added over the coming days.
Voter turnout down in key Texas county
By VALERIE GONZÁLEZ
McALLEN, Texas — Just 9% of registered voters have cast their ballot in this year’s primary election in Hidalgo County compared to 13% in 2020.
The number of voters participating in the Republican primary increased this year and dropped drastically among Democrats.
“I think we definitely need to see more people come out to vote,” said Michelle Vallejo, a Democratic congressional candidate. “And all it tells me is that we need to be doing more work, investing more into our community and reaching voters where they’re at. So that’s at their front doorstep.”
Vallejo lost the 2022 race for the 15th Congressional District to Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas.
WATCH: Biden and Trump barrel into Super Tuesday, toward a likely November rematch despite voter concerns
Super Tuesday elections are being held in 16 states and one territory — from Alaska and California to Vermont and Virginia. Hundreds of delegates are at stake, the biggest haul for either party on any single day. (Mar. 5) (AP video: Allen Breed in Morrisville, Rodrique Ngowi in Boston, Mark Vancleave in Minnesota)
President Joe Biden wins in Iowa
President Joe Biden notched his first Super Tuesday win in Iowa.
You’d be forgiven for being surprised to see Iowa results on Super Tuesday. The state is legendary for kicking off the presidential campaign every four years with its famed caucuses. But Democrats changed the process in Iowa after a meltdown in releasing results in 2020.
The trouble prompted the national party to reshuffle the election calendar this year with a goal of emphasizing more diverse states. That left Iowa Democrats sending ballots in the mail, with results released on Tuesday.
Republicans moved forward with the traditional caucuses in January with Trump posting a dominant, nearly 30 percentage point win over his closest rivals.
How Republicans are voting in Portland, Maine
PORTLAND, Maine – Republican voter Barbara Tracy said she was supporting Nikki Haley even though she’s an underdog.
“Donald Trump’s volatility scares me,” the 59-year-old paralegal said. “I think he’s a great candidate for us fiscally. But in all of the other areas I’m a little nervous.”
But Lucie Tardif, a 67-year-old retiree, had no such qualms about Trump. She said doesn’t always like the bombastic things that come from Trump’s mouth but she said that didn’t prevent her from supporting the former president.
“I wish he’d keep his trap shut every once in a while, but I thought he was a really good president. And that’s what matters to me,” the 67-year-old said. “He did what he said he was going to do. And I really like that,” she added.
Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday event is ready to go
PALM BEACH, Florida — Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballroom, with its ornate crystal chandeliers and cherub friezes, has been set with rows of banquet chairs, cocktail tables dressed in ivory linens and more than a dozen American flags for Trump’s Super Tuesday night event. More than 100 members of the media are on site. Among those spotted so far: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Voters in Texas can watch on video as their ballots get counted
By VALERIE GONZÁLEZ
McALLEN, Texas – Voters craving more transparency after the last election cycle can watch via camera their ballots as they move behind closed doors in several counties nationwide.
“You’ll see staff going in and out, of course, authorized staff that able to be in there, along with the central counting station that will be there tabulating and calculating all the votes,” said Hilda Salinas, the election administrator in Hidalgo County.
Texas’ video surveillance is part of a 2021 state law. There are also other counties that are streaming their ballot processing, including Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Maricopa County, Arizona and King County, Washington.
WATCH: Minnesota voters take to the polls
By The Associated Press
Minnesota voters are taking to the polls, as President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump are poised to have the biggest day of the primary campaign during 16 Super Tuesday primary contests. (March 5) (AP video: Mark Vancleave, Carrie Antlfinger)
AP RACE CALL: Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential nominating contest in Iowa
The economy remains an important issue for McAllen, Texas voters
By VALERIE GONZALEZ
Republican voter Gabriel Martinez says the economy is one of the most important issues for him. “I’m at a part of my life where I’m making a lot more money than before, over $130,000,” said Martinez, 55. “Yet it seems like I’m still dirt poor. And, you go to the grocery store, everything is so expensive.
Valerie Bramble, 26, was one of the few young voters out at a popular voting location in McAllen and hoped others in her demographic would show up to this election with the future in mind. “We are the younger generation and whatever we decide to vote on today or this year is going to determine a lot for the next four years of our life,” said Bramble. “I don’t think a lot of people really understand that.”
Texas governor spends Super Tuesday dealing with state’s wildfire
DALLAS – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott spent Super Tuesday afternoon talking to the officials in the Panhandle, where the state’s largest wildfire and others continue to burn.
The Republican didn’t mention politics as he spoke about the issues in the area, which include what he said was an “extraordinary” need for hay for cattle to eat.
Speaking in the city of Canadian, Abbott said that with the wildfires still burning, it’s important that residents remain vigilant.
“Even though progress has been made, it’s wrong if anybody thinks the fire is over and they can let down their guard,” he said.
On the political side, in the lead up to Tuesday’s primary, Abbott has been targeting nearly two dozen incumbents who helped defeat his plan to spend tax money on private schools.
Hundreds of miles above Earth, two astronauts cast their votes
HOUSTON — Aboard the International Space Station, two NASA astronauts performed their civic duty. NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara confirmed their celestial ballots in posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Being in space didn’t stop (O’Hara) and I from voting. Go vote today!” Moghbeli wrote.
According to NASA’s website, after an astronaut fills out an electronic absentee ballot aboard the space station, the encrypted document goes through a tracking and data relay satellite to a ground antenna at the White Sands Complex in New Mexico. From there, the ballot is sent to the Mission Control Center in Houston and forwarded to the county clerk’s office.
WATCH: Hear from voters on the issues that matter most to them
By The Associated Press
Super Tuesday is well underway across the U.S. Here’s what voters told AP they care about at the polls.
Emergency robocalls correct voting misinformation in North Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. — North Carolina officials activated emergency robocalls Tuesday morning to correct misinformation from a country music radio station serving a western part of the state in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
State Board of Elections spokesperson Patrick Gannon said WKYK — which is based in Burnsville, North Carolina — shared incorrectly that election day precincts had closed and voters around Yancey County (population: 18,000) would have to hit the polls at the county board of elections office.
Gannon said the false information appeared “to be an honest, but unfortunate, mistake.”
Within 30 minutes of the radio report, the county’s emergency management office used a subscription-based public safety mass messaging system to issue accurate voting instructions. WKYK did not immediately respond to a voice message from The Associated Press seeking more information.
A former Biden supporter feels “betrayed” over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war
BOSTON — Marwa Osman, a 35-year-old content creator, says she voted “no preference” over Biden’s policy regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. She is opposed to sending any aid to Israel and wants the president to support a full ceasefire. “We supported Biden from the beginning and kind of feel betrayed by him.”
If the administration doesn’t change its policy toward the war, Osman says she is considering sitting out the November election.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I’ll probably not vote or vote for an independent party. I just cannot have my vote in good conscience go to something that is aiding to kill innocent civilians.”
Transgender community center celebrates its first year as vote center
LOS ANGELES — Scottie Jeanette Madden, who serves as a director at transgender advocacy group FLUX, said voters had been trickling into the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center, which is serving as a vote center for the first time.
![Volunteer Kristen Suszek also know as Poll Worker Barbie greets voters at the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center polling station in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The center is the first transgender facility in the nation to host an election vote center. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/5cbbd81/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8910x5940+0+0/resize/599x399!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fac%2F75%2F22f188044e16871fd3115cda5cf1%2Fap24065675176454.jpg)
Volunteer Kristen Suszek also know as Poll Worker Barbie greets voters at the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center polling station in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The center is the first transgender facility in the nation to host an election vote center. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
To mark the significance, the center has plans for a DJ to perform and is giving out water and snacks, essentially trying to turn the act of voting into a party.
“Our community has emotional boundaries, not geographic boundaries,” Madden said. “You can now come to a place that is safe and affirming and vote, which might not be your local polling place.”
For many years, state residents were assigned to vote at polling places based on their home addresses. The state has since moved to a system that lets voters cast their ballots at any vote center in their county, paving the way for the vote center at the transgender facility, she said.
Texas candidate can’t find his name on his own ballot, but mistake soon remedied
HOUSTON — What to do if you’re a candidate for office and you don’t see your name when looking over your ballot at your voting center?
“It was funny because I couldn’t even vote for my own self,” said Democratic state Rep. Jarvis Johnson of Texas, who’s running for the Texas Senate.
Johnson’s son and daughter and a member of his campaign were also voting at the same location in Houston, and they also couldn’t find his name on the ballot.
Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth says an election judge scanned the wrong precinct code. That brought up the wrong ballot for Johnson and the others.
Hudspeth says the mistake was fixed in real time and support staff has been sent to the voting location to ensure such an error won’t happen again.
Super Tuesday states demographics
Super Tuesday is the first chance millions of Americans have to express their preferences for president. The sixteen states voting today represent a broad swath of the electorate, ranging from the highly educated and largely white residents of tiny Vermont to the more racially diverse and higher-income California.
Below, find a breakdown of Super Tuesday states by some key demographics:
No longer first in line, Iowa Democrats quietly mail in ballots
DES MOINES, Iowa — For Democrats in Iowa, it was a break from five decades of tradition in how the state gets it say in helping determine the presidential nominee.
For 2024, the state party had to reapproach their caucuses. They’re the one-night spectacle where community members publicly signal their support for a candidate.
This year, Iowa Democrats have quietly filled in the bubble for President Joe Biden or one of his long-shot competitors and slipped the forms into the mailbox. More than 19,000 ballots were requested, according to the party, and roughly 13,000 had been received as of Tuesday morning.
And national Democrats reshuffled the primary calendar to prioritize more diverse states than Iowa. The change pushed Iowa from its leadoff position and back to Super Tuesday.
WATCH: Why Nikki Haley is still running in the GOP primary
Nikki Haley’s victory in the District of Columbia primary on Sunday at least temporarily halted Donald Trump’s sweep in the GOP contest. Despite her early losses, Haley has said she would remain in the race at least through Super Tuesday.
Houston, we’ve had only a few problems
HOUSTON — Elections in recent years in Texas’ most populous county have drawn attention because of various problems, from paper ballot shortages and malfunctioning machines to long lines of people waiting to vote.
But Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth, whose office is now in charge of elections, says that so far on Tuesday, things generally have gone smoothly in the Houston area, with issues in just a few places.
Hudspeth says those problems have been dealt with and she’s now taking her “first deep breath for the day knowing that voters are voting, our polls are working, and we’ve been able to address everything.”
Haley backer in Minnesota applauds ‘resiliency’ of Republican candidate
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — “It’s time for a woman.”
That’s what Pam Hulstrand, 65, said as she voted for Nikki Haley in a Twin Cities suburb in Minnesota. She said Haley is a new leader with experience and confidence.
But Hulstrand also said she’s prepared to vote for Donald Trump in November, if it comes to that. She said she voted for Joe Biden in 2020, but won’t do so again.
Hulstrand is holding out hope that Haley will win the nomination.
“The fact that she’s not giving up says a lot about her resiliency,” Hulstrand said.
Hulstrand, who’s a minister, said she likes Haley’s stand on issues such as what’s taught in schools.
Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads logins restored after outage
By The Associated Press
A technical issue caused widespread login issues for a few hours across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms Tuesday.
Andy Stone, Meta’s head communications, acknowledged the issues on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said the company “resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”
Users reported being locked out of their Facebook accounts and feeds on the platform as well as Threads and Instagram were not refreshing. WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, appeared unaffected.
A senior official with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told reporters Tuesday that the agency was “not aware of any specific election nexus nor any specific malicious cyberactivity nexus to the outage.”
Houston area’s top prosecutor goes to vote and is told she already did
HOUSTON — Kim Ogg must have thought it odd.
When the Houston area’s top prosecutor went to vote Tuesday, she was told she already had done so.
It took a bit of work, but the hiccup has been resolved.
Ogg says she was told that when her partner cast a ballot during early voting last week, the partner’s vote was mistakenly cast in Ogg’s name.
The Harris County district clerk says the mistake has been fixed and Ogg got the go-ahead to vote.
Taylor tells Swifties to get out and vote but doesn’t offer an endorsement
NEW YORK — Taylor Swift is encouraging people to fill in the “Blank Space” on their ballot this Super Tuesday.
Despite months of speculation, the music superstar is not announcing an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race. But she is encouraging people to get out and vote.
In a post Tuesday on Instagram, Swift tells followers that the presidential primary is being held in Tennessee, where Swift lives, and 16 other states and territories.
She writes, “I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.”
Whether they live in Tennessee or elsewhere, Swift tells people to check their polling places and times at vote.org.
Swift endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and backed Democratic candidates in Tennessee in 2018 after breaking her longstanding refusal to discuss her political views.
Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders bets on Trump, her former boss, to return to the White House for another four years
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she’s confident her former boss Donald Trump will win the Republican Party’s nomination and take back the White House in the November election.
Sanders served as White House press secretary for the former president. She cast her ballot at a Little Rock community center Tuesday morning with her husband, Bryan Sanders.
She told reporters after casting her ballot that, “This is a head to head matchup at this point between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and he’s the clear favorite, has all the momentum, and I feel really good about him winning again in November.”
Sanders also says she wasn’t surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Monday restoring Trump to primary ballots.
She said the fact that it was a 9-0 decision is “very telling” and added that “it should be a signal to stop trying to use our courts for political purposes.”
Sanders declined to say who she voted for in two of the top races on the ballot in her home state, a pair of Supreme Court races that could give her two additional appointments to the court.
WATCH: What is Super Tuesday? Why it matters
The biggest day of the primary campaign is here: Super Tuesday. As the day with the most delegates up for stake, strong performances by Biden and Trump would move them much closer to winning their party’s nominations. Here’s what to expect.
Biden prepping with a slew of top aides at Camp David for the other big event this week for the president
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden spent much of the run-up to this Super Tuesday preparing for that OTHER big political event of the week – his annual State of the Union.
Biden has been holed up at Camp David, the presidential retreat just outside Washington, with some of his closest aides and outside advisers.
Among those with him at Camp David: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, senior adviser Anita Dunn, director of speechwriting Vinay Reddy, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, and Mike Donilon, a veteran Biden aide who recently moved from the White House to the campaign. That’s according to a person familiar with the president’s preparations. Also on hand was the presidential historian Jon Meacham, a Biden favorite.
Others are participating virtually, according to the person who was granted anonymity to discuss Biden’s private preparations.
The president returns to the White House later Tuesday.
Meta platforms down in widespread outage
Users of Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms are experiencing login issues in what appears to be a widespread outage.
Internet traffic observer Down Detector is reporting vast outages on several Meta properties on Super Tuesday.
The problems were spotted right across the world, suggesting that the outage could be global.
London-based internet monitoring firm Netblocks said on X that four Meta platforms —Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads — were “currently experiencing outages related to login sessions in multiple countries.” Andy Stone, Meta’s head communications, said the company is working on the issue.
Texas AG Paxton makes Super Tuesday appeal for voters to target those who voted to impeach him
AUSTIN, Texas —Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton isn’t on the ballot but is kicking off Super Tuesday by urging voters to oust fellow Republicans who voted to impeach him.
Paxton is out for political revenge six months after his acquittal in the state Senate over corruption and abuse of office allegations.
His targets include the powerful Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who oversaw the vote that made Paxton only the third sitting official in the state’s nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.
Paxton wants to overthrow the leadership of the House. His efforts are being widely watched as an attempt to push one of the most conservative legislatures in the U.S. even further to the right.
But he faces legal risks. Paxton is scheduled to stand trial in Houston next month on nearly decade-old securities fraud charges and remains under FBI investigation over allegations that he abused his office.
Biden takes to the radio on Super Tuesday to rebuke Trump over his ‘shameful’ treatment of Black people
President Joe Biden hit the radio airwaves as aims to shore up his standing among Black voters, a critical constituency for Democrats in the November general election.
In a radio interview that aired on Super Tuesday morning with Ms. Jessica, a radio personality in North Carolina, Biden promoted his achievements for Black voters, such as increased funding for historically Black colleges and universities and key investments in infrastructure to benefit Black communities.
In another radio interview, with “DeDe in the Morning,” Biden took a sharp jab at his likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and what would happen if Democrats lose the White House.
“You’re going to be back with Donald Trump,” says Biden. “The way he talks about, the way he acted, the way he has dealt with the African-American community, I think, has been shameful.”
WATCH: San Francisco to vote on two measures for police surveillance and welfare access
By The Associated Press
San Francisco voters on Tuesday will be weighing in on two propositions. Proposition E would grant police more powers, giving them surveillance cameras and use of drones, and Proposition F would require single adults on welfare to be screened for drug use.
Polls open to eager voters, blue skies and chilly temperatures in Minnesota
Polling places are open in Minnesota. Three voters waited at the doors of the Eden Prairie Library when it opened at 7 a.m. for voting on Super Tuesday.
It’s a sunny day with a clear blue sky and 27 degrees Fahrenheit in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which is part of Dean Phillips’ congressional district.
Among the first voters was Seth De Penning. He says he voted for Nikki Haley because the Republican Party “needs a course correction.”
De Penning is 40, and works in marketing and identifies as a conservative-leaning independent. He said he has never voted for Donald Trump due to the former president’s temperament and character.
De Penning says he’s voting with his conscience by choosing Haley.
How the delegates work in Super Tuesday voting
Democrats and Republicans vote on who they want to run for president and other offices. And then once those votes are tallied, delegates are awarded.
Delegates are people chosen to represent their community at their political party’s presidential nominating convention. They are the ones who actually select the candidate to represent their party on the November ballot.
Candidates need to win a majority of them to pick up their party’s nomination. And no other date has more of those delegates at stake than Super Tuesday.
On the Republican side, 854 of 2,429 delegates — more than 35% are up for grabs. About 36%, or 1,420 delegates, are in play for Democrats.
Nobody will become the presumptive nominee after Tuesday’s primaries but it’ll be close.
WATCH: Haley says the Republican Party is ‘becoming Donald Trump’s playpen’
By The Associated Press
In Grand Rapids, Michigan on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley expressed concerns about the Republican Party in light of Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel saying she will leave her post on March 8. (Feb. 26)
AP VoteCast: Many Republican voters don’t think Trump committed a crime
By The Associated Press
Criminal trials are looming over Trump’s 2024 campaign, but according to AP VoteCast surveys in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Republican primary voters mostly don’t believe he did something illegal.
Between 26% and 38% of voters in the early contests think that Trump has done something illegal in at least one of the three major cases against him: The case involving the classified documents found at his Florida home, the Washington, D.C. case involving his role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, or the Georgia case involving Trump’s alleged attempt to interfere in the vote count in the 2020 presidential election.
The remaining voters think he either did something unethical but not illegal, or that he did nothing wrong.
AP-NORC Poll: Many Americans don’t feel the country or economy has improved under Biden | Live updates
By The Associated Press
As Biden makes the case that he deserves a second term as president, he’s facing a problem: Many people don’t think things have has improved since he’s been in the White House.
A new AP-NORC poll shows that few Americans see improvements in their own lives or the country as a whole over the past three years. More than half of U.S. adults say the national economy (57%) is somewhat or much worse off than before Biden took office in 2021, and a similar share (55%) say the country is somewhat or much worse off.
Americans are slightly less pessimistic about their own situations, but 41% say that they and their families are somewhat or much worse off than before Biden became president.
California Senate race: Democrats aim to block Republican from contest to fill Feinstein’s seat
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Several prominent House Democrats are jostling to fend off Republican former baseball great Steve Garvey in the yearlong battle to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, with two slots on California’s November ballot at stake.
In a state where a Republican hasn’t won a Senate race since 1988, Democrats are expected to easily hold the seat in November, a relief for the party as it seeks to defend a fragile Senate majority. But first-time candidate Garvey, a National League MVP and former star for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, reordered the contest that also features Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.
California puts all candidates, regardless of party, on one primary ballot, and the two who get the most votes advance to the general election. For months, Schiff has had the fundraising and polling edge, but it’s possible Garvey could claim the second spot on the November ballot, ending the congressional careers of Porter and Lee, two prominent progressives.
▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.
AP VoteCast: Many early GOP primary and caucus voters believe Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election
By The Associated Press
Trump continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him because of overwhelming voter fraud. It’s a lie that has caught on with his supporters.
AP VoteCast surveys of early primary and caucus voters found that about one-third of voters in the Republican contests in South Carolina and Iowa correctly said that Joe Biden was legitimately elected during the 2020 presidential election. About 6 in 10 said, incorrectly, that he was not legitimately elected.
In New Hampshire, where the electorate is less conservative, about half of voters who participated in the GOP primary agreed with the untrue statement that Biden was not legitimately elected.
Key races to watch: Two California Senate primaries
The highest profile state race in California is the one to succeed the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
There’s a crowded field of candidates that include Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball star.
![FILE -Candidates, from left, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., and former baseball player Steve Garvey, stand on stage during a televised debate for candidates in the senate race to succeed the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/b36c7e7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2386x1626+0+0/resize/599x408!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fb8%2F18%2F8b8100b24c8caaaaad4f9310568e%2Fap24033595037377.jpg)
FILE -Candidates, from left, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., and former baseball player Steve Garvey, stand on stage during a televised debate for candidates in the senate race to succeed the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
But, confusingly, there are two primary elections on the ballot to replace Feinstein. One is to fill the remaining months of her current term and the other is for a full six-year term starting in January 2025.
Keep in mind that California has a “top-two” primary system in which all candidates appear on the same ballot regardless of party, and the top two finishers advance to the general election.
▶ Read more about what to expect in the California primary races.
WATCH: How many delegates will it take for candidates to get the nomination?
By The Associated Press
With the Super Tuesday elections on March 5, a slew of delegates is up for grabs for the candidates competing for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations. (March 1)
AP VoteCast: MAGA supporters are still making their mark
By The Associated Press
Trump’s “Make America Great Again Movement” is still a major force in the Republican Party.
According to AP VoteCast surveys of voters in the early Republican contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, 6 in 10voters in both the South Carolina Republican primary and GOP Iowa caucuses consider themselves supporters of MAGA. Half of those in New Hampshire also identified with the movement.
There is significant — but not total — overlap between Trump voters and MAGA supporters: In South Carolina, 82% of voters who said they cast a ballot for Trump also identify with the MAGA movement, compared to 21% of those who said they voted for Haley.
Trump and Biden are likely to sweep Super Tuesday, but they’re still not the ‘presumptive nominees’
Spoiler alert! Don’t read on if you want to be surprised by who will likely win today’s primaries.
Biden is the incumbent and faces only token opposition in the Democratic race. On the Republican side, Donald Trump has won nearly every primary so far, and is expected to win big on Tuesday, too.
Of course, there’s always the possibility for an upset. Nikki Haley is still in the race to be the Republican presidential nominee, but she’s facing tough contests in states where she’s struggled to win support. Biden is far and away leading over Democratic challengers.
But even though we think we know what will happen, neither Trump nor Biden will be able to claim the “presumptive nominee” title yet. The earliest that could happen is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden.
While Joe Biden and Donald Trump have won every contest so far by large margins and are the overwhelming favorites to once again win their parties’ nominations, they’re not the “presumptive nominees” just yet. AP’s Meg Kinnard explains more.
WATCH: How Super Tuesday came to be
By The Associated Press
Voters across several states in the U.S. are preparing to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday, which takes place on Tuesday, March 5th. (Feb. 28)
Why is this Super Tuesday different?
Normally, it’s a big day that can make-or-break a candidate.
For example, in 2020, Joe Biden was basically counted out of the race after dismal showings in early primaries. But it was this swift and stunning comeback on Super Tuesday that really gave everyone a jolt. He ran the board, winning 10 of the 14 states. Other candidates dropped out out of the race after his wins. And you know what happened after that.
But that was then. This year there’s not much of a chance for something weird and wild. For the Democrats, Biden is the incumbent and faces only token opposition.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump has won all but one Republican primary so far, and is expected to win big on Tuesday, too.
Trump talks about his wins so far
On the eve of Super Tuesday, the Republican frontrunner sat for a lengthy interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network, a Trump-supporting online broadcaster. Trump touted all his wins thus far in the GOP primary contest and said of his popularity in the party that there is something “really fantastic happening out there.”
“We’re happy to be a part of it,” Trump said. “The country wants help. They’re screaming for help.”
Trump largely repeated many of the points he makes at his campaign rallies, including false claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged.”
WATCH: Will Super Tuesday be Nikki Haley’s last stand?
By The Associated Press
Fresh off her first GOP primary win in Washington, DC, Nikki Haley heads into Super Tuesday hoping for new momentum. But with Donald Trump favored to win all upcoming contests, many are wondering whether Tuesday will be Haley’s last stand. (March 4)
What North Dakota voters are saying about GOP candidates
Retired music teacher and librarian Karen Groninger, 76, of Almont, said she voted for Donald Trump. She said it was partly because he spoke at the annual “March for Life” anti-abortion event in Washington, D.C. in 2020, the first time a sitting president has done so.
But longtime Republican state Sen. Dick Dever, of Bismarck, voted for Nikki Haley. He called President Joe Biden and Trump “polar opposites, and I think we need to move away from the extremes.”
“Government happens in the center,” he said.
Dever says “things have changed” since 2016 when he appeared behind Trump at an event in Bismarck.
Trump won the Republican presidential caucuses Monday.
AP RACE CALL: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential caucuses in North Dakota
AP VoteCast: Haley’s base of support is limited
By The Associated Press
Nikki Haley has promised to stay in the GOP primary through Super Tuesday, but her performance in her home state of South Carolina illuminates why she’s struggling to win any state — much less the Republican nomination.
According to the AP VoteCast survey of GOP primary voters in South Carolina, Haley did well among people who have higher levels of education and moderates — neither of which is a very large or powerful group within the GOP electorate.
Even more limiting — about 2 in 10 of Haley’s supporters in South Carolina said they’re Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party, and more than 4 in 10 voted for Biden in 2020.
Those are not typical GOP voters.
WATCH: More than 6 in 10 U.S. adults doubt Biden’s mental capability, poll shows
By The Associated Press
63% of U.S. adults say they lack confidence in Biden’s mental capability to serve effectively as president, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
AP-NORC Poll: 63% of Americans are not very or not at all confident in Biden’s mental capability; 57% say the same about Trump
By The Associated Press
Biden might not have any serious competition in the Democratic primary, but the 81-year-old president is still contending with widespread skepticism about his mental competence — even within his own base.
According to a new AP-NORC poll, only 40% of Democrats say they are extremely or very confident in Biden’s mental capability to serve as president. About 3 in 10 are somewhat confident and approximately one-third (32%) are not very confident or not at all confident.
Fortunately for Biden, Americans have similar concerns about his likely opponent. About 6 in 10 Americans (63%) say they are not very or not at all confident in Biden’s mental capability, and a similar share (57%) say the same about Trump.
But while they don’t have an especially high view of either man’s acuity, independents are much likelier to say they lack confidence in Biden (80%) compared to Trump (56%). And Republicans are less worried about their own likely nominee: 59% of Republicans are extremely or very confident in Trump’s mental capability to serve as president.
AP VoteCast: Immigration is a top issue for GOP primary and caucus voters
By The Associated Press
Immigration is quickly becoming a central issue in the 2024 election, even overshadowing other perennially important topics.
In the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina Republican primaries and caucuses, AP VoteCast surveys found that immigration emerged as the top issue for voters, beating out the economy and foreign policy concerns.
Trump’s hardline policies and rhetoric on immigration are popular among early contest voters. Between 79% and 88% of voters in the Republican contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina say they support building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Around 7 in 10 early state voters also said that immigrants in the U.S. today are doing more to hurt than help the country.
North Dakota governor stumps for Trump
Republican caucusgoers in Bismarck, North Dakota, lined up at a local college to cast their ballots before heading into a spacious event room for hors d’oeuvres.
State Gov. Doug Burgum spoke virtually on Trump’s behalf, saying that North Dakota will “send a message that is going to be a kickoff to tomorrow.”
“This race is going to be the end of the trail, and we’re going to say that we have a nominee, and let’s go after and beat Joe Biden,” Burgum said.
WATCH: This is how GOP voters feel about Trump and Haley
By The Associated Press
Donald Trump appears close to invincible in the Republican primaries and caucuses, but despite his commanding victories, the front-runner’s strength among general election voters remains unclear. AP’s Josh Boak explains more.
Haley says she no longer feels bound by the GOP pledge to support the eventual nominee
By The Associated Press
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday she no longer feels bound by a pledge that required all GOP contenders to support the party’s eventual nominee in order to participate in the primary debates.
The Republican National Committee had made the pledge a prerequisite for all candidates, and nearly every major contender signed, except for Donald Trump, the current front-runner, who skipped the debates.
When Haley, Trump’s lone remaining major challenger for the nomination, was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether she was compelled to honor that commitment, she said, “No. I think I’ll make what decision I want to make.”
▶ Read more about Haley’s comments on the RNC pledge.
New AP-NORC Poll: Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided on Ukraine aid
By The Associated Press
After months of fighting over foreign aid in Congress, Democrats are less likely than they were last fall to want to pull back military support for Ukraine.
About 4 in 10 Democrats (44%) say the U.S. is spending “too little” on aid to Ukraine in the war against Russia, up from 17% in November, according to a new AP-NORC poll. The share of Democrats who say the U.S. is spending “too much” (17% now, from 32% in November) or “about the right amount” (38% now, from48% in November) has dropped over the same period.
Republicans and Independents still tend to want to send less aid: 55% of Republicans and 45% of Independents think the U.S. is spending “too much” on assistance to Ukraine.
Local election officials face a long list of security challenges
By CHRISTINA CASSIDY
On Super Tuesday, the federal government’s cybersecurity agency is going to provide some back up to state and local election officials who are facing a long list of security challenges including the threat of cyberattacks waged by hostile foreign governments.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — known as CISA — is standing up an election operations center to bring together federal, state and local election officials and the private sector. The idea is to share real-time threat information.
After the 2016 election, the nation’s voting systems were designated as critical infrastructure on par with the nation’s banks, nuclear power plants and dams. That means state election officials can now receive security clearances and federal resources such as cybersecurity and security reviews.
Trump is doubling down on incendiary rhetoric that fires up his base – but alienates other voters
Candidates who are about to win their party nominations generally massage their messaging and try to emphasize points that appeal to a broader audience. Not Donald Trump.
The former president has doubled down on the incendiary rhetoric that fires up his base but alienates wide swaths of voters. On Saturday, he suggested President Joe Biden was trying to “overthrow” the United States with his border policies.
He’s compared himself in recent weeks to Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison, and suggested Black people like him better because he faces prosecution in four separate cases.
His aides say they’re modifying their strategy and tactics for the general election and a likely Biden rematch but won’t try to change what Trump says.“Donald Trump is Donald Trump. That’s not going to change,” senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said. “Our job is not to remake Donald Trump.”
There’s one contest to go before Super Tuesday
Most of the attention is on tomorrow’s elections. But before we’re in full Super Tuesday mode, there’s still one more contest to go.
Republicans in North Dakota will gather around the state on Monday evening to participate in presidential caucuses. Four candidates are on the ballot, including Trump and Haley along with candidates that have received little attention, such as Florida businessman David Stuckenberg.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will speak on Trump’s behalf after ending his own presidential campaign in December.
While North Dakota isn’t often a major player in national politics, the state’s caucus chair is suggesting that a surprise there – such as a Haley win — could affect the Super Tuesday contests.
“If something unusual happens in North Dakota,” Robert Hams said, “it could very well influence how some of those other states vote the following day.”
Haley wants Trump on the ballot
Nikki Haley made two points in suburban Houston on Monday that show how her campaign speech — and her place in the national political conversation — have changed.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision Monday that allows Trump to remain on the ballot, she added to her well-rehearsed campaign speech, “I’ll defeat Donald Trump fair and square. But I want him on the ballot.”
Haley’s more wholesale blaming of Trump for recent Republican losses shows how far she’s ventured in the past two months. Her sharpest criticism of the former president used to be that “chaos follows him everywhere.”
But from a small-business warehouse in Spring, Texas, she rattled off Republican setbacks in swing states, the Republican National Committee and Congress that have taken place since Trump seized the party’s national mantle.
“Maybe Donald Trump is the problem,” she told her Texas audience.
It’s a long, long way from the former Trump appointee who said she wouldn’t run against him.
North Carolina voters are casting their ballots under new election rules
The head of North Carolina’s elections wants to remind voters about some law changes ahead of the Tuesday primary.
Karen Brinson Bell says absentee ballots must be in the hands of county election workers by the close of polls Tuesday night or they won’t count. In the past, ballots postmarked by the election date would count if received within three days.
Bell has warned voters against putting ballots in the mail on Monday because they likely won’t likely arrive in time. Instead, they should return ballots in person to the county board offices or vote in person at one of the nearly 2,600 election-day sites statewide.
For many voters, this is also the first election where they will be required to show photo identification. That’s from a 2018 law that had been delayed by litigation. But voters who don’t have a qualifying ID can fill out an exception form.
Takeaways from Trump’s Supreme Court win: His legal peril is just starting
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Former President Donald Trump gained a clear win at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, which unanimously ruled that states don’t have the ability to bar him — or any other federal candidates — from the ballot under a rarely-used constitutional provision that prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.
The decision shuts down a push in dozens of states to end Trump’s candidacy through a clause in the 14th Amendment, written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War.
But it may open the door to further electoral uncertainty, exposing more state officials to disqualification under the provision and setting up a constitutional showdown should Trump win the election.
Facing four separate criminal trials, Trump’s legal peril may just be beginning. So is the Supreme Court’s role in that process.
▶ Read the AP’s takeaways on today’s Supreme Court decision.
WATCH: Supreme Court restores Trump to ballot
By The Associated Press
The Supreme Court has restored Donald Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots, rejecting attempts in Colorado, Illinois, and Maine to hold the former Republican president accountable for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. (March 4)
What even is Super Tuesday?
It’s traditionally the biggest day nationwide for primary elections and caucuses before the actual Election Day in November.
Until now, only one or two states hold primaries on the same day. But this Tuesday, voters in 16 different states and one territory (Get it? “super” Tuesday) will be choosing who they want to run for president. Some states are also choosing who should run for governor or senator for their state, and some district attorneys, too.