Categories: Politics

President Trump faces few real challengers in the Republican primary on Super Tuesday

President Trump hugs the US flag at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 29, 2020. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The president is well on his way to winning the 1,276 delegates he needs for the GOP nomination.

President Trump has won the first of multiple state-level contests on Super Tuesday, and is expected to win the rest — continuing his march to winning the Republican nomination for the presidency this summer.

Thirteen states and one territory held GOP presidential primaries on March 3. While Virginia held a Democratic presidential primary on Super Tuesday, the state’s Republican Party voted to cancel its primary in fall 2019 and hold a preference vote instead to protect Trump’s nomination (several states did the same in 2004, and at least five others have in 2020). Trump had already won 86 of the 1,276 delegates he’ll need to clinch the nomination, and on Tuesday, he will almost certainly have gained another 794 by the time all votes are tallied.

His closest challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, had just one delegate heading into Super Tuesday, but said in an interview with Reason Magazine’s Matt Welch that he had no plans to drop out of the race.

Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Bill Weld waves to voters in Manchester, New Hampshire, on February 11, 2020.

In some states — like Arkansas, Texas, and California — Trump and Weld were joined by perennial candidate Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente, a San Diego businessman who ran for Senate in nine states in 2018, and Zoltan Istvan, an advocate for transhumanism who describes himself as a “cyborg” and has campaigned on the slogan “Upgrade America.”

Here are the results of the GOP Super Tuesday primaries, thanks to our friends at Decision Desk:

Below are the states that held GOP primary contests on Tuesday and the most recent polling in each one (if it exists), as well as Trump’s approval rating according to Morning Consult. Interestingly, Trump’s approval has declined in every Super Tuesday state since his inauguration, from 10 points in Colorado to 31 points in Vermont.