President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both surpassed the threshold to become the presumptive nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, Tuesday night.
However, results from the primaries, especially in Georgia and Washington state, offered warning signs for both candidates that they must reckon with before the Nov. 5 general election matchup. Biden, who never faced a serious Democratic challenger in the primary, has been hampered by members of his party infuriated over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Trump, meanwhile, showed signs of struggling with suburban voters in Georgia, a key battleground state.
ELECTION 2024: FOLLOW LATEST COVERAGE
A coalition of Muslim, Arab, and young voters have pressured the Democratic Party to support a permanent ceasefire for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. But to make their voices heard even further, the coalition of voters launched campaigns in multiple states to cast “uncommitted” votes in defiance of Biden.
The Abandon Biden movement garnered more than 101,000 votes and two delegates during the Michigan Democratic primary late last month before it spread to several Super Tuesday states. Organizers in Washington state garnered 48,507 votes, 7.5% of the vote, with 79% of the ballots accounted for on Tuesday in another sign of protest for Biden.
It is unclear how many of these votes will hold onto their protest vote in November but just enough of them could hand the election to Trump.
The former president easily defeated all of his Republican challengers during the GOP primary, but his last rival, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, is proving to be more of a problem for Trump since she exited the race.
In Georgia, a crucial swing state, Haley received 73,190 votes, or 13.3% of the vote, with 92% of the votes accounted for.
Trump narrowly lost Georgia in 2020 by less than 1 percentage point. Biden won 2.47 million votes last presidential cycle while Trump won 2.46 million votes and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen won 62,138 votes.
Much of Haley’s support came from the suburbs, which has steadily moved away from the GOP while Trump was in office.
Haley received 20% of the vote in Gwinnett County, Georgia, home to part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. She also won 45% of the vote in DeKalb County, 38% in Fulton County, in which District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Trump over allegations he attempted to overturn the 2020 results, and 27% in Cobb County.
In Mississippi, Haley received 6,662 votes or 5.5% of the vote with 50% of the results accounted for. And in Washington, Haley won 67,491 votes or 23.9% of the vote with 38% of the vote accounted for.
The fact that voters are still choosing Haley, who has no credible shot at the nomination after dropping out last week, is a sign of Trump’s weaknesses in the GOP. Haley warned Trump he would need to convince her supporters to back his third presidential campaign during her speech suspending her primary bid last week.
“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,” Haley said as she spoke in Charleston, South Carolina. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.”
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign. I know there is a lot we won’t agree on,” Biden said in a statement the day Haley suspended her campaign. “But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.”