President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump easily clinched victories in their respective parties’ presidential primaries in Minnesota Tuesday night.
Each candidate was on track to win nearly all of the contests across 16 states and one U.S. territory in the Super Tuesday showdown, with former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley picking up a win in Vermont’s GOP primary and Biden losing to an unknown named Jason Palmer in the American Samoa caucus.
The Associated Press called Minnesota for Trump and Biden about 30 minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. As of Tuesday night, Trump was leading Haley in Minnesota’s Republican primary with about 69% of the vote to Haley’s 29%.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Congressman and presidential candidate Dean Phillips was on track to place third in his home state, behind both Biden and “uncommitted.” Phillips was even trailing Biden by more than 50 points in his own congressional district late Tuesday.
More than 45,000 Minnesota Democrats cast a vote for “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Organizers of the nationwide protest vote want the president to do more to orchestrate a ceasefire in the conflict.
As of late Tuesday night, Biden had 70% of the vote followed by “uncommitted” at 19% and Phillips at 8%, according to results from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office.
Notably, Trump received more votes in the Republican primary (231,221) than Biden did in the Democratic primary (170,663).
“He’s the worst president in the history of our country,” Trump said in a victory speech from his Mar-a-Lago estate, referring to Biden.
“We’re going to straighten it out. We’re going to close our border. We’re going to drill, baby, drill. We’re going to get the inflation down. We are going to make our country greater than ever before and we’re going to do it quickly,” he said.
Biden, meanwhile, called Trump “an existential threat” to the country in a campaign statement.
“If Donald Trump returns to the White House, all of this progress is at risk,” Biden said in the written statement. “He is driven by grievance and grift, focused on his own revenge and retribution, not the American people.”
Haley, for her part, touted her win in Vermont and recent victory in Washington, D.C.’s Republican primary.
“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. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better,” her campaign said in a statement to Fox News.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released over the weekend had the incumbent Biden trailing Trump by five percentage points. A separate poll published two days prior found Trump leading Biden in seven key swing states.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
