Trump and Biden Emerge as Front runners, Setting the Stage for a Potential Rematch

Despite poor approval ratings for both candidates, U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump easily prevailed in statewide nominating elections around the nation on Tuesday, paving the way for a historic rematch in November's general election.

Trump easily defeated his final opponent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, by winning the Republican nomination in 14 of 15 states, including Texas and California, both of which have a large number of delegates.

Despite a long list of criminal allegations against him, Trump almost secured his third straight presidential candidature with his dominant performance on "Super Tuesday," when over one-third of Republican delegates were at stake.

As the results were evident, Trump and Biden soon turned their attention to one another. During a triumphal address at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, Trump emphasised Biden's immigration policies and referred to him as the "worst president" in history.

Once more, Biden portrayed Trump as a danger to American democracy.

"Tonight's results leave the American people 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?" said the president in a statement.

With over 90% of the ballots reported, the "uncommitted" vote in Minnesota was 19%, according to Edison Research. This is higher than the 13% that a similar campaign in Michigan got last week.
Despite this, Biden prevailed in Minnesota and fourteen other states, including an Iowa mail-in vote that concluded on Tuesday.

In Vermont, Haley's lone victory of the evening occurred.

He claimed, "Our cities are being overrun with migrant crime," despite the fact that the claim is not supported by crime statistics.

Although activists opposed to Biden's strong backing of Israel in its war against Hamas organised protest votes in Minnesota and six other states, Biden easily won the Democratic races.

According to the American Samoa Democratic Party, he did lose one race, to businessman Jason Palmer, who received 51 votes against Biden's 40 in the tiny U.S. territory of American Samoa.

Few Americans appear to want another campaign between 77-year-old Trump and 81-year-old Biden, which would be the first rematch of the US presidential contest since 1956. According to opinion surveys, voters have low approval ratings for both Biden and Trump.

According to Edison exit polls conducted in California, North Carolina, and Virginia, Republican voters' top worries were immigration and the state of the economy.

In those states, the majority of Republican voters stated they supported deporting illegal immigrants. If elected, Trump—who regularly disparages immigrants—promises to carry out the biggest deportation operation in American history.

In Huntington Beach, California, 65-year-old homemaker Katherine Meredith cast her Trump ballot.
"The border is a complete catastrophe," she stated.

The pressure on Haley to withdraw from the race will only increase in light of Tuesday's results. She did not appear in public on Tuesday, and her campaign has not announced any upcoming activities.
The result demonstrated that "there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump," according to a statement from her representative.

TRUMP AND BIDEN BOTH ARE WEAK.

Additionally, voters were participating in down-ticket races.

As the chief prosecutor in Trump's first impeachment trial, Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff proceeded to the general election in California to replace the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Steve Garvey, a Republican who defeated Democratic U.S. Representative Katie Porter in the race, is a former baseball player.

Because of California's unique electoral system, which sees the top two candidates advance regardless of party, Schiff's campaign decided to take a different approach. He ran commercials aimed at bolstering Garvey's support among Republicans, reasoning that Garvey would probably face less opposition in November than Porter would in the state's Democratic majority.

Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, emerged victorious in the Republican contest for governor. Robinson, who would become the first Black executive in state history, has come under fire for making derogatory remarks towards Muslims, women, and LGBTQ individuals.
In one of the most fiercely contested gubernatorial contests in the nation, he will go up against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.

Pop sensation Taylor Swift did not specifically support any politicians in her Instagram message, but she did urge her followers to cast their ballots. The Biden team is hoping that Swift will support him in the end, just as she did in 2020.

Haley's assault has brought to light a few of Trump's possible weaknesses in the general election. In some state elections, she has garnered 40% of the vote. She is especially effective with suburban, educated, and independent voters, who may be very important in battleground states come November.
In North Carolina, around one-third of voters stated that if Trump were found guilty of a crime, he would not be suitable to be president; in Virginia, however, more than half of voters stated that he would be suitable for the position.

On March 25, Trump's first criminal trial is set to start in New York. He is accused of fabricating company documents to hide payments of hush money to a porn star made while he was running for president in 2016.

Apart from the New York case, Trump is also charged with federal and state offences related to election meddling in Georgia, though it's not obvious if either case will get to trial before the election on November 5. Federal accusations are also pending against him for keeping secret papers after leaving government.

In each of the four criminal cases, Trump has entered a not guilty plea.
One of Biden's personal shortcomings is the general apprehension about his advanced age. He is currently the oldest president of the United States ever.