Former President Donald Trump won the Michigan Republican primary Tuesday over rival Nikki Haley.
The race was called at exactly 9 p.m. – when all Michigan’s polls were closed – with Trump leading Haley 65 percent to 30.9 percent, with 12 percent reporting.
Haley’s campaign said Tuesday night that Trump’s 30-plus point win still represented weakness heading into the general election.
‘Joe Biden is losing about 20 percent of the Democratic vote today, and many say it’s a sign of his weakness in November. Donald Trump is losing about 35 percent of the vote. That’s a flashing warning sign for Trump in November,’ Haley’s spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement.
President Joe Biden lost votes in Michigan to ‘uncommitted’ due to his support of Israel’s war on Hamas, with the state’s Arab American communities appalled by the heavy death toll of Palestinian civilians.
The ‘uncommitted’ vote was hovering around 15 percent.
Former President Donald Trump held a campaign event in Michigan on February 17. After winning Saturday’s South Carolina primary, he’s stayed off the campaign trail, but has planned visits to Texas, North Carolina and Virginia – Super Tuesday states – over the next few days
Trump easily won the Michigan primary over his final rival, Nikki Haley, with the race called at 9 p.m. on the dot, when all polls across the state had closed. Haley has vowed to stay in the 2024 race through next week’s Super Tuesday primaries
Former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley made a campaign stop Monday in Grand Rapids, Michigan before moving onto Minnesota and Colorado, which are Super Tuesday states. Her campaign called Trump’s win a ‘sign of his weakness’ because he lost 30 percent of the vote to her
‘Since Trump became president in 2016, he lost Michigan Republicans the state House, state Senate, and Governor’s mansion. What was once a beacon for the conservative cause, the Michigan Republican Party is now fractured and divided,’ Perez-Cubas said.
‘Let this serve as another warning sign that what has happened in Michigan will continue to play out across the country,’ the Haley campaign said. ‘So long as Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, Republicans will keep losing to the socialist left. Our children deserve better.’
Trump, however, was winning more votes than Biden, despite Haley earning about 30 percent of those cast by Republicans in Michigan, with 19 percent of the vote in.
He called into the Michigan GOP’s watch party in Grand Rapids before the official results were called.
‘We have a very simple task: we have to win on November 5, and we’re going to win big, and it’s going to be like nothing that anybody has ever seen. It’s going to be fantastic. We win Michigan; we win the whole thing,’ Trump said.
Trump has bested Haley in all four of the early primary states where they’ve both appeared on the ballot – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and now Michigan.
The former president also won the Nevada caucuses and a symbolic vote for Trump – voters choosing ‘none of these candidates’ – bested Haley in Nevada’s presidential primary.
Haley, however, has vowed to press on, telling supporters in Charleston Saturday night that she would continue in the race through Super Tuesday, March 5, when 16 states and American Samoa hold primary contests.
‘There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative,’ she said Saturday night.
‘I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina I would continue to run for president – I’m a woman of my word,’ she said to cheers.
During a CNN interview Tuesday night, Haley reiterated that commitment.
‘Absolutely, we have a country to save, absolutely,’ Haley told the network’s Dana Bash.
In Michigan, voters could choose to vote Republican or Democrat in the primaries, meaning there was a chance Democrats and independents could cross over and help Haley, as some did in South Carolina Saturday.
But there was also the movement by progressives and pro-Palestine activists to have Michigan’s Democratic voters choose ‘uncommitted’ on their ballot to show support for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Biden was on the Democratic ballot alongside challenger, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who received the endorsement of the Detroit News.
Neither Haley nor Trump were in Michigan for election night festivities.
Trump campaigned in the Wolverine State on February 17, headlining an event in Waterford Township.
Voters in Dearborn, Michigan are captured at a polling place. Both Michigan Democrats and Republicans were having their primary Tuesday and voters were allowed to pick which party’s primary they wanted to participate in
On the Democratic ballot, pro-Palestine activists were asking voters to select ‘uncommitted’ to register a protest vote and push President Joe Biden to back a ceasefire in Gaza. Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips was also on the Democratic ballot
He called Tuesday into Chris Renwick’s WR 760am’s radio program and predicted a big win.
‘She’s gonna lose like by 80 points tonight. She’s become a joke,’ Trump said.
He’s stayed off the campaign trail since Saturday, delivering victory remarks in Columbia, South Carolina, after winning Haley’s home state by 20 points.
He’s planning a trip to a Texas border town Thursday and then will headline two rallies Saturday in Greensboro, North Carolina and Richmond, Virginia, with Texas, Virginia and North Carolina voters all part of the Super Tuesday crowd.
Haley appeared in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Monday before jaunting off to Minnesota, another Super Tuesday state.
In Michigan, she blasted Trump for turning the Republican National Committee into a ‘playpen’ with moves to make daughter-in-law Lara Trump an official party co-chair and have his top campaign adviser, Chris LaCivita, take over as the RNC’s chief operating officer.
Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, the former head of the Michigan GOP, formally announced she was leaving the job Monday.
On Tuesday, while Michiganders were heading to the polls, Haley was in Colorado, where independent-leaning voters may be able to aid her in her hunt for delegates.
The crowd in Centennial, Colorado encouraged her to carry on, chanting, ‘don’t quit,’ during her afternoon appearance.
Michigan marks the first state to vote where Trump and Haley haven’t had weeks to campaign and could be a barometer for where the former U.N. ambassador stands heading into Super Tuesday.
While there was limited polling ahead of the primary, the FiveThirtyEight average as of Monday showed Trump with 78.8 percent support to Haley’s 21.8 percent in America’s high five.
The closest Haley has gotten to Trump’s lead was in New Hampshire – and she lost to the former president by 11 points.
Michigan is also a key swing state that Trump won in 2016, helping him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton, but lost to Biden four years later.