Former President Donald Trump took home a second victory on Saturday, beating former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in Idaho's Republican caucuses.
The Associated Press called the caucus results on Saturday night just before 7 p.m. With 85 percent of the expected votes in, Trump had 84.8 percent of the vote to Haley's 13.3 percent. Ron DeSantis, no longer in the race, collected 1.4 percent.
The Context:
Idaho's caucus is one of the last GOP events before Super Tuesday, which is on March 5.
Also on Saturday, Trump won Missouri's caucus, and Michigan Republicans awarded all 39 of the state's remaining presidential delegates to the former president.
On his Truth Social account Saturday night, Trump thanked voters in Idaho and Missouri for his caucus victories.
What We Know:
Trump and Haley were competing for Idaho's 32 delegates.
No candidate has been able to topple Trump's winning streak in the GOP primaries. Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, is the former president's last major challenger to his reelection bid, but she has lost by at least double digits in every primary vote against Trump so far.
According to Politico, Trump currently has 244 delegates to Haley's 24 delegates. To win the party nomination, a GOP candidate needs a majority of available delegates to vote for them at the Republican National Convention in July. The threshold this year is 1,215.
Newsweek reached out to the Haley campaign via email on Saturday night for comments about the Idaho and Missouri caucus results. This story will be updated with any provided statements.
Views:
Haley has remained adamant that she is taking her fight against Trump all the way until the end despite her consistent losses in the primaries. In a recent interview with CNN, the former governor said that her and her campaign were "taking this one state, one day at a time," and called on her fellow Republicans to move past Trump and his policies.
She also continues to point to polls that show her as the candidate with the best chance to defeat President Joe Biden in November.
Haley posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, "New York Times poll confirms it...again. I defeat Joe Biden by double digits in a general election matchup, while Trump is barely outside the margin of error...again."
Meanwhile, Trump issued a message to Haley a day after he won Michigan, writing on Truth Social, his social media platform, "People don't like her, and they know, as per the polls, that she can't beat Biden, or any Democrat!"
What's Next?
The District of Columbia's Republican presidential primary is scheduled for Sunday.
Over a dozen states are holding their Republican primary races on Super Tuesday, and as with previous races, Trump is currently the overwhelming favorite to win.
According to FiveThirtyEight's national polling average tracker, the former president is ahead of Haley by over 61 percentage points as of Saturday (76.7 percent to 15.1 percent, respectfully).
Update: 03/02/2024, 9:50 p.m.: This story was updated with more information.
Update: 03/02/2024, 7:17 p.m.: This story was updated with more information.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Gabe Whisnant is Deputy Weekend Editor at Newsweek based in South Carolina. Prior to joining Newsweek in 2023, he directed ... Read more
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