Donald Trump Stung in Primary As Huge Number of Republicans Vote Against Him

Donald Trump suffered a blow in a number of primary votes on Tuesday, after thousands of Republicans refused to vote for him.

The former president is the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential elections, having last month won enough delegates to secure the nomination and because all of his rivals have dropped out of the race.

That, however, has not quelled dissent among some moderate Republicans and supporters of his rivals like Nikki Haley (who dropped out of the race last month) who have indicated they would never vote for Trump.

With that in mind, although Trump comfortably won four primary votes on Tuesday, in Wisconsin, Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island, it is significant that in all of those states, a proportion of Republicans voted for politicians no longer in the race, showing anti-Trump feeling among the GOP is alive and well. This dissent could prove difficult in swing states when the Republican faces Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the November election.

In Wisconsin, Trump won 78.9 percent of the vote share while Haley, the former South Carolina governor, garnered 12.8 percent of the vote and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis 3.3 percent of the vote, according to NBC News.

In Connecticut, the former president won 77.8 percent of the vote. Fourteen percent went to Haley while a further 4.8 percent said they were uncommitted.

Trump also lost some 20 percent of the vote in New York where he gained 82.1 percent of ballots to Haley's 12.9 percent.

In Rhode Island, he won 83.7 percent of the vote, while 10.6 percent of voters opted for Haley, instead.

Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.

Tuesday's results follow Trump being similarly stung in Florida last month. The former president won 81.2 percent of votes in the state primary, down from 2020 when he won about 94 percent of the state vote.

Scott Lucas, a professor in International Politics at University College Dublin, previously told Newsweek the Republican Party is very divided and Haley and her supporters may not switch their allegiance to Trump.

He said: "Nikki Haley stayed in the race not because she thought she could win it but she stayed in it for Super Tuesday because a lot of people behind her, a lot of Republican members, a lot of Republican donors are very unsettled about Donald Trump. They're very unsettled about his legal problems, they're very unsettled because he's unpredictable, they're very unsettled because of the damage that he can cause on domestic issues and on foreign policy."

The Republican National Convention, where Trump will be confirmed as the 2024 nominee, will take place in Milwaukee in July.