Donald Trump rolled to a commanding lead toward the Republican presidential nomination with a string of lopsided primary victories across Super Tuesday's nationwide contests, putting him on a glide path to an expected rematch against incumbent President Joe Biden.
The former president scored wins in over a dozen states, including conservative strongholds like Texas and battlegrounds like Virginia. His lone blemish came in Vermont, one of the few bright spots for his sole remaining challenger Nikki Haley as she now faces intensifying pressure to exit the race.
"This is a big one. They tell me, the pundits and otherwise, that there has never been one like this, never been anything so conclusive," Trump told supporters at his Florida resort following Tuesday's results, which he celebrated as "an amazing night and an amazing day."
Trump surpassed the 60% vote-share threshold in states like Virginia that allowed independents to participate in the Republican contest. His continued strong support among the party's base burnished expectations he could lock up the nomination as early as mid-March, according to his campaign.
"I expect Nikki Haley to finish and drop out. There is no pathway after tonight for her to get the nomination," said Kenny Nail, a grassroots Republican activist who attended Trump's Florida watch party.
The former president was able to expand his already-formidable delegate lead in the state-by-state race to amass the 1,237 required to clinch the nomination at this summer's convention. Tuesday's voting accounted for over two-thirds of the remaining delegates up for grabs.
Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations who had her own presidential ambitions derailed by Trump's popularity, has struggled to pose a threat and finished a distant third in the campaign's opening Iowa contest.
"There remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump," her campaign spokesperson said late Tuesday, leaving the door open to a potential continuation of her long-shot bid despite scant path forward.
Trump's performance cemented expectations of what would be a historic rematch against the incumbent Biden. The 80-year-old president coasted through his own party's uncontested nominating process, while warning Trump represented an existential threat to American democracy.
"Trump is determined to destroy...the rule of law in this nation," Biden said in a statement. "He will do or say anything to put himself in power."
Analysts increasingly see Trump, despite his status as only the third president impeached twice as well as facing numerous legal and civil charges, as the front-runner to return to the White House. Polling shows him leading Biden in key swing states, and political handicappers have adjusted their forecasting models to show Trump as the favorite based on the expectation he can turn out his loyal base of working-class white voters.
"Trump is now the favorite," the Eurasia Group consultancy declared to clients. "This is really going to be fought on turnout."
Both parties are bracing for an even more polarized general election slog than in 2020, when Trump pushed baseless claims of widespread fraud and his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn Biden's victory. The looming campaign is expected to exacerbate national divisions and policy gridlock regardless of outcome.
"The U.S. presidential election will worsen the country's political division, testing American democracy to a degree the nation hasn't experienced in 150 years," Eurasia analysts warned.
With much of the bitter nomination process settled after Super Tuesday, both candidates will soon turn attention toward pivotal voter outreach and turnout efforts across battleground states ahead of the November general election.
