Donald Trump closed in on securing his third consecutive Republican presidential nomination Tuesday as he notched early wins over his closest rival Nikki Haley in the 15-state Super Tuesday primaries.
Trump easily won Alabama, Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia, according to rapid projections by the Associated Press.
The ex-president aims to effectively lock down the nomination with a strong showing in states across the country, including California and Texas, the two most populous and most delegate-rich states.
Other states with primary elections Tuesday include Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Vermont.
Two states, Alaska and Utah, are holding Republican caucuses.
Democrats also held primary elections but President Biden, 81, is expected to win heavily lopsided victories over long-shot challengers.
Trump, 77, is expected to address a crowd of supporters at a watch party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. — potentially around 10 p.m. eastern — once the results are clear.
Haley, the 52-year-old former South Carolina governor, is not holding a public event and is not expected to deliver remarks Tuesday night.
Trump is seeking a second non-consecutive term as he fends off four criminal cases in unprecedented legal action against a former president — creating an election season unlike any in American history.
Trump also suffered a brutal $83 million defamation judgment in January and a $454 million business fraud penalty in February in a pair of New York civil case — calling the legal barrage a politically motivated attempt to derail him from retaking the White House.
Trump leads Biden by an average of 2% in national polling, according to the RealClearPolitics average of recent surveys. He’s also ahead in swing states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, according to the polling site’s averages.
Trump’s first criminal trial is scheduled to begin March 25 over his alleged falsification of business records when paying hush money to women in 2016. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, is pursuing a novel legal theory to circumvent statutes of limitation.
Trump also faces a pair of criminal cases — with trials potentially before the November election in DC on federal counts and Atlanta on state charges — for challenging his 2020 defeat by Biden.
The ex-president further faces a trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents in South Florida. The trial was booked to begin May 20, but is expected to be delayed until July at the earliest.
The former president previously trounced Haley in eight states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, Michigan, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota — and one territory, the US Virgin Islands, while Haley has carried only Washington, DC.