Trump in Mich. aims for an easy win over Haley
Former President Donald Trump is gearing up for another win over Nikki Haley, this time in the Michigan Republican primary on Tuesday, while President Biden fends off a Gaza war protest vote on the Democratic side.
Trump is favored by about a 20% margin in Michigan polls, suggesting he will deliver a wallop to Haley similar to the drubbing she suffered in her home state of South Carolina.
Haley is pinning her hopes for a stronger performance on Michigan’s larger contingent of independent-minded, suburban and more well-educated GOP voters, demographics with which she has performed well in previous contests.
Still, it is not at all clear that anything can stop Trump from winning in the Wolverine State after he has swept all four traditional early voting contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, where he fell just shy of 60% support.
Following Michigan, the race turns to Super Tuesday on March 5, when GOP voters in California, Texas, Massachusetts, North Carolina and several other states go to the polls.
Haley insists she has no plans to drop out of the race until at least after Super Tuesday. She is still fairly flush with campaign cash although the conservative Koch network pulled its financial support from her after the loss in South Carolina.
But another round of expected Trump victories on Super Tuesday could signal the effective end of the competitive stage of the Republican primary, whether Haley stays in to compete in remaining states or not.
On the Democratic side, Biden will face his first real speed bump in Michigan as he cruises towards a near-inevitable victory over fringe candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minnesota).
A group of Arab-American voters and progressives are calling on Democratic voters to cast ballots for Uncommitted delegates in the primary to signal anger over Biden’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Michigan has the largest Arab-American population in the country and pundits say about 2% of the state’s voters have roots in the Middle East.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), a Palestinian American whose grandmother lives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is supporting the Uncommitted protest. The protesters say they want Biden to take a more even-handed approach to the brutal conflict, which has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinian civilians since the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7.
Political pundits say a significant vote for Uncommitted would amount to a shot across Biden’s bow as he seeks to line up the entire Democratic coalition behind him for a near-certain general election clash with Trump.
Biden swept the South Carolina Democratic primary with 96% of the vote on the back of near unanimous support among Black voters, far outpacing polls that suggested Phillips and New Age guru Marianne Williamson would garner significant backing.