Trump, Biden headed for 1st US presidential rematch in 70 years
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump were poised to win enough delegates yesterday to clinch their respective parties’ nominations, formally kicking off the first US presidential election rematch in nearly 70 years.
Four states are holding elections, including Georgia, the battleground where Trump faces criminal charges for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 results.
The outcome is essentially predetermined, after Trump’s last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, ended her presidential campaign following Trump’s dominant performance last week on Super Tuesday, when he won 14 of 15 state contests.
Biden, meanwhile, has faced only token opposition in the Democratic primary campaign, but liberal activists frustrated by his support for Israel’s war in Gaza have convinced a sizable minority of Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in protest.
Both men have already turned their attention to the November 5 general election, holding duelling rallies in Georgia on Saturday.
In Rome, Georgia, Trump, 77, again repeated his claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent and accused the Fulton County attorney, Fani Willis, of prosecuting him for political reasons.
He also attacked Biden for failing to stem the flow of migrants at the US southern border, an issue he intends to keep front and centre throughout the campaign, as he did in 2020.
Biden, 81, appearing in Atlanta, sounded the same themes he voiced during his State of the Union speech to Congress last Thursday, warning that Trump posed a danger to US democracy and criticising the former president’s heated rhetoric about migrants.
The Biden campaign launched a more aggressive phase on Friday, announcing Biden would tour several battleground states amid a $30 million (R561m) ad buy. The campaign said it raised $10m in the 24 hours after Biden’s State of the Union speech, adding to Democrats’ financial edge over Republicans.
As of this week, Trump needed 139 additional delegates to reach the 1215 required to secure the Republican presidential nomination, according to Edison Research. There are 161 delegates at stake in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington state.
Biden was 113 delegates shy of the 1 968 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination as of Monday, according to Edison. Yesterday’s contests in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington state, the Northern Mariana Islands and for Democrats living abroad will allocate 254 additional delegates.
The last repeat presidential matchup took place in 1956, when Republican President Dwight Eisenhower defeated former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, a Democrat, for the second time. This year, voters have expressed little enthusiasm for a repeat of the bitter 2020 election, with Reuters/Ipsos public polls showing both Biden and Trump are unpopular with the majority of voters.
Trump’s myriad criminal charges could harm his standing among suburban, well-educated voters whose support he’s historically struggled to garner.
Biden has been dogged by the perception among most voters that he is too old to serve a second term. The crisis at the US-Mexico border, where an influx of migrants has overwhelmed the system, is another weakness for Biden. He has presided over an expanding economy, but polls show Americans frustrated about high prices of items like food and housing.