Biden, Trump sweep Pennsylvania
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump this week easily won their primaries in the battleground state of Pennsylvania according to Edison Research, but thousands cast votes for former candidate Nikki Haley.
Pennsylvania, with 19 Electoral College votes toward the 270 needed to win, is a top prize and a toss-up in the 2024 presidential election featuring a Biden-Trump rematch.
Tuesday’s primary was one of the last tests of voter enthusiasm in a campaign marked by both candidates’ low approval ratings. With 95% of the votes counted, Biden received 920 274 votes, or 93.1%, according to state election data.
Dean Phillips, a Democrat who dropped out of the race, received 68 046 votes, or 6.9%, state data shows.
Trump received 786485 votes, or 83.5%, with 95% of the votes counted, state data showed.
There were 155 829 votes, or 16.5% for Haley, a former South Carolina governor, who dropped out of the race, but whose name remained on the ballot . Primary voting in the state is confined to registered Republicans, locking out the independent voters who favoured her. However, her substantive results show that some chunk of Republicans continue to be unhappy with Trump, who is on trial on 34 criminal counts in New York.
Muslim and Arab-American voters mounted an “Abandon Biden” campaign in Pennsylvania to protest the president’s handling of the Gaza crisis. He faced similar efforts in Arizona, Wisconsin and North Carolina, with the biggest turnout of a 13% uncommitted vote in Michigan’s primary.
Organisers in Pennsylvania were aiming to get 40 000 write-in “uncommitted” votes. Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and Trump secured the Republican nod in early March, and neither faces serious opposition on the primary ballot.
Biden spent part of his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and has for decades been a fixture in the politics of neighbouring Delaware. In 2020, he won Pennsylvania by roughly 80000 votes. Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than 45 000 votes in 2016.
Biden and Trump have visited the state in recent weeks and focused on the general election rather than Tuesday’s vote.