With Super Tuesday less than a week away, former President Donald Trump picked up two more Republican primary wins in South Carolina and Michigan. Meanwhile, the Biden campaign is left doing damage control after a notable contingent of Michigan voters chose to vote “uncommitted” instead of supporting President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
South Carolina
Trump easily won the South Carolina primary on Saturday, beating challenger Nikki Haley by some 20 points in her home state. The 2024 GOP hopeful picked up nearly 60 percent of the vote, while the former Palmetto State governor brought in 40 percent.
Despite the margin, Haley told supporters she would be staying in the race and put a unique spin on the results. “Today, in South Carolina, we’re getting around 40 percent of the vote. That’s about what we got in New Hampshire, too,” she said. “I’m an accountant. I know 40 percent is not 50 percent, but I also 40 percent is not some tiny group.”
In her view, that 40 percent represents a “huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative.” That is why she vowed to focus on the “21 states and territories” that will cast ballots in “the next 10 days.”
But her ability to sustain her campaign beyond that is in question. Americans for Prosperity Action, the network backed by billionaire Charles Koch, announced it would pause its financial support of Haley following her loss in South Carolina.
Michigan
Both Republicans and Democrats in Michigan went to the polls on Tuesday for their respective primaries. On the GOP side, Trump won 68 percent of the vote to Haley’s 27 percent. That gave the forty-fifth president his fifth straight primary victory heading into Super Tuesday on March 5.
Despite Biden’s incumbent status, the most interesting headlines out of the Wolverine State came from the Democrats. “The protest vote in Michigan of ‘uncommitted’ performed very well, garnering upwards of 13 percent support and getting more than 100,000 votes,” Megyn explained. “That was significantly more than the previous two election cycles and a big red flag for the Biden campaign.”
The “uncommitted” contingent was expected to turn out for the primary, but the question heading into Tuesday was just how big of a factor it would be. A progressive-led push sought to use the vote to protest Biden’s support of Israel in the war with Hamas. In the closing days, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had been out trying to rally support for the incumbent.
Biden still won an overwhelming 81 percent of the vote cast in Michigan, but the 13 percent that went the “uncommitted” route is not going unnoticed. “The president’s troubles with young people and progressives was the focus of a lengthy New York Times piece this week,” Megyn noted. “The Times talked to college students in Michigan who refused to support the incumbent.”
It is unknown what that 13 percent of voters will do come November. Some may end up supporting Biden, some may opt for a third-party candidate, and some may just stay home. “It could be an embarrassing scenario,” Megyn concluded. “One person even told The Times, ‘If that means Trump is elected, I blame the Democratic Party for allowing that to happen.'”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 731 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.