The Latest | A candidate gets turned away, but later gets the OK to vote

The Super Tuesday primaries are the biggest voting day of the year, aside from the general election in November.

Voters in sixteen states will choose who they want to run for president. Some states also decide who should run for governor, senator or district attorney.

Party primaries, caucuses, or presidential preference votes are held in Alabama, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.

Here’s the latest:

HOUSTON – When the Houston region’s top prosecutor went to vote Tuesday, she was told she had already done so.

It took some effort, but the problem was quickly resolved and Kim Ogg was able to vote in the primary, in which she is seeking a third term.

Ogg says she was told that when her partner cast a vote during early voting last week, it was accidentally cast in Ogg’s name.

A county clerk says the error has been corrected and Ogg has been cleared to vote.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has spent much of the run-up to Super Tuesday preparing for the OTHER big political event of the week: his annual State of the Union address.

Biden has holed up in Camp David, the presidential retreat outside Washington, with some of his closest aides and outside advisers, according to a person familiar with the preparations. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss the president’s private preparations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Among those with him: White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, Senior Advisor Anita Dunn, Director of Speechwriting Vinay Reddy, Advisor Steve Ricchetti, and Mike Donilon, a veteran Biden aide who recently moved from the White House to the campaign. Also in attendance was presidential historian Jon Meacham, a favorite of Biden’s.

Others are participating virtually, according to those familiar with the preparations.

The president returns to the White House later Tuesday. The address is scheduled for Thursday.

– Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim

NEW YORK – Taylor Swift has not announced an endorsement for the 2024 presidential race. But the influential pop superstar is encouraging people to vote.

In a post Tuesday on Instagram, Swift reminded her vast army of followers that the presidential primaries are being held in Tennessee, where Swift lives, and elsewhere.

She wrote: “Just wanted to remind you to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.”

Swift endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and endorsed Democratic candidates in Tennessee in 2018 after breaking her long-standing refusal to discuss her political views.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she is confident her former boss Donald Trump will win the Republican Party nomination and take back the White House in November’s general election.

Sanders served as White House press secretary for the former president. She cast her vote Tuesday morning with her husband, Bryan Sanders, at a community center in Little Rock.

She told reporters after casting her vote: “This is a head-to-head contest right now between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and he’s the clear favorite, has all the momentum, and I have a good feeling he’ll be in November wins again. .”

Sanders also said she wasn’t surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Monday, allowing Trump to get back into primaries.

She said the fact it was a 9-0 decision is “telling” and added that “it should be a signal to stop trying to use our courts for political purposes.”

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has appeared on radio as he looks to strengthen his standing among Black voters, a crucial constituency for Democrats in November’s general election.

In a radio interview broadcast on Super Tuesday morning with Ms. Jessica, a radio personality in North Carolina, Biden promoted his achievements for Black voters, such as increased funding for historically Black colleges and universities and major infrastructure investments serving Black communities .

In another radio interview, on “DeDe in the Morning,” Biden took a pointed jab at his likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and what would happen if Democrats lost the White House.

“You’re coming back to Donald Trump,” Biden says. “The way he talks, the way he acted, the way he treated the African-American community, I think it’s shameful.”

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will not be attending the Super Tuesday vote but is urging voters to impeach fellow Republicans who voted to impeach.

Paxton is seeking political revenge, six months after his acquittal in the Senate on corruption and abuse of office charges.

His targets include powerful Republican Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan, who oversaw the vote that made Paxton only the third incumbent in the state’s nearly 200-year history to be impeached.

Paxton wants to overthrow the leadership of the House of Representatives. His efforts are widely seen as an attempt to push one of the most conservative legislatures in the US even further to the right.

But he faces legal risks. Paxton will go on trial in Houston next month on nearly decade-old securities fraud charges and remains under an FBI investigation over allegations he abused his office.