Trump’s super Saturday: Donald wins clean sweep of Idaho, Michigan and Missouri as he blows Nikki Haley out of the water in Republican caucuses… inching closer to rematch with Biden

Donald Trump has comfortably cruised past rival Nikki Haley to win the Republican caucuses in Idaho, Michigan and Missouri.

The networks called Idaho for the former president shortly after 7 p.m., with 60 percent of votes counted as he led Nikki Haley by 85 points to 14.

The victory gives Trump another 32 delegates ahead of the Republicans’ national convention in July.

In Michigan, Trump defeated Haley in all 13 counties participating in the nominating primaries, securing a total of 98 percent of support, according to the Republican Party. It was the second part of the state nomination process.

The two races add to an earlier victory in Missouri, where the race started at 11:40 a.m., less than two hours after the meetings began.

Trump’s victory in Missouri was declared just under two hours after caucus meetings began across the state to reward 51 of Missouri’s 54 Republican delegates

The former president, who is particularly strong in caucuses, expanded his run of Republican contests with victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the US Virgin Islands, South Carolina and the Michigan primaries.

Former UN Ambassador Haley, meanwhile, is still looking for her first victory. There are no Democratic contests on Saturday.

For this election cycle, Michigan Republicans devised a hybrid nominating system, split between a primary and a caucus.

Trump convincingly won the primaries on Tuesday, leaving twelve of the sixteen delegates up for grabs. He took all of Michigan’s remaining 39 delegates at stake on Saturday

In Missouri, voters met to award 51 of the state’s 54 Republican delegates.

They stood in line outside a church in Columbia, home to the University of Missouri, before the doors opened.

“I don’t know what my role will be here other than standing in a corner for Trump,” said Columbia resident Carmen Christal, adding that she is “just looking forward to the experience of it.”

This year will be the first test of the new system, which is run almost entirely by volunteers on the Republican side.

The caucuses were organized after GOP Gov. Mike Parson signed a 2022 law that, among other things, canceled the planned March 12 presidential primary.

Lawmakers have failed to reinstate the primaries, despite calls to do so from both Republican and Democratic party leaders. Democrats will hold a party-led primary on March 23.

Trump prevailed twice under Missouri’s old presidential primary system.

Next week, Super Tuesday will see primaries in 16 states and American Samoa on what will be the biggest voting day of the year outside of the November election. Trump is on track to clinch the nomination days later.

Michigan Republicans began awarding 39 of the state’s 55 presidential delegates at their convention in Grand Rapids on Saturday.

But a significant portion of the party’s rank and file skipped the meeting due to the lingering fallout from a months-long dispute over the party’s leadership.

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is still looking for her first win

Missouri voters gather Saturday, March 2, 2024, at the Family Worship Center of Columbia, Missouri, to vote for the Republican presidential nominee

Trump handily won the Michigan primary last Tuesday with 68 percent of the vote, compared to Haley’s 27 percent.

Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed cost-cutting legislation intended to move all of the state’s primaries to the same date in May — but the bill inadvertently eliminated the presidential primary entirely.

The Republican-led Legislature considered holding a special session to restore presidential primaries but failed to agree on a proposal in time, leaving presidential caucuses as the only option for both parties.

The Republican Party’s presidential caucuses were on Saturday, while the Democratic caucuses aren’t until May 23.

The last Republican caucuses in Idaho were in 2012, when about 40,000 of the state’s nearly 200,000 registered Republican voters showed up to select their preferred candidate.

This year, all Republican voters who wanted to participate had to attend in person and vote after hearing short speeches from the candidates or their representatives.

Trump finished a distant second in the 2016 Idaho primary, behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

The next contest is the GOP primary on Sunday in the District of Columbia.