Trump Dominates Super Tuesday, Eyes Biden Rematch

Donald Trump tightened his grip on the Republican presidential nomination with big wins in the "Super Tuesday" primaries, setting up an all-but-certain rematch with President Joe Biden in November.

Fifteen states -- including California and Texas -- were staging nominating contests on the biggest day of the 2024 race so far, with both candidates coveting a second term in the White House.

Texas was among a clean sweep of victories for Trump over Nikki Haley in the first ten states called, and he notably won comfortably in Virginia, taking one of his longshot challenger's best chances to win a state off the table.

This year's Super Tuesday had been sapped of much of its suspense as Biden and Trump had effectively secured their parties' nominations before a ballot was cast.

Haley, a former UN ambassador, has failed to throw any significant obstacles in Trump's path to the nomination, losing every state since finishing a distant third in the first contest in Iowa in January.

Impeached twice, beaten by seven million votes in 2020 and facing 91 felony charges in four jurisdictions, Trump has a profile unlike any US presidential election candidate in history.

Yet his appeal among working-class, rural and white voters is expected to carry him to the nomination, with victories likely in most of the 15 contests on offer -- if not a clean sweep.

Polling averages from RealClearPolitics show 77-year-old Trump two points ahead of Biden in a hypothetical one-on-one match-up.

Haley looks set to collect only a handful of the delegates needed to secure the nomination with her narrow support base of affluent, suburban university graduates.

Biden is on the ballot in the Democratic primaries, but faces little threat from two outsider challengers, making his re-nomination a formality.