Farewell to the GOP Establishment and 4 Other Takeaways from Super Tuesday
Events continue to confirm former President Donald Trump’s standing as one of American history’s most consequential political figures.
According to projections from The Associated Press, the former president dominated Super Tuesday’s slate of Republican primary elections.
Trump defeated establishment darling Nikki Haley everywhere except Vermont, a state that has sent the socialist Bernie Sanders to the U.S. Senate every six years since 2006.
With this in mind, here are five takeaways from Super Tuesday:
1. RIP to the Old GOP
The Republican establishment and its kindred spirits in the Democratic Party once harbored illusions that the Trump phenomenon would prove evanescent and that GOP voters, recovering their senses, would return to their party’s old leaders.
That will not happen. The old Republican Party no longer exists. And now the establishment media has begun to say so out loud.
During CNN’s coverage of Tuesday’s elections, John King told fellow anchor Jake Tapper what Trump supporters have known for years: “He has remade the party in his image.”
“There are still some Republicans who are trying to … take it back,” King added. “That’s over. There’s no back. That party doesn’t exist anymore.”
Donald Trump Jr. shared the clip on X and endorsed King’s analysis.
“The globalist America Last Republican Party of Bush, Cheney and Rove is dead and buried,” Trump Jr. wrote.
The globalist America Last Republican Party of Bush, Cheney and Rove is dead and buried. https://t.co/1cgoMmMgjT
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 6, 2024
2. GOP Voters Continue to Divide Along Economic Lines
On Feb. 24, Trump defeated Haley by more than 20 percentage points in her home state of South Carolina.
In that primary election, Haley won the Palmetto State’s most affluent counties, including coastal Charleston and Beaufort. She also won Richland County, where the state capital of Columbia and the University of South Carolina are located.
A closer look at county-by-county results in Super Tuesday states reveals a similar pattern.
In Virginia, for instance, Haley won the Washington, D.C., suburb counties of Arlington, Fairfax and Falls Church city. According to U.S. News & World Report, all three counties rank among the 10 wealthiest in the U.S. by median household income. And she lost by fewer than 1,900 votes in Loudoun County, ranked wealthiest in the U.S. by the same metric.
Elsewhere in the Old Dominion, Haley won Richmond, the state capital, as well as Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia.
Overall, with 97 percent of the votes counted as of Wednesday afternoon, Trump defeated Haley in Virginia by almost 200,000 votes. That represented a nearly 30-point victory (63-35).
In North Carolina, with 99 percent of votes counted, Trump scored a 74-23 victory, amassing 790,750 votes to Haley’s 249,650.
The former governor of neighboring South Carolina won no counties in the Tar Heel State. But she performed best in Mecklenburg County, home to the city of Charlotte, which recently ranked as America’s second-largest banking center, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Likewise, Haley proved relatively competitive in Wake County, home to the state capital of Raleigh. She also came within fewer than 1,500 votes of Trump in Durham County, home to Duke University, as well as in Orange County, home to the University of North Carolina.
In Minnesota, Trump won by more than 135,000 votes (232,855-97,195) and 40 percentage points (69-29).
Haley performed best in Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota. She also came within 2,000 votes of Trump in Ramsey County, home to the state capital of St. Paul, the other twin city.
In other words, Haley competed or prevailed in places where affluent voters and/or voters with connections to the establishment happen to reside. Trump dominated everywhere else.
3. The Constitution-Abusing Tyrants Failed
On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states could not exclude Trump from their ballots.
More specifically, SCOTUS overruled the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to label Trump an “insurrectionist” based on the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021, and then remove him from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the 14th Amendment.
Similar state-level assaults on Trump and his voters occurred elsewhere. In Maine, for instance, the Democratic secretary of state took it upon herself to remove Trump from the ballot.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday put a stop to all such madness from self-proclaimed defenders of “democracy.” And on Tuesday, GOP voters gave those tyrants the rebuke they deserved.
In Colorado, Trump led by 30 points and had amassed 522,400 votes by Wednesday afternoon. And those numbers came with only 82 percent of votes counted. Thus, if the percentages hold, Trump could finish with around 650,000 total votes.
That means that the Colorado Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, tried to disenfranchise 650,000 Colorado voters.
Parenthetically, in keeping with the previous takeaway, Haley won both Pitkin and Summit counties. According to KUAD-FM, those rank as the state’s second- and third-richest counties, respectively. Haley also won Denver County, home to the state capital, and Boulder County, home to the University of Colorado.
Meanwhile, in Maine, Trump defeated Haley by nearly 50 points (73-25) with 94 percent of votes counted. In that sparsely populated state, Trump had earned 77,145 votes as of Wednesday afternoon.
That means that Maine’s secretary of state and four justices on the Colorado Supreme Court — a grand total of five tyrants — tried to disenfranchise almost three-quarters of a million American voters.
4. A Good Night for Trump Elsewhere, Too
Trump’s dominance trickled down to other races, as well.
In North Carolina, Mark Robinson, the state’s pro-Trump lieutenant governor, won the Republican gubernatorial primary, according to The Associated Press.
To mark the occasion, social media users began circulating a 2021 clip of Robinson delivering a fiery speech denouncing gender ideology.
Mark Robinson appears poised to win the North Carolina GOP primary, so it’s only right that we revisit his famous 2021 speech on gender ideology.
Name another Republican alive with this kind of stage presence: https://t.co/cHCmEg6jl5 pic.twitter.com/8ug02L8njd
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) March 6, 2024
The big night for Robinson, who happens to be black, also gave conservative commentator Dan Bongino an opportunity to remind X users of liberals’ racial hypocrisy.
“Liberals hate Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for NC Governor, because he’s black. Liberals hate minority candidates that don’t play their victimhood game. It’s impossible to ignore the special degree of hatred liberals reserve for black voters and candidates who don’t bow before them. The biggest racists on this planet are snob liberals,” Bongino posted.
Liberals hate Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for NC Governor, because he’s black.
Liberals hate minority candidates that don’t play their victimhood game. It’s impossible to ignore the special degree of hatred liberals reserve for black voters and candidates who don’t bow before…— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) March 6, 2024
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that Trump-endorsed challenger David Covey forced Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan into a May 28 runoff. Phelan helped lead the failed 2023 impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Trump supporter.
5. Haley Bows Out… For Now
On Wednesday morning, Haley finally announced that she would no longer seek the Republican presidential nomination.
“The time has now come to suspend my campaign,” she told supporters in Charleston, South Carolina.
Nikki Haley suspends her presidential campaign pic.twitter.com/fYqa9Ds9aI
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 6, 2024
Not to channel an inner conspiracy theorist here, but note Haley’s precise wording: “suspend my campaign.”
Last week, after President Joe Biden’s humiliating performance in Michigan, author and Democratic activist Marianne Williamson announced that she had “unsuspended” her previously suspended campaign for the party’s nomination.
Words matter. And the establishment will not go quietly.
Thus, do not think we have seen the last of Nikki Haley in 2024.
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