Trump and Biden Securing Nominations, Preparing for a Tough Presidential Rematch

The first US presidential election rerun in over 70 years began on Tuesday with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump securing their parties’ nominations.

As results from the Georgia primary started to pour in, Edison Research reported that Biden had passed the necessary 1,968 delegates to secure the nomination. This figure was higher than predicted by Mississippi, Washington State, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Democrats residing overseas.

As four states had elections, including Georgia—the battleground where Trump is charged with a crime for his attempts to change the state’s 2020 election results—Trump secured the 1,215 delegates needed to win the Republican presidential nomination. On Tuesday, 161 delegates from Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington State were up for grabs.

“VOTER CHOICE IS AVAILABLE.”
Biden referred to Trump’s actions as a “campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America” in a statement. Voters now have a decision to make about our nation’s future. Will we resist and protect our democracy, or will we allow others to destroy it? “Will we allow extremists to take away our freedoms and restore our right to choose?” he asked.

Later on Tuesday, when four states had elections—including Georgia, the battleground where Trump is charged with a crime for his attempts to void the state’s 2020 election results—Trump was predicted to secure the Republican Party’s nomination. With former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abandoning her presidential campaign in the wake of Trump’s dominating victory on Super Tuesday last week, when he won 14 of the 15 state races, the conclusion is all but set.

Both Biden and Trump are unpopular with the majority of Americans, according to Reuters/Ipsos public surveys, indicating that US people are not particularly eager to see the divisive 2020 race happen again this year. Trump’s many criminal accusations might hurt his reputation among suburban, educated voters, whose support he has always found difficult to win. On March 25, in New York, he will make history as the first former US president to go on trial for a criminal case. He is accused of fabricating financial records to cover up payments of hush money to a porn actress.

“GENERAL ELECTION ON NOV. 5”
While liberal activists angry over Biden’s backing of Israel’s war in Gaza have persuaded a sizeable proportion of Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in protest, Biden faced little opposition during the Democratic primary. Both politicians have already focused on the main election scheduled for November 5 and held opposing rallies in Georgia on Saturday. In Rome, Georgia, the 77-year-old Trump restated his baseless allegation that the 2020 election was rigged and claimed that Fulton County Attorney Fani Willis was pursuing legal action against him for political motives. He also criticized Biden for not doing more to stop the migration at the southern border of the United States, a point he plans to emphasize during the campaign, just as he did in 2020.

With the announcement that Biden will travel to several battleground states while investing $30 million in advertisements, the Biden campaign entered a more aggressive phase on Friday. Ten million dollars were raised in the 24 hours after Biden’s State of the Union address, according to the campaign, giving Democrats a greater financial advantage over Republicans. According to Edison Research, as of Monday, Trump needs 139 more delegates to achieve the 1,215 needed to win the Republican presidential nomination. On Tuesday, 161 delegates from Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington State are up for grabs.

The majority of Americans’ belief that Biden is too elderly to serve a second four-year term has plagued him, but supporters think his vehement State of the Union speech may dispel that belief. Biden’s second vulnerability is the continuous problem at the US-Mexico border, where a surge of migrants has overloaded the system. After the former president pushed House Republicans to veto a bipartisan border security package that would have increased enforcement, he has attempted to place the responsibility on Trump. As usual, the economy will be a major campaign theme. According to polls, Americans are angry about the high cost of necessities like food and are unlikely to give the president credit.