Current:Home > Contact-usTrump wins the Missouri caucuses and sweeps Michigan GOP convention as he moves closer to nomination-LoTradeCoin
Trump wins the Missouri caucuses and sweeps Michigan GOP convention as he moves closer to nomination
View Date:2024-12-23 22:40:45
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump continued his march toward the GOP nomination on Saturday, winning the Missouri caucuses and sweeping the delegate haul at a party convention in Michigan. Idaho Republicans planned to caucus later.
Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who is his last major rival, was still searching for her first election-year win.
The next event on the Republican calendar is Sunday in the District of Columbia. Two days later is Super Tuesday, when 16 states will hold primaries on what will be the largest day of voting of the year outside of the November election. Trump is on track to lock up the nomination days later.
The steep odds facing Haley were on display in Columbia, Missouri, where Republicans gathered at a church to caucus.
Seth Christensen stood on stage and called on them to vote for Haley. He wasn’t well received.
Another caucusgoer shouted out from the audience: “Are you a Republican?”
An organizer quieted the crowd and Christensen finished his speech. Haley went on to win just 37 of the 263 Republicans in attendance in Boone County.
MICHIGAN
Michigan Republicans at their convention in Grand Rapids began allocating 39 of the state’s 55 GOP presidential delegates. Trump won all 39 delegates allocated.
But a significant portion of the party’s grassroots force was skipping the gathering because of the lingering effects of a monthslong dispute over the party’s leadership.
Trump handily won Michigan’s primary this past Tuesday with 68% of the vote compared with Haley’s 27%.
Michigan Republicans were forced to split their delegate allocation into two parts after Democrats, who control the state government, moved Michigan into the early primary states, violating the national Republican Party’s rules.
MISSOURI
Voters lined up outside a church in Columbia, home to the University of Missouri, before the doors opened for the caucuses. Once they got inside, they heard appeals from supporters of the candidates.
“Every 100 days, we’re spending $1 trillion, with money going all over the world. Illegals are running across the border,” Tom Mendenall, an elector for Trump in 2016 and 2020, said to the crowd. He later added: “You know where Donald Trump stands on a lot of these issues.”
Christensen, a 31-year-old from Columbia who came to the caucus with his wife and three children age 7, 5, and 2, then urged Republicans to go in a new direction.
“I don’t need to hear about Mr. Trump’s dalliances with people of unsavory character, nor do my children,” Christensen said to the room. “And if we put that man in the office, that’s what we’re going to hear about all the time. And I’m through with it.”
Supporters quickly moved to one side of the room or the other, depending on whether they favored Trump or Haley. There was little discussion between caucusgoers after they chose a side.
This year was the first test of the new system, which is almost entirely run 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 failed to reinstate the primary despite calls to do so by both state Republican and Democratic party leaders. Democrats will hold a party-run primary on March 23.
Trump prevailed twice under Missouri’s old presidential primary system.
IDAHO
Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed cost-cutting legislation that was intended to move all the state’s primaries to the same date in May. But the bill inadvertently eliminated the presidential primaries entirely.
The Republican-led Legislature considered holding a special session to reinstate the presidential primaries but failed to agree on a proposal in time, leaving both parties with presidential caucuses as the only option.
The Democratic caucuses aren’t until May 23.
The last GOP 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.
For this year, all Republican voters who want to participate will have to attend in person. They will vote after hearing short speeches by the candidates or their representatives.
If one candidate gets more than 50% of the statewide votes, that candidate will win all the Idaho delegates. If none of the candidates gets more than 50% of the votes, then each candidate with at least 15% of the total votes will get a proportionate number of delegates.
The Idaho GOP will announce the results once all the votes are counted statewide.
Trump placed a distant second in the 2016 Idaho primary behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
___
Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
veryGood! (7)
Related
- Oil Industry Asks Trump to Repeal Major Climate Policies
- European Union to rush more than $2 billion to disaster-hit Greece, using untapped funds
- Watch this tiny helpless chick get rescued from a storm drain and reunited with its mama
- Police round up migrants in Serbia and report finding weapons in raid of a border area with Hungary
- Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and More React to Craig Melvin Replacing Hoda Kotb as Co-Anchor
- Panel finds no single factor in horse deaths at Churchill Downs. More screening is suggested
- What’s ahead now that Republicans are opening an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden
- Jets turn to Zach Wilson at quarterback in wake of Aaron Rodgers' injury
- NYC bans unusual practice of forcing tenants to pay real estate brokers hired by landlords
- What is an Achilles tear? Breaking down the injury that ended Aaron Rodgers' season
Ranking
- Benny Blanco Reveals Selena Gomez's Rented Out Botanical Garden for Lavish Date Night
- FBI investigates cybersecurity issue at MGM Resorts while casinos and hotels stay open across US
- Olivia Rodrigo Denies Taylor Swift Feud Amid Conspiracy Theories
- How Peyton Manning reacted after Aaron Rodgers' injury during ManningCast
- Jason Kelce Jokes He Got “Mixed Reviews” From Kylie Kelce Over NSFW Commentary
- New iPhone 15 will use USB-C chargers: What to know about Apple's charging cord switch
- Carmakers doing little to protect the vast amounts of data that vehicles collect, study shows
- Matthew McConaughey says he's 'working on the riddle of life' in new book 'Just Because'
Recommendation
-
Where is 'College GameDay' for Week 12? Location, what to know for ESPN show
-
America's poverty rate soared last year. Children were among the worst hit.
-
Missouri governor appoints appeals court judge to the state Supreme Court
-
Doja Cat Frees the Nipple in Sexy Spiderweb Look at the 2023 MTV VMAs
-
Steelers' Mike Tomlin shuts down Jayden Daniels Lamar comparison: 'That's Mr. Jackson'
-
Proof Nicki Minaj Is Living in a Barbie World at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards
-
Oliver Anthony cancels concert over high ticket prices: 'This will never happen again'
-
8-year-old boy accidentally shot when barrel with guns inside set on fire