Haley drops out after Trump dominates Super Tuesday

Media7 March 10, 2024

Nikki Haley formally dropped out of the Republican race after winning just one primary—Vermont—against Donald Trump on Super Tuesday. She pointedly declined to endorse Mr Trump, who clinched 14 states, including thumping victories in the biggest prizes of the night, California and Texas. Meanwhile, Dean Phillips, who launched a long-shot challenge against Joe Biden, ended his campaign, too. Mr Biden registered a clean sweep in the Democratic primary contests.

PREMIUM Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)(AP)

With Mr Trump’s Republican nomination all but official, Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s minority leader, finally—and not particularly enthusiastically—endorsed the former president. The two have not spoken since the January 6th attack on the Capitol in 2021. When he announced last week that he would retire from leadership in November, Mr McConnell acknowledged that he was out of step with his party.

The House passed a spending bill package worth almost $460bn to avoid a partial government shutdown on Friday. It now goes to the Senate. Some Republicans opposed the bipartisan bills, which skirt conservative policy riders, leaving Mike Johnson, the speaker, to rely on Democrats. At an earlier press briefing, Mr Johnson tried to highlight right-wing wins by listing cuts to agencies, including the FBI, saying they had “been turned … against the American people.”

In North Carolina and Texas, MAGA-aligned candidates performed well in closely watched races on Tuesday. North Carolina Republicans backed Mark Robinson, whose insults have targeted a stunning array of groups, for governor. And Dade Phelan, the Republican speaker of Texas’s House, will face a run-off against a far-right challenger. Mr Phelan led a failed impeachment effort against the state’s powerful attorney general.

San Francisco turned sharply against progressive politics after years of dysfunction. Voters there approved ballot measures requiring welfare recipients to be screened for drugs and giving the police more power. These are wins for London Breed, the embattled mayor seeking re-election, and reflect widespread anger at rampant public drug use, homelessness and property crime.

The National Guard and state police will be deployed on New York City’s subway to check bags for weapons, Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, announced. The officers join 1,000 extra city police assigned to platforms following a number of high-profile violent crimes. Ms Hochul also proposed allowing judges to ban people convicted of a violent crime against fellow passengers from public transit.

America’s elite universities are in crisis. Some are knee-deep in controversy and publicly accused of antisemitism. Several are feeling the pressure to reintroduce the test-based admissions policies they ditched during the pandemic. Can the Ivies, flabby with cash and blighted by groupthink, keep their competitive edge? As one professor tells our correspondent: “We are at an inflection point”.

Today’s polls

Mr Trump is having a good week. He looks set to win his party’s nomination and the Supreme Court just ruled in his favour. But according to our daily poll-tracker, which shows an average of the latest polls, he remains basically tied with Mr Biden.

Figure of the day

23, the number of states that have restricted or banned medical treatments, such as hormone therapy or surgery, for transgender patients. Read our story about what leaked discussions from surgeons, social workers and therapists reveal about the uncertainty over transgender care.

Daily quiz

Wednesday: As of 2023, what proportion of the federal budget goes to Social Security?Tuesday: As of 2023, what proportion of the federal budget goes to foreign aid?

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– Dean Phillips, whose Democratic challenge against Joe Biden failed to take off, on March 5th

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