MA Super Tuesday Results: Biden, Trump Defeat Haley, 'No Preference'

MASSACHUSETTS — President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump took home early wins in Massachusetts Super Tuesday primary elections, with the Associated Press projecting their victories within an hour after polls closed.

The unsurprising primary result came alongside competitors for the two leading candidates. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley stumped in Massachusetts in a bid to draw moderate Charlie Baker-style Republicans. But she only won in nearby Vermont on Tuesday — the first state she's carried this primary season.

The last-minute push to pick "no preference" over Biden, 81, beat candidates Marianne Williamson and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.). A coalition of social and religious groups asked voters to pick "no preference" in an attempt to push Biden toward a ceasefire in Gaza. The coalition had a goal of 100,000 "no preference" votes in the Democratic primary to match results in the Michigan presidential primary.

The campaign didn't reach its goal, but at nearly 55,000 votes, it did achieve the highest "no preference" vote of any Democratic presidential primary dating back to 1976. The previous record was set in the 1980 primary between Jimmy Carter, Edward Kennedy and Edward Brown Jr. Nearly 20,000 voted "no preference" in that election, according to voting records.

Here's where the results stood Wednesday morning with more than 80 percent of votes counted, according to the AP:

Democratic

• Joe Biden — 478,509
• No Preference — 54,150
• Dean Phillips — 26,512
• Marianne Williamson — 18,175

Republican

• Donald Trump — 311,556
• Nikki Haley — 191,658
• No Preference — 5,155

Super Tuesday elections were held in 16 states and one territory — from Alaska and California to Vermont and Virginia. Hundreds of delegates are at stake, the biggest haul for either party on any single day.

Biden started off the night by winning Iowa. The state held its caucuses in January but didn’t release presidential results until Super Tuesday to comply with new Democratic National Committee rules that reordered the early primary calendar and led off with South Carolina to better empower people of color. Biden and Trump also won Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Biden also won in Vermont and Oklahoma.

The earliest either Donald Trump or Joe Biden can become his party’s presumptive nominee is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden. But in a departure from most previous Super Tuesdays, both nominations are effectively settled, with Biden and Trump both looking ahead to a reprise of the 2020 general election.

“We have to beat Biden — he is the worst president in history,” Trump said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”

Biden countered with a pair of radio interviews aimed at shoring up his support among Black voters, who helped anchor his 2020 coalition.

“If we lose this election, you’re going to be back with Donald Trump,” Biden said on the “DeDe in the Morning” show hosted by DeDe McGuire. “The way he talks about, the way he acted, the way he has dealt with the African American community, I think, has been shameful.”

Despite Biden's and Trump's domination of their parties, polls make it clear that the broader electorate does not want this year’s general election to be identical to the 2020 race. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds a majority of Americans don't think either Biden or Trump has the necessary mental acuity for the job.

The Massachusetts primary also featured races for Democratic and Republican state committee man and woman seats, and some party seats at the municipal level. Massachusetts holds 92 delegates for Democratic candidates, and 40 for Republicans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.