The Presidential Primary Races – February 14th, 2024
Bottom Line: This week is a quiet week on the presidential nomination calendar following last week’s Republican contests in Nevada and the Virgin Islands in which former President Donald Trump cruised to easy wins obtaining all available delegates in those contests in the process. The bigger news over the past week has involved what’s been happening off the presidential campaign trail. Special Prosecutor Robert Hur’s report, depicting a president whose memory is so poor he doesn’t believe he’d be fit to stand trial, coupled with President Biden’s botched presser aimed at addressing those concerns has the potential to change the trajectory of the presidential race. Similarly, but different are former President Trump’s legal matters. Last week was a mixed bag of news for the former president as the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled against his presidential immunity claim – in attempting to avoid criminal prosecution in pending cases against him. A decision that the Trump team appealed to the United States Supreme Court on Monday. The other Trump related legal news involved his Supreme Court hearing pertaining to ballot access. That hearing appeared to be especially favorable for the former president. A decision could come as soon as this week.
The other bit of primary related news over the past week was the suspension of Democrat Marianne Williamson’s campaign. Her decision leaves Congressman Dean Phillips as the only potentially credible challenger to President Biden in the Democrat primary process.
This nomination season has taken on the feel of essentially two incumbents running for president based on the results in the states and territories that’ve voted.
Here's where the Republican candidates stand with pledged delegates after New Hampshire (1,215 delegates needed to clinch nomination):
- Trump: 63 (68% of available delegates)
- Haley: 17 (18% of available delegates)
- DeSantis: 9
- Ramaswamy: 3
As for the Democrats (1,968 delegates needed to clinch nomination):
- Joe Biden: 91 (100% of available delegates)
- Dean Phillips: 0
- Marianne Williamson: 0
As for what’s next? Republicans hold the next election in the nomination process with the party’s primary in South Carolina a week from Saturday, the 24th. It appears the only potential drama in this year’s nomination process may be whatever is decided in the legal system as it pertains to Donald Trump and health/Hunter Biden’s legal matters as it applies to Joe Biden. Given those outstanding factors it may be the case that Nikki Haley remains in the Republican race with Phillips remaining in the Democrat’s race. That’s been the case to date.