Trump Wins North Dakota GOP Caucuses

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Facts

  • Former Pres. Donald Trump won the North Dakota Republican caucuses on Monday, his ninth primary victory so far to become the GOP presidential nominee for a third time.1
  • He garnered 84.6% of the votes — more than 70 points ahead of his closest rival Nikki Haley. The other candidates, David Stuckenberg and Ryan Binkley, received less than 1% each.2
  • Since he received more than three-fifths of the statewide vote, Trump earned all of the state's 29 delegates.3
  • The former president now has 273 delegates of the 1,215 required to clinch the presidential nomination. Haley, who won her first primary Sunday in Washington, D.C., has only 43.4
  • This comes a day ahead of Super Tuesday, when Trump is likely to win big and widen his delegate lead over Haley — though not yet to become the presumptive nominee — as Republicans vote in 15 states.5
  • The Trump campaign team predicted in a memo last month that he would clinch the nomination by around March 12, when Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington hold their primaries.6

Sources: 1FOX News, 2New York Times, 3Associated Press, 4Forbes, 5Wall Street Journal and 6New York Post.

Narratives

  • Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by Townhall. If Haley had any hopes that her victory in the D.C. primary could somehow help her in Super Tuesday, the North Dakota caucuses crushed them. The former South Carolina governor will continue to be demoralized as long as she insists on lengthening her fruitless campaign. Whether she likes it or not, Trump is the only one that can win the Republican nomination.
  • Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by Politico. While Haley will almost certainly not win the GOP nomination, she may become an alternative base aimed at standing up to Trump at the Republican National Convention in July. If Haley manages to win at least five states, then she will be in a position to influence the party platform, remaining a thorn in Trump's side. This is her chance to continue to undermine Trump's cult of personality from within.

Predictions