RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Former President Donald Trump won Virginia’s Republican presidential primary on Super Tuesday, padding his lead over Nikki Haley as he looks to clinch the GOP nomination.
Also as expected, President Joe Biden won Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary over two challengers as he seeks a second term.
The Associated Press called Virginia’s primaries for Biden and Trump about 30 minutes after polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Virginia was among more than a dozen states and one territory, American Samoa, with presidential nominating contests on Super Tuesday — the day with the most delegates at stake but not enough to secure a nomination.
In Virginia, 48 delegates are up for grabs on the Republican side and 119 delegates (99 pledged delegates) on the Democratic one. It’s still unclear how many delegates Biden and Trump will ultimately get as they are awarded based on results statewide and in Virginia’s 11 congressional districts and votes are still being counted.
Biden and Trump were considered heavy favorites in their respective party’s primaries in Virginia.
Trump’s only active primary competitor in Virginia was Haley, South Carolina’s former governor who trails big to the former president in awarded delegates. She vowed to stay in the race until after Super Tuesday.
But Virginia’s GOP primary ballot also had four Republicans who dropped out of the race: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and pastor Ryan Binkley.
Biden faced off against two Democrats who launched longshot bids to challenge him, Rep. Dean Phillips (Minn.) and self-help author Marianne Williamson, who revived her campaign on Feb. 28 after suspending it on hold three weeks earlier. Neither of them has won delegates in Democratic nominating contests.
Even with wins in Virginia and other states, Biden and Trump can’t win enough delegates on Super Tuesday to officially secure the nomination (1,215 for the GOP nominee and 1,968 for the Democratic nominee).
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
