Tonight there will be two parallel primaries closing in Michigan, one for each party. As always, we’ll have a live updating widget embedded at the end of the post so you can keep tabs on the results if you wish. There are a few things you should know about how the primary is set up. The polls close at 8 pm local time. For much of the state, that’s 8 pm eastern. But four counties in the western part of the state are on central time, so they will close at 9 pm eastern. Anyone who is in line before the polls close in their local precinct will be allowed to stay and vote.
Also, no bound delegates will be awarded tonight even after the winners are declared. 16 of the state’s 55 delegates will be awarded proportionately based on the outcome, but they will not be officially bound to their candidates until the the state convention scheduled for this weekend. The remaining 39 delegates will be awarded at the convention, currently scheduled for Saturday, March 2.
Based on the latest polling as of yesterday, we probably shouldn’t be expecting any huge fireworks tonight. On the GOP side, Donald Trump is absolutely walloping Nikki Haley 76 to 24. That matters since Michigan awards delegates proportionately. If those numbers hold up, the former President should bring home the lion’s share of them. On the Democratic side, Joe Biden is at 77 with none of the others getting out of single digits.
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be some interesting information to glean from the results, however, particularly for the Democrats. There has been a significant push from Biden’s left in Michigan, largely led by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. She’s been trying to convince Arab-American and Muslim voters to refute Biden and vote “uncommitted” today. No analysts I’ve heard from expect Joe Biden to lose to the uncommitted vote the way that Haley lost to “none of these candidates” in Nevada. But if the uncommitted vote runs up a score anywhere close to double digits, it could spell major trouble for Biden in November in a state as closely divided as Michigan. And yes, in the Democratic widget below, we will be tracking the uncommitted vote along with Biden, Dean Phillips, and Marianne Williamson.
As for the GOP side, if South Carolina didn’t drive Nikki Haley out of the primary, I seriously doubt Michigan will, even if she loses by the margins projected in the polls. Perhaps Super Tuesday will do the trick unless she can pull off a miracle someplace. At the rate he’s going, Donald Trump will have an insurmountable lead in delegates by the end of next month.
Here are the results
Michigan GOP Presidential Primary:
Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary