Image Credit: @realDonaldTrump / X & @JoeBiden / X
By Adam Friedman [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden emerged victorious in Tennessee’s presidential primaries Tuesday.
But the anticipation in Tennessee’s Super Tuesday contests wasn’t whether Trump and Biden would win but by the percentage of votes both men would receive as they head towards a rematch of their 2020 contest.
Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, having won 78% of the vote. Turnout for the Republican race was low across the state, considering the open contest at the top of the ticket. Estimates show around 600,000 voters cast ballots in the Republican presidential race, compared to the last open primary in 2016, where 855,729 people voted.
But this year’s vote totals exceed the 2020 Republican primary where 384,266 ballots were cast.
Biden was the only candidate on the ballot for his party, but he only took home around 92% of the votes, as the rest of Tennessee’s Democratic electorate voted uncommitted. Tennessee was one of the only states that held a primary Tuesday in which U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minnesota, did not make it on the ballot.
The uncommitted vote in Tennessee was significantly lower than in Michigan last week, where 13% of the electorate chose not to vote for the current president. Turnout for Democratic primary was also low compared to previous years. Estimates show around 160,000 ballots were cast compared to 516,250 in 2020 and 372,222 in 2016. But the vote total was higher than 2012, the last time the Democratic presidential primary had an incumbent, when 91,209 votes were cast.
Super Tuesday’s results all but cement what voters have expected: a rematch of the 2020 presidential race between Biden and Trump. The latest national polling averages from The Economist and FiveThirtyEight give Trump a slight edge in the matchup, 46% to 44%. But because of the Electoral College, the election will likely be decided in a select set of swing states, of which Tennessee is unlikely to be included.
