Haley voters persist in Pennsylvania as Biden, Trump sweep state
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 [April 24, 2024]
By Jarrett Renshaw
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican
challenger Donald Trump on Tuesday easily won their primaries in the
battleground state of Pennsylvania according to Edison Research, but
thousands cast votes for former candidate Nikki Haley.
Pennsylvania, with 19 Electoral College votes toward the 270 needed to
win, is a top prize and a toss-up in the 2024 presidential election
featuring a Biden-Trump rematch.
Tuesday's primary was one of the last tests of voter enthusiasm in a
campaign marked by both candidates' low approval ratings.
With nearly 50% of the votes counted, Biden got 491,892 votes, or 94.4%,
according to state election data. Dean Phillips, a Democratic
congressman who dropped out of the race, got 29,333 votes, or 5.6%,
state data shows.
Trump got 268,670 votes, or 79.4%, with 33% of the votes counted, state
data shows. Nikki Haley, who dropped out the race, got 70,648 votes, or
20.6%, state data shows.
Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, remained on
the Pennsylvania ballot after dropping out of the race in March. Primary
voting in the state is confined to registered Republicans, locking out
the independent voters who favored her.
Her substantive results show that some chunk of Republicans continues to
be unhappy with Trump, who is on trial on 34 criminal counts in New
York.
Muslim and Arab-American voters mounted an "Abandon Biden" campaign in
Pennsylvania to protest the president's handling of the Gaza crisis. He
faced similar efforts in battleground states like Arizona, Wisconsin and
North Carolina, with the biggest turnout a 13% uncommitted vote in
Michigan's primary.
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Combination picture showing former U.S. President Donald Trump
attending the Trump Organization civil fraud trial, in New York
State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S.,
November 6, 2023 and U.S. President Joe Biden participating in a
meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval
Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 1, 2024.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid and Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo/File Photo
Organizers in Pennsylvania were aiming to get 40,000 write-in
"uncommitted" votes. Those results are not expected to come on
Tuesday night because they will have to be entered manually.
Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and Trump secured the
Republican nod in early March, and neither faces serious opposition
on the primary ballot.
In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by less than 1.5%, or roughly 80,000
votes. Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than
45,000 votes in 2016. Biden and Trump have visited the state in
recent weeks and focused on the general election rather than
Tuesday's vote.
Biden was born and spent part of his childhood in Scranton,
Pennsylvania, and has for decades been a fixture in the politics of
neighboring Delaware.
Incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat, and his Republican
challenger, Dave McCormick, were both unopposed in their primaries.
The race, which opinion polls show as close, could help decide
whether Democrats retain control of the Senate.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; additional reporting by Nandita Bose,
James Oliphant and Susan Heavey; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt,
Jonathan Oatis, Heather Timmons and Gerry Doyle)
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