Clear defeat for Haley: Trump wins Michigan primaries

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As expected, former US president Donald Trump (77) won the primaries for the Republican presidential nomination in the state of Michigan. The American broadcasters CNN and NBC reported this on Tuesday evening (local time), citing their own predictions. As expected, Trump’s competitor Nikki Haley suffered a clear defeat: after about 10 percent of the votes had been counted, the two were more than 30 percentage points apart.

Trump and Haley fought again in the northern state with about ten million inhabitants for their party’s nomination for the presidential elections on November 5. Anyone who wants to become a presidential candidate in the US must first win in the parties’ internal primaries. The candidates are then officially chosen at party conferences in the summer. The Republican nominating convention will take place in mid-July.

The results of the primaries in the swing state of Michigan

Haley had already lost to Trump in the primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and last weekend in South Carolina. The 52-year-old is considered slightly more politically and rhetorically moderate than her competitor. It is unclear how long she will remain in the running for her candidacy, because she will essentially no longer have a chance to defeat Trump. The 77-year-old has strong support among the party base.

American President Joe Biden (81) also won the Democratic primaries in Michigan as expected, according to the predictions of American broadcasters. The Democrat has no serious competition within his party in the race for the presidential nomination. However, according to the forecasts, many voters voted “undecided”. How high the number actually is will only become clear when more votes are counted. Michigan is considered a so-called swing state that cannot be assigned with certainty to the Democrats or the Republicans.

Muslims are more likely to vote for Democrats

The vote in Michigan was seen as a mood test for how Biden’s policies in the Middle East could affect the November election, as Muslims are a key voting group in the state. According to the pressure group Emgage, about 200,000 Muslim voters live there. They could have a noticeable impact on the November election results. In the 2020 presidential election, Biden won the state by about 155,000 votes over Trump.

But it’s not just Muslims who have likely denied Biden their vote in Michigan. Younger, progressive Democrats also criticize the president given the many civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip. Biden sharpened his tone toward the Israeli government in the weeks following the unprecedented Oct. 7 massacre by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups in southern Israel. At the same time, the US government repeatedly emphasizes Israel’s right to self-defense and, according to many people, continues to allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (74) to do so.

In fact, Muslims as a voter group in the US lean more toward Democrats than Republicans. It is also considered unlikely that Muslims angry about Biden’s support for Israel in the presidential election will defect to the Republicans. However, things could get tight for Biden in a key swing state like Michigan if many voters vote for an independent, third-party candidate or decide not to vote at all. In an initial message from his campaign team after election results predictions were published, the 81-year-old did not address the issue of the Gaza war or the large number of undecided voters. (SDA)

Source: Blick