Four years after their historic face-off in the 2020 general election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are poised to secure their respective parties’ nominations for the 2024 presidential race. This Tuesday, voters from both parties will cast their ballots in presidential primaries in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington, and Hawaii.
The Democrats Abroad, the official arm of the Democratic Party for Americans living overseas, will also conclude their primary voting on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Biden emerged as the projected winner of the Democratic primary in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
This follows the Super Tuesday elections last week, where both Biden and Trump dominated, bringing them to the brink of securing the majority of delegates needed to become their parties’ presumptive nominees.
The anticipated rematch is expected to echo the 2020 campaign, with Trump running under the shadow of 91 felony charges related to allegations of election fraud, involvement in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, illegal possession of classified documents, and hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, Biden, who has a mixed record of achievements and setbacks for voters to consider, is running a campaign similar to 2020. His campaign focuses on concerns over Trump’s authoritarian behavior and a struggling economy. Unlike Trump, Biden has not faced a significant, well-funded primary challenge.
Biden’s main opposition stems from intraparty anxiety over his age and progressives’ outrage over his administration’s support for Israel during its prolonged war against Hamas in Gaza. Biden has also faced scrutiny following the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s report, which concluded that Biden mishandled and improperly disclosed classified information after leaving the vice presidency. However, no charges were filed.
On the Republican side, Trump remains the clear favorite despite competition from a variety of GOP challengers, including governors, senators, right-wing provocateurs, and his own former vice president, Mike Pence.
The last to bow out was former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who exited the Republican race last week after a series of Super Tuesday losses. Haley did not endorse Trump upon her exit, stating that the former president needed “to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him.”
As the primaries in Georgia approach, both candidates will face a critical test ahead of their anticipated November showdown. Biden won the state by less than 12,000 votes in 2020 – the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992. Trump’s defeat sparked a series of alleged efforts to subvert the election result, which are now part of a wide-ranging conspiracy indictment set to be tried in Fulton County.
Both candidates spent parts of their weekend in Georgia, leading competing rallies. Biden, at a rally in Atlanta, emphasized his commitment to freedom and democracy, while Trump, in Rome, Georgia, criticized Biden’s recent State of the Union speech and Democrats’ handling of the southern border and the economy.
Following his State of the Union address, Biden has been touring swing states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, and New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Trump is set to host a rally in Dayton, Ohio, this weekend for businessman Bernie Moreno, his endorsed candidate in the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. The Ohio election is among several seen as critical to Democratic hopes of holding the Senate.