Former President Donald Trump is projected to cross the threshold of the 1,215 delegates needed to become the GOP‘s presumptive nominee during Tuesday’s night primaries.
Trump won’t be awarded the nomination till the Republican convention in Milwaukee in July, but he surpassed the party’s delegate threshold Tuesday night after winning Washington’s Republican primary. The Associated Press called the state for Trump at 11:05 p.m. Eastern time. With about a third of the vote counted, Trump had 72% of the vote. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the primary one day after Super Tuesday, netted 24%.
Trump has been the unofficial nominee after Haley dropped out of the race, clearing the path for Trump to be nominated for the third time. Before Tuesday night, the former president had already netted 1,089 delegates, but with the results from Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington, Trump reached the delegates needed.
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“The Republican National Committee has just declared us the official nominee. And so we’re the official nominee of the Republican Party, which is a big deal. But most importantly, we now have to go into victory because our country is in serious trouble,” said Trump after winning Washington.
He continued, “Again, this was a great day a victory last week was something very special Super Tuesday, but now we have to get back to work because we have the worst president in the history of our country. His name is Joe Biden sometimes referred to as crooked Joe Biden, and he must be defeated.”
The former president easily defeated more than a dozen Republican challengers during the 2024 primary season. Trump lost two nominating contests to Haley, in Washington, D.C., and Vermont, but has overwhelmingly won in all other primaries and caucuses where he appeared on the ballot.
Trump is set for a rematch with President Joe Biden, who also became the presumptive Democratic nominee Tuesday night after Georgia’s election results helped him clinch the 1,968 delegates needed for nomination.
As Trump and Biden gear up for one of the longest general election campaigns in modern history, the candidates face a public that is not excited for a rematch from their 2020 presidential election cycle.
The former president is facing 91 criminal indictments among four cases, with the first trial scheduled to begin March 25 in New York over allegations he paid hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.
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Trump is seeking to delay his cases until after the November election, but if he is convicted of a felony before then, that could cost him just enough voters to lose to Biden for a second time.
In a RealClearPolitics poll average, Trump leads Biden by an average of 1.7 percentage points. But with roughly eight more months of general election season, much could happen between now and then.
