(VOVWORLD) - President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won the Michigan primaries on Tuesday, further solidifying the all-but-certain rematch between the two men by bringing them closer to their party’s nomination.
According to preliminary results on Tuesday night, Donald Trump beat former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, Trump's fifth consecutive primary victory.
Last weekend Trump defeated Haley in South Carolina, Haley's home state, by 20 percentage points. Trump is one step closer to winning the Republican nomination.
President Biden beat Congressman Dean Phillips, his only remaining opponent, in the Democratic primary.
A large number of Michigan voters chose "uncommitted as their candidate to protest the Biden administration’s handling of the Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza.
Analysts say Biden may be vulnerable. Professor of Political Science David Dulio of Oakland University said that if a sizable portion of the Democratic electorate here in Michigan votes uncommitted during the primary, that will be a five-alarm fire for the White House and for the Biden campaign.
“That will tell them that they have a strong and enduring problem with this important constituency, that they’re probably counting on in November,” said Dulio.
In Michigan, an important battleground state, Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election by 10,000 votes.
According to a survey, the number of Democratic voters in Michigan who did not express support for any candidate exceeded 10,000 in Tuesday’s primary election.