Mere minutes after polls closed, early results from California’s presidential primary election Tuesday confirmed what polling has long predicted: President Joe Biden handily won with the state’s many Democratic voters, and former President Donald Trump swept the Republican vote, according to the Associated Press.
The winners of the two presidential primaries — Democratic and Republican — were called within 15 minutes of polls closing across the state at 8 p.m. Latest figures published by the Associated Press shortly before 11 p.m. Pacific, with an estimated 40% of votes counted, gives Trump 75% of GOP votes, a hearty win over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s 20%.
Biden, as the presidential incumbent, is widely expected to be the Democratic presidential nominee. Democratic votes cast for Biden exceed 90%, according to the latest batch of figures, among 34% of counted votes.
Despite recent losses in South Carolina and Michigan, Haley has vowed to stay in the race at least until Super Tuesday. With California’s massive delegate haul, and hundreds of others likely to go to Trump, Tuesday’s elections were seen as a last stand against the former president. Haley bagged her second primary win in Vermont Tuesday night.
Results will continue to be updated and posted here. Polls closed at 8 p.m.
This Super Tuesday, when the most states hold simultaneous elections, more than a third of all delegates will be awarded, which will all but cement the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. California’s 169 delegates are the largest state allocation, with Texas a close second.
Following a 2023 GOP rule change, any Republican candidate amassing over half of primary votes will be awarded all 169 of the party’s delegates, in a new winner-takes-all format.
Democrats will commit 496 delegates in total, of which 277 are chosen according to districts if they receive 15% or more of the primary vote. The rest are pledged to a candidate depending on their success statewide and 72 delegates are uncommitted state or party officials.
Biden bounced around the state for three days late-February, attending campaign fundraising events in Los Angeles, Los Altos Hills and San Francisco. The visit was the latest in a string over the past few months for campaign and political events. California has long been a crucial fundraising state for Democratic candidates, home to Silicon Valley, Hollywood and deep-pocketed donors.
Republican front-runner Trump has been comparably absent from the state since the start of the year. He attended the California GOP Convention in September in Anaheim, where he delivered a campaign stump speech. His remaining opponent Haley campaigned for several days in the state early February, talking to voters and drumming up campaign funding.
After the March 5 Super Tuesday elections, Hawaii will hold its Democratic caucus March 6. Roughly a week later on March 12, four states and one territory will hold its primary contests, including Hawaii’s Republican caucus and Northern Marianas’ Democratic caucus.
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