Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump thanks supporters after speaking at the Get Out The Vote rally at Winthrop University on February 23, 2024 in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Donald Trump won the Missouri Republican caucuses, one of three events Saturday that will award delegates for the GOP presidential nomination.
The former president, who is particularly strong in caucuses, strengthened his delegate lead with that victory and gained ground at a party convention in Michigan. Idaho was scheduled to hold its caucuses later Saturday. Her last major rival, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, is still looking for her first election victory.
There were no Democratic races Saturday.
The next event on the Republican calendar is Sunday in the District of Columbia. Two days later is Super Tuesday, when 16 states and American Samoa will hold primaries in what will be the biggest voting day of the year outside of the November election. Trump is on track to block the nomination a few days later.
Michigan
Michigan Republicans at their convention in Grand Rapids began awarding 39 of the state’s 55 Republican presidential delegates. Trump has won 33, of which six are yet to be awarded.
But a significant portion of the party’s grassroots were skipping the meeting due to the lingering effects of a months-long dispute over the party’s leadership.
Trump easily won the Michigan primary last Tuesday with 68% of the vote compared to Haley’s 27%.
Michigan Republicans were forced to split their delegate allotment into two parts after Democrats, who control the state government, moved Michigan in the early primary states, violating national Republican Party rules.
Missouri
Voters lined up outside a church in Columbia, home of the University of Missouri, before the doors opened for the caucuses.
“I don’t know what my role will be here, other than standing in the corner for Trump,” Columbia resident Carmen Christal said, adding that she’s “looking forward to the experience.”
This year was the first test of the new system, which is run almost entirely by volunteers from the Republican side.
The caucuses were held after Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed a 2022 bill that, among other things, canceled the presidential primaries scheduled for March 12.
Lawmakers failed to reinstate the primary despite calls from Republican and Democratic party leaders to do so. Democrats will hold a party-run primary on March 23.
Trump prevailed twice under Missouri’s old presidential primary system.
Idaho
Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed cost-cutting legislation that intended to move all of the state’s primaries to the same date in May. But the bill inadvertently eliminated presidential primaries altogether.
The Republican-led Legislature considered holding a special session to reinstate presidential primaries but failed to agree on a proposal in time, leaving both parties with presidential caucuses as their only option.
The Democratic caucuses won’t be held until May 23.
The last GOP caucuses in Idaho were held in 2012, when about 40,000 of the state’s nearly 200,000 registered Republican voters showed up to select their preferred candidate.
This year, all Republican voters who wish to participate will have to attend in person. They will vote after listening to short speeches by the candidates or their representatives.
If a candidate gets more than 50% of the statewide vote, that candidate will win all of Idaho’s delegates. If none of the candidates obtains more than 50% of the votes, each candidate with at least 15% of the total votes will obtain a proportionate number of delegates.
The Idaho GOP will announce the results once all the votes are counted statewide.
Trump placed a distant second in the 2016 Idaho primary behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.