AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Indiana’s presidential and state primaries

WASHINGTON (AP) — The race for the White House tops the ballot Tuesday in Indiana’s presidential and state primaries, but voters will also have to settle more competitive contests for governor, Congress and the state legislature.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump already have enough delegates to secure their respective parties’ presidential nominations and have both won almost every primary and caucus by overwhelming margins. The presumptive nominees have nonetheless faced ongoing protest votes in recent contests that won’t upend their primary campaigns but have raised questions about voter discontent heading into the November general election.

Biden is the sole option in the Democratic primary, so Indiana voters won’t be able to cast their votes for another candidate or for “uncommitted.” In last week’s Pennsylvania primary, Biden won with about 88% of the vote, but write-in ballots comprised almost 6% of the vote, up from the roughly 2% to 3% cast for write-ins in the last three Democratic Pennsylvania presidential primaries. Progressive activists in the commonwealth organized a campaign to cast write-in votes for “uncommitted” in protest of the Biden administration’s position on the war in Gaza.

Trump is the only active candidate in the Republican primary, but the other option on the ballot, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, has continued to receive a sizable share of the vote in recent contests, despite suspending her campaign in early March. She received almost 17% of the vote in the April 23 Pennsylvania primary, which Trump still easily won with 83% of the vote.

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