Biden beats long-shot challenger Dean Phillips in the congressman’s home state of Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — President Joe Biden dealt challenger Dean Phillips a Super Tuesday defeat in the Minnesota congressman’s home state, while former President Donald Trump beat Nikki Haley in the state’s Republican primary.

Minnesota has 75 Democratic and 39 Republican national convention delegates. But as one of the smaller of 16 states and one territory holding Super Tuesday primaries, Minnesota received little attention — even from Phillips, who represents a congressional district in the Minneapolis suburbs but enjoyed hardly any home-field advantage.

Haley was the only candidate to put in an in-person campaign appearance. Her rally at a Bloomington hotel last week drew several hundred people, but it wasn’t enough for her to catch up to Trump.

For Phillips, the only elected Democrat to challenge Biden in their party’s primary, the results from Minnesota and other Super Tuesday states extended his string of defeats.

“While Democratic Party loyalists are clearly, consistently, and overwhelmingly registering their preference for Joe Biden, it doesn’t alter the reality which compelled me to enter the race in the first place; Donald Trump is increasingly likely to defeat him in November,” Phillips said in a statement. “I’ll be assessing tonight’s results and all available data over the coming days before making a decision about how I can best help prevent that tragedy.”

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Biden and Trump are sweeping Super Tuesday races and moving closer to