‘It never mattered less’: Super Tuesday is looking less than super this year

Microphone in hand, Nikki Haley was delivering a well-rehearsed stump speech when a primal cry came from the audience. “He cannot win a general election!” yelled a man, referring to Donald Trump and the ex-president’s chance against Joe Biden. “It is madness!”

Haley supporters at a campaign rally in a tiny Washington hotel on Friday signaled their agreement. But they are in a distinct minority within the Republican party as the biggest day of this year’s primary election campaign approaches.

Fifteen states and one territory will vote in contests known as Super Tuesday, when more than a third of delegates will be assigned to July’s Republican national convention in Milwaukee. Past results and opinion polls suggest that, by Tuesday night, Trump will have effectively wrapped up the Republican nomination against Haley, his sole remaining challenger.

On the Democratic side, incumbent Biden has swept aside token challenges by Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota and self-help author Marianne Williamson and is cruising to the nomination. The lopsided contests and lack of suspense are making Super Tuesday, one of the most celebrated rituals of the American election season, look not so super this time.

Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, said: “It never mattered less. I don’t know any political event that’s got more attention for being less relevant. The decision has been made. The choice is clear. You know who the two nominees are and 70% of Americans would rather it not be so.”

Trump is poised to take the latest giant stride in a dramatic political comeback. He was written off by many after his 2020 election defeat, the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol and the barrage of 91 criminal charges against