Super Tuesday’s predictable outcome guarantees stark choice in November

Super Tuesday brought few surprises in the presidential race: Joe Biden and Donald Trump won state after state, pushing their delegate totals closer to what they each need to secure their party’s nomination.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, did beat Trump in Vermont, her first state-level victory over the former president – and had previously won the District of Columbia – though she reportedly decided on Wednesday to drop out, with her team scheduling a press conference for the morning.

But a protest campaign designed to pressure the Biden administration to change its approach to the Israel-Gaza war is gaining strength, with support from nearly 250,000 voters across seven states, even before the full number of protest votes had been tallied.

After 100,000 voters chose “uncommitted” over Biden on their primary ballots in Michigan, the protest spread quickly to Alabama, Iowa, North Carolina, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Colorado. At least 50,000 voters chose “no preference” in Massachusetts, and more than 87,000 in North Carolina.

In Minnesota, which has a large Muslim population, nearly 50,000 “uncommitted” votes had been counted as of late Tuesday night, putting “uncommitted” in second place after Biden, and far ahead of challengers like Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson.

“It is not enough to simply use the word ‘ceasefire’ while Biden funds bombs that kill civilians every day,” the Vote Uncommitted Minnesota spokesperson, Asma Nizami, said in a statement, noting that the Minnesota effort had been organized “with just $20,000 and one week of campaigning”.

In Minneapolis, Ruth Schultz said she only voted in Minnesota’s primary as a way to join the uncommitted campaign and show how many