President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are on track to secure their respective party nominations, setting the stage for the first U.S. presidential election rematch in nearly seven decades.
What Happened: Biden secured the necessary 1,968 delegates to clinch the Democratic Party’s nomination. This was largely due to the results from the primary contest in Georgia. Trump, on the other hand, is expected to secure the Republican Party’s nomination following the withdrawal of his last remaining rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, reported Reuters.
Both Biden and Trump have already started focusing on the Nov. 5 general election, with each holding rallies in Georgia on Saturday. Biden’s campaign has entered a more aggressive phase, announcing a $30 million ad buy and a tour of several battleground states.
Trump, despite facing multiple criminal charges, is close to securing the 1,215 delegates required for the Republican nomination. As of Monday, he needed 139 additional delegates, with 161 up for grabs in Tuesday’s contests in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington state.
The last repeat presidential matchup occurred in 1956, when Republican President Dwight Eisenhower defeated former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, a Democrat, for the second time. This year, however, public polls indicate that both Biden and Trump are unpopular with the majority of voters.
Why It Matters: The stage for this historic rematch was set following Trump’s resounding victories in the Super Tuesday primaries, which put significant pressure on his rival, Haley, to reconsider her candidacy.
Following Super Tuesday, a poll showed Biden retaking the lead for the first time in months, further solidifying his and Trump’s frontrunner status in the 2024 presidential election.
With the nominations almost secured, the question of presidential debates arises. Trump, who notably skipped the Republican primary debates during the 2024 election cycle, has expressed readiness to debate Biden “anytime, anywhere, anyplace”.
Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock.com
Engineered by Benzinga Neuro, Edited by Shivdeep Dhaliwal
The GPT-4-based Benzinga Neuro content generation system exploits the extensive Benzinga Ecosystem, including native data, APIs, and more to create comprehensive and timely stories for you. Learn more.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
