And in the end, it is (again) Donald Trump who wins.
For the sixth time in as many elections, the former president largely won this Tuesday during the Michigan primary.
He obtained 68.1
%
of the vote, clearly ahead of Nikki Haley (26.7
%
), his one and only competitor.
The Republican billionaire even achieved a “grand slam” by coming first in all the counties of the state.
His scores in the areas around Grand Rapids, which concentrate the Dutch-American population and where he came in second or even third place in 2016, are all above 57%.
In Oakland County, near Detroit, he obtained 62% of the vote against 33% for Nikki Haley.
This area could, however, appear favorable to the latter, with a large population of white voters with university degrees.
The ex-president also won adjacent Macomb County with three-quarters of the vote.
This welcomes a significant proportion of white voters without university degrees.
119 delegates to 22
With this success, Donald Trump brings his total of delegates to 119, compared to barely 22 for the former American ambassador to the UN.
If he is still far from the 1215, the number necessary to win the Republican nomination, nothing and no one seems to be able to stop him.
National polls credit the one who is seeking a third consecutive Republican nomination with 76% of voting intentions, constantly increasing, while his competitor stagnates around 15%, a particularly low score while no other candidate is yet in the running.
But Nikki Haley's score continues to pose a problem for Donald Trump.
If the former governor of South Carolina is not able to challenge him for the nomination, she continues to disrupt the speech of his campaign which presents the former president as the unique and irresistible candidate of his camp.
“
I do what I think is right.
What I believe 70% of Americans want me to do
,” she said in a recent
Wall Street Journal
interview , referring to polls showing that seven in 10 Americans do not want a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Trump.
His team and his supporters have invested significant resources for the polls taking place at the beginning of March as well as for “Super Tuesday”, March 5, where fifteen states (and American Samoa) will vote.
Among them, Massachusetts and Virginia concentrate many urban and educated voters, who overwhelmingly supported her in previous elections.
This is undoubtedly his best – and last – chance to somewhat get back into the race.
A hybrid scurtin mode
Only a fraction (16) of Michigan's Republican delegates were at stake on Tuesday.
The majority (39) will be awarded during the caucuses, reserved only for supporters of the Grand Old Party, this Saturday.
This hybrid and unprecedented voting method is linked to a disagreement between the Democrats, who control the state, and the Republicans of Michigan.
The former brought forward the date of the primaries, which the latter did not accept because it contravened their national rules.
They therefore adopted this system combining primary and caucus, a first in the State.