Former President Donald Trump emerged victorious in the North Dakota Republican presidential caucuses on Monday. This win adds to his string of victories, setting the stage for the upcoming Super Tuesday.
Trump finished first in the voting conducted at 12 caucus sites across North Dakota, outpacing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. This victory puts Trump back on the winning track, which was briefly interrupted on Sunday when Haley notched her first victory of the campaign in the District of Columbia’s primary.
The focus of the White House hopefuls now shifts to Super Tuesday, when results from 16 states will pour in. These contests represent the single biggest delegate haul of any day in the presidential primary. Both Trump and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, are dominating their respective races and are on track to secure their nominations later this month.
Under North Dakota’s rules, candidates are eligible to win delegates if they finish with at least 20% of the vote. However, a candidate who wins at least 60% of the vote receives all of the state’s 29 delegates. Four candidates were on the ballot, including Trump and Haley.
The other candidates, Florida businessman David Stuckenberg and Texas businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley, received little attention. Binkley recently ended his campaign.
Among the voters, Karen Groninger, a retired music teacher and librarian from Almont, North Dakota, voted for Trump, calling him the best choice. The 76-year-old cited Trump’s 2020 speech at the annual March for Life anti-abortion event in Washington, D.C. — the first by a sitting president — and his border policies as reasons for her support.
However, not all Republican voters were in favor of Trump. Dick Dever, a longtime Republican state senator from Bismarck, voted for Haley but added she’s unlikely to win.
The retired factory representative, 72, said, “I hear an awful lot of people say that they really liked Trump’s policies but they don’t like the way he conducts himself, and I think he’s gone overboard a bit.”
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Caucus voters were encouraged to pay party members, but those who wouldn’t pay $50 for annual membership were asked to sign a pledge to affiliate with the party, according to caucus Chair Robert Harms.
North Dakota is the only state without voter registration. The caucuses followed official state voter identification protocols, such as providing a driver’s license. Voting was done only in person and on printed ballots, which were hand-counted.
Trump has a history of success in North Dakota. In 2016, it was a North Dakota delegate who helped Trump secure the number needed for the Republican presidential nomination. He swept North Dakota’s three electoral college votes in 2016 and 2020, winning about 63% and 65% of those votes, respectively.
As president, Trump visited Bismarck and Mandan in 2017 to talk about tax cuts, and he campaigned twice in Fargo in 2018 for Kevin Cramer in the then-congressman’s successful Senate bid against Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.
Meanwhile, North Dakota’s Democratic-NPL Party is holding a presidential primary almost entirely by mail, with mail-in voting from Feb. 20 to March 30, and limited in-person voting for residents of Indian reservations.
President Joe Biden, Rep. Dean Phillips, and six others are on the ballot. A third party will count ballots in Fargo on March 30, with results available on the party’s website afterward. Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Democratic caucuses in 2016 and 2020.