AP
The general election rematch between former President Donald Trump and President Biden is now official.
Both now have the delegates they need to become candidates for their respective parties.
Biden and Trump have won nearly every race on the presidential nominating calendar so far, but they have finally reached the critical threshold of securing a majority of delegates at this summer's convention. Tuesday's races included primaries in key swing states for both parties: Georgia, Washington and Mississippi.
Trump was the de facto incumbent throughout the process, fending off several challengers while conceding meaningful votes to former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley.
Biden did not face serious opposition in the primary, but opposition to his policies on Israel and the Gaza Strip led some delegates to take an “irresponsible” stance.
In Biden's response to securing the nomination earlier tonight, he slammed Trump, the expected challenger and front-runner.
“Despite the challenges we faced when I took office, we are in the midst of a recovery,” Biden said. “Wages are rising faster than inflation, jobs are recovering, and consumer confidence has soared.” “Amid these developments, we are faced with a sobering reality: Freedom and democracy are at risk here at home in a way we have not seen since the Civil War. Donald Trump is a threat to the very ideas of anger, vengeance and retaliation. “We are campaigning for America.”
Likewise, Trump also criticized Biden.
“It is a great honor to represent the Republican Party as its candidate for president. Our party is united and strong, and we fully understand that we are standing up to the worst, most incompetent, corrupt and destructive president in American history.” Citing border security, high interest rates and inflation, Trump said, without evidence, that the United States was a “third world country using a system of injustice to keep track of ME.”
how it went
Polls in Georgia closed at 7 PM ET, Mississippi closed at 8 PM ET, Washington closed at 11 PM ET, and the Hawaii GOP convention closed at 2 AM ET. wednesday. Biden was nominated as a candidate not long after winning the Georgia primary.
Heading into Tuesday, Biden had secured about 1,866 of the 1,968 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. There are 254 delegates at stake in the March 12 Democratic primary, and Biden won all six delegates from the Northern Mariana Islands Tuesday morning.
Trump needed 137 delegates as of Tuesday. There were 161 winners in the March 12 Republican primary. Trump was nominated as the candidate immediately after polls in Washington state closed. Not long after winning Mississippi and Georgia, Trump faced criminal charges for his failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election and other obstacles to his November victory.
This is the third consecutive presidential election in which Trump is elected as the Republican candidate. And with his nomination on March 12, he became the second-fastest Republican candidate in the modern era and the third-fastest to take his party to first place.