OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has been declared the winner of the Virginia Republican primary over his rival Nikki Haley.
Trump held a rally in Richmond over the weekend and urged voters to show up at the polls in hopes of a red wave in Virginia.
“We are going to make a big play for Virginia,” Trump said. “It’s time for the Commonwealth to finally have a say in getting it done the way you want it.”
“The former president focused on the crisis at the southern border and increasing crime, citing the rising crime in the District of Columbia. He vowed if elected, he would take control of the nation’s capital and clean it up. Trump also criticized the sanctuary laws of Maryland’s Montgomery County after a two-year-old boy was allegedly murdered by a migrant who had been in and out of jail. The former president pointed fingers directly at the president and Democrats,” the Center Square reported.
BREAKING: Decision Desk HQ projects Donald Trump wins the Virginia Republican Primary. pic.twitter.com/0PuZ3oGsaU
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) March 6, 2024
BREAKING: NBC News has projected Donald Trump winning the Republican Primary in Virginia (where there are 48 delegates at stake) pic.twitter.com/2Jocf16XLb
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) March 6, 2024
A new analysis by noted election forecasters is extremely good news for former President Donald Trump and, by default, Republicans in general.
The analysis from Decision Desk HQ cited polls from across the country to predict that Trump will win more than 300 electoral votes, mostly by flipping several states he lost in 2020.
The forecasters believe Trump “will win a total of 312 Electoral votes in November, the biggest number a GOP candidate has received since George H. W. Bush’s 1988 victory when he received 426 votes,” Newsweek reported.
The outlet added:
The estimates are the latest worrying sign for Biden as he seeks re-election. The president has long faced concerns about his low approval ratings, as well as voters believing the 81-year-old is too old for a second term in office. Former President Trump himself is also facing the prospect of being a convicted felon by November as he faces 91 criminal charges across four trials, with polls suggesting this could damage his bid to re-enter the White House.
The Decision Desk HQ analysis went on to say that Trump is on par to win several important swing states to include Nevada and Arizona.
And, as of now, the 45th president looks like he’ll also win the “blue wall” swing states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all of which he won in 2016 when he defeated two-time presidential loser Hillary Clinton.
“Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania all went to Trump by less than a point in 2016 and then flipped back in favor of Biden by very narrow margins in 2020. They proved decisive in both of those elections,” Liberty Vittert, a statistician and Professor of the Practice of Data Science at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, said in a Decision Desk HQ video, according to Newsweek.
“Had Hillary Clinton held the states in 2016, she would have defeated Trump, and had Biden failed to flip these back in 2020, Trump would be in a second term right now.”
Newsweek added: “The 312 electoral votes Trump is predicted to win would be more than the 306 Biden achieved in 2020, as well as the 304 Trump was awarded during his 2016 election victory over Clinton.
The largest-ever presidential victory in terms of electoral votes was achieved by Ronald Reagan in 1984, who won 525 out of the possible 538 electoral votes after winning all but one of the 50 states in a resounding victory over Walter Mondale.”
For his part, though, Trump still faces several legal hurdles following charges filed against him by Democratic district attorneys in Manhattan and Fulton County, Georgia, as well as by his political opponent’s Justice Department in cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and his possession of classified documents.