Trump wins Michigan primary in latest blow to Nikki Haley

Former President Donald Trump ran away with Michigan’s Republican primary Tuesday night, cruising past rival Nikki Haley to secure his sixth consecutive win in a GOP contest.

Trump, 77, received 65% of the vote in the Great Lake State compared to Haley’s 30.9% support. The former president has now defeated Haley by double-digits in five states and the US Virgin Islands.

Despite her string of defeats, the former South Carolina governor has vowed to continue her presidential bid at least through the March 5 Super Tuesday slate, when 874 delegates are available across 16 primaries and caucuses.

Haley, 52, courted Michigan voters the morning after her 20-point loss in South Carolina’s Saturday primary, arguing that polls showed she was the only candidate who could defeat President Biden in the general election.

Haley also claimed the former president had left the Michigan GOP “completely divided” over his claims that election fraud robbed him of victory in 2020.

On Tuesday morning, Haley refused to define what a “loss” would look like for her in Michigan, but said her goal was to remain “competitive.”

“I will continue to say our goal is to be competitive. It’s always been to be competitive. And if you’re getting 40% in all the early states, that’s making a point,” she told “CNN News Central.”

For Trump — who has changed his rhetoric to focus on the general election rather than Haley — Michigan is a predictor for how the former president will do in the battleground state come November.

The 77-year-old first visited the Wolverine State in September as the other GOP candidates faced off in the second primary debate in California. Trump then returned to Michigan on Feb. 17, making his final pitch to voters in the battleground state.

Trump lost to Biden in Michigan by just over 154,000 votes in 2020 after winning the state over Hillary Clinton by a little more than 10,000 votes in 2016.

An Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll released Monday showed Trump edging Biden in the state by two percentage points, with 10% of voters still undecided.

The president also won Michigan by a wide margin Tuesday night, defeating Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.).

Michigan’s primary moved up in the calendar after Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed off on shifting the state to be third in the party’s official calendar, per President Biden’s suggestion.

The date change prompted the state GOP to coordinate with the Republican National Committee to come up with a plan that didn’t go against the RNC rules prohibiting early contests.

The Republican compromise led to a system in which the Tuesday primary determined how 16 of the state’s 55 delegates will be awarded, while the 39 other delegates will be awarded at a Saturday state party convention.