Former President Donald Trump may be dealing with an onslaught of legal issues, but his campaign to become the GOP presidential candidate is going pretty well.
In fact, his team told the New York Post it’s going even better than in 2020, when he was a sitting president.
They predict he’ll have enough delegates to nab the nomination as soon as next week – five days earlier than he did during the last election.
Trump’s lone remaining challenger – former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley – dropped out of the race this week after the former president dominated during the Super Tuesday primary races. As of Saturday afternoon, he already had 1,075 of the necessary 1,215 delegates needed to win the election.
According to the New York Post, Trump is expected to win those remaining delegates during elections this Tuesday. That’s when Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington will hold elections that would provide Trump with a combined 161 delegates. If he wins all, he’ll have 1,236 by the end of the election day.
As of Thursday, it seemed like Trump already considered himself the official candidate.
“Whether the Fake News Media likes admitting it or not, there was tremendous misrepresentation and lies in that Speech, but the People of our Country get it, and they know that November 5th will be the Most Important Day in our Nation’s History!” he said in a Truth Social post following President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
Biden is also the last remaining Democratic candidate. As of Saturday, he had 1,866 delegates.
“States and political parties use different methods for deciding how many delegates they will award to each candidate,” the U.S. government explained about the primary process. Although both candidates should soon have the required about of delegates to secure a nomination, candidates typically aren’t officially decided until the parties’ national conventions. Primary elections will be held through June.
This year, the Republican National Convention will be held in July and the Democrat National Convention will be held in August. The RNC will be held in Milwaukee, Wisc., and the DNC will be held in Chicago, Ill.
“Delegates go on to represent their state at national party conventions,” said the government.
Following the conventions, candidates participate in debates during the final leg of the election cycle. While Trump refused to debate any of his challengers in the GOP, he’s said he’s ready to debate Biden right away. Both were in Georgia Saturday ahead of the primary there.
A recent Emerson College poll found that Trump and Biden would be neck-and-neck if the presidential election were held this month. Biden has expressed concern that Trump – who is facing charges related to an alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election – won’t accept election results if he loses this year.
