Trump close to winning Republican Party presidential nomination

Donald Trump won a string of Republican presidential contests on Saturday, pushing him closer to becoming the party’s candidate in November’s election.

He won the Missouri, Michigan and Idaho Republican caucuses, CBS News projects, all three of which will award delegates for the GOP presidential nomination.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, meanwhile, is still seeking her first win.

Trump won all 54 Republican delegates available in Missouri, as well as all 39 delegates which were at stake Saturday in Michigan’s district caucuses. That was in addition to the 12 at-large delegates Trump won in Michigan’s Republican primary Tuesday.

CBS News projects that Trump also swept all 32 delegates in Idaho.

Saturday’s three wins put Trump’s delegate count at 247 nationwide, while Haley is at 24 delegates.

There were no Democratic contests on Saturday.

The next contest is the GOP caucus Sunday in the District of Columbia. Two days later is Super Tuesday, when 16 states and American Samoa will hold primaries on what will be the largest day of voting of the year outside of the November election. Trump is on track to lock up the nomination days later.

Michigan Republicans at their convention in Grand Rapids on Saturday allocated 51 of the state’s 55 GOP presidential delegates to Trump.

But a significant portion of the party’s grassroots force was skipping the gathering because of the lingering effects of a months-long dispute over the party’s leadership.

Trump handily won Michigan’s primary this past Tuesday with 68% of the vote compared with Haley’s 27%.

Michigan Republicans were forced to split their delegate allocation into two parts after Democrats, who control the state government, moved Michigan into the early primary states, violating the national Republican Party’s rules.

The Missouri Republican Party held its presidential caucuses on Saturday, offering state voters their only chance to weigh in on who should represent the party on the November presidential ballot. Voters lined up outside a church in Columbia, home to the University of Missouri, before the doors opened.

“I don’t know what my role here will be, besides standing in a corner for Trump,” Columbia resident Carmen Christal said, adding that she’s “just looking forward to the experience of it.”

For Diaspora Digital Media Updates click on Whatsapp, or Telegram. For eyewitness accounts/ reports/ articles, write to: citizenreports@diasporadigitalmedia.com. Follow us on X (Fomerly Twitter) or Facebook