By Helen Coster
(Reuters) -Republican frontrunner Donald Trump dominated the nominating contests taking place coast-to-coast on Super Tuesday, the biggest day of primaries in the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle.
Fifteen states held Republican contests, including the two most populous, California and Texas. More than a third of delegates - 865 of 2,429 - were up for grabs; at least 1,215 delegates are needed to win the nomination.
About a third of Democratic delegates also were at stake in primaries across the country on Tuesday, but President Joe Biden does not face a serious challenge for his party's nomination.
Here is a look at what is happening on the ground in the Republican fight between Trump and his last remaining rival for the nomination, Nikki Haley, including the latest projections from Edison Research:
VIRGINIA
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 48
Virginia is an open primary state that allows registered voters to participate in either primary, which could have boosted Haley's results given her relative strength with independent voters compared to Trump. Trump had been leading Haley by nearly 49 percentage points, according to a polling average by FiveThirtyEight. In the 2020 general election, Biden won the state by roughly 10 percentage points.
NORTH CAROLINA
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 74
North Carolina was watched closely for signs of each candidate's strength in one of the potential battleground states that could decide the general election. Trump won the state in the 2020 election against Biden by just over a single percentage point. The state allows voters who are unaffiliated with a party to participate in any primary they choose, which was seen as potentially lifting Haley's performance.
OKLAHOMA
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 43
Oklahoma is one of two states where every county voted for Trump in 2020. The other was West Virginia. A Feb. 4 Morning Consult poll showed Trump beating Haley by 77 percentage points in Oklahoma's primary contest.
TEXAS
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 161
Opinion polls showed Trump to be an overwhelming favorite in Texas' primary contest, and beating Biden by four percentage points in November. With immigration a major ballot issue, Trump and Biden appeared in dueling visits to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Feb. 29.
TENNESSEE
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 58
Opinion polls had shown Trump was likely to get an easy win over Haley in Tennessee, a state he also won in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.
MAINE
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 20
Trump led Haley by 58 percentage points in Maine according to a Feb. 19 poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll. Maine, one of the country's least racially diverse states, has a semi-open primary that allows unenrolled or independent voters to vote in either the Democratic or Republican contest without having to sign up with the party. Biden beat Trump in Maine by roughly nine percentage points in 2020.
ARKANSAS
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 40
Trump beat Biden in Arkansas by roughly 27 percentage points in 2020 and is expected to have an even greater lead this year, according to an Oct. 4 Emerson (NYSE:EMR) College poll.
ALABAMA
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 50
Trump had a huge lead over Haley in polls in Alabama, a state he also easily won in the 2020 general election. The state was thrust to the center of the U.S. reproductive rights debate after its high court ruled on Feb. 16 that frozen embryos created by in vitro fertilization treatments should be considered children, leaving Republicans scrambling to contain the public backlash.
MASSACHUSETTS
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 40
Trump lost Massachusetts, which has a small Republican Party, by two-to-one margins in the last two general elections. But he had been expected to easily win the primary against Haley. Unaffiliated voters, who comprise 3.1 million of the state's 4.9 million registered voters, could choose to vote in any primary on Tuesday.
COLORADO
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 37
Trump remained on the Colorado primary ballot after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday blocked states from disqualifying candidates for federal office under a constitutional provision involving insurrection, reversing a state decision that would have excluded him from the ballot.
CALIFORNIA
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 169
According to Republican Party rules in California, a candidate who wins more than half of primary votes receives all of the state's 169 delegates. If neither candidate wins over 50% of the votes, delegates will be awarded proportionately based on the statewide vote. In the general election, Biden is expected to easily win the state.
VERMONT
Race call: Haley wins
Republican delegate count: 17
In liberal Vermont, the Republican Party is more moderate than in other states. Its Republican governor, Phil Scott, endorsed Haley, who benefited from independents voting in the state's open primary. A Feb. 19 University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll had Trump beating Haley by 30 percentage points. Biden won Vermont by over 35 percentage points in 2020.
MINNESOTA
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 39
Opinion polls show Trump has overwhelming support among Republicans in Minnesota, where Biden is polling slightly ahead of Trump in the general election. Minnesota three-term Democratic congressman Dean Phillips was on the ballot as a long-shot primary challenger to Biden, but Biden easily won.
ALASKA:
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 29
Alaska has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964. Trump won by 10 percentage points in the 2020 general election, the smallest Republican margin since 1992. There was no public polling for the Trump-Haley matchup ahead of the primary.
UTAH
Race call: Trump wins
Republican delegate count: 40
This year, Utah's Republican Party opted to hold a caucus and presidential preference poll to determine the party's nominee instead of a state-funded primary. In a state where Trump beat Biden by roughly 20 percentage points in 2020, a January poll from Dan Jones & Associates showed him beating Haley by 27 percentage points on Super Tuesday.