President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump easily won their parties’ respective presidential primaries in Arkansas as part of the “Super Tuesday” slate of elections, though it took longer for the Republican race to be called.
Biden was quickly declared the winner of the Democratic primary, with The Associated Press calling the election for him at 7:43 p.m. after polls closed at 7:30 p.m.
As of 10:30 p.m., Biden had received 87,288 votes, or 89% of votes cast.
The AP didn’t call the Republican race for Trump until 8:02 p.m., with 13% of the votes estimated to be counted.
By 10:30 p.m, he had 243,289 votes, for 76.1% of votes cast.
Trump defeated former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who had 61,030 votes, for 19.1% of those cast.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson had received 9,295 votes, for 2.9% of those cast.
Arkansas was among 14 states taking part in the “Super Tuesday” presidential primaries.
It joined Alabama, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
Besides Hutchinson, Trump and Haley, the six other Republican presidential candidates on Arkansas’ primary ballot were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; businessman David Stuckenberg; and businessman Ryan Binkley.
All but Haley had long since suspended their campaigns.
On the Democratic ballot were Biden, plus U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips; self-help author Marianne Williamson; educator Armando Perez-Serrato; events producer Frankie Lozada; and retired plumber Stephen Lyons.
As of 9:53 p.m., Williamson was in second with just 4,8 votes.
“I can spin a yarn for you that says that Democrats are certainly more unified,” said Grant Tennille, chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, about a half-hour after the Democratic race was called. “I don’t think that there’s any way that you can examine the results … and not say that it is clear that there are people in the Republican Party that don’t care for Trump as a candidate. And that there’s some momentum that appears to be building.”
However, Tennille is realistic about what to expect in seven months.
“My gut tells me, and I’ve got to be honest broker with you and everybody else,” Tennille said, “President Trump will win Arkansas in November. That will happen. But I do believe that his overall margin won’t be what it was. I do think that the sort of overall dissatisfaction with the man and some of his policies is liable to get some Democrats elected in legislative races here in Arkansas.”
Dr. John C. Davis, executive director of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, said it was “safe to say” there were “no surprises” regarding the primary victories in Arkansas.
“Nationally, we’re at a point where, barring some unexpected event, we know who the Republican and Democratic nominees will be in November,” Davis said in an emailed statement. “The big question now, as it’s apparent there are a significant number of voters in both parties choosing other candidates over these two presumptive nominees, is how many of these voters will support their party’s nominee in the fall?
Davis, author of the recently published “From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas,” said he was “especially curious” if Trump could regain some of the support he lost to Haley by November.
“He’ll need all of those voters — and a large portion of ‘independent’ voters — to win back the White House,” Davis wrote.
In 2020, Trump won Arkansas over Biden with more than 760,000 votes to 423,000 for Biden, according to the Arkansas secretary of state’s office.
In the primaries that year, there were 18 Democratic presidential candidates who received votes, and a total of 229,112 votes cast.
Biden took 93,012 votes, for 40.5% of those cast.
Meanwhile, Trump took 97.3% of the Republican primary vote, for a total of 238,980 votes.
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