Biden won the Nevada Democratic presidential primary, bringing him closer to a showdown with Trump.
Biden is expected to comfortably renominate and face former President Donald Trump in a rematch in November’s general election. In the 2024 Democratic presidential primary process, he won in Nevada for the third time in a row.
The Associated Press predicted the president would win Nevada’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, just over 90 minutes after the polls closed in the Battle Born State at 7 p.m. local time.
The estimate came as no surprise since Biden was projected to defeat long-shot Democratic primary candidate Marianne Williamson, a best-selling novelist and spiritual adviser running for president for the second time in a row.
Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, another Democratic primary competitor who faces a difficult uphill battle to earn the nomination, did not appear on the Nevada ballot since he launched his candidacy in late October, after the state’s filing date.
There were 36 pledged delegates up for grabs in Tuesday’s primaries.
With approximately two-thirds of the ballots tabulated, Biden has received 90% of the votes.
“I want to thank the voters of Nevada for sending me and Kamala Harris to the White House four years ago, and for taking us one step further on that same path tonight,” the president said in a statement after his victory was predicted.
Biden reminded supporters that “we must organize, mobilize, and vote.” Because one day, when we look back, we’ll be able to say, “When American democracy was in danger, we saved it—together.”
Biden’s Nevada triumph comes three days after he won the South Carolina Democratic primary with more than 96% of the vote over Williamson and Phillips.
This comes two weeks after he received 64% of the vote as a write-in candidate in New Hampshire’s unofficial Democratic presidential primary.
Biden’s second-place performance in the Nevada primary four years ago, behind Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, helped the then-former vice president recover from abysmal fourth- and fifth-place finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries. Biden’s landslide victory in the next election, the South Carolina primary, propelled him to the Democratic nomination and, eventually, the White House.
The president campaigned in Las Vegas on Sunday and Monday, holding a rally, a fundraiser, and meeting with leaders and rank-and-file members of the powerful Culinary Union, which reached a tentative agreement with several casinos to avoid a strike just days before the city hosts the Super Bowl.
Biden is almost expected to win reelection and will face former President Donald Trump in a rematch in November’s general election, who is the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination.