Donald Trump has comfortably beaten rival Nikki Haley to win the Republican caucuses in Idaho, Michigan and Missouri.
The networks called Idaho for the former president shortly after 7 p.m. with 60 percent of the votes counted as he led Nikki Haley by 85 points to 14.
The victory adds another 32 delegates for Trump ahead of the Republican’s national convention in July.
In Michigan, Trump defeated Haley in all 13 precincts that participated in the nominating caucuses, earning 98 percent of overall support according to the Republican Party. It was the second part of the state’s nomination process.
The two contests build on an earlier victory in Missouri, where the race was called at 11:40 a.m., less than two hours after meetings began.
Donald Trump defeated rival Nikki Haley to win the Republican caucuses in Idaho, Michigan and Missouri on Saturday.
Trump’s victory in Missouri was called just under two hours after caucus meetings began across the state to award 51 of Missouri’s 54 Republican delegates.
The former president, who is especially strong in caucuses, was adding to his sweep of Republican races with victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, South Carolina and the Michigan primary.
Meanwhile, former UN ambassador Haley is still seeking her first victory. There are no Democratic races on Saturday.
For this election cycle, Michigan Republicans devised a hybrid nominating system, split between a primary and a caucus.
Trump won the primary convincingly on Tuesday, securing 12 of the 16 delegates up for grabs. He took Michigan’s 39 remaining delegates up for grabs on Saturday.
In Missouri, voters gathered to award 51 of the state’s 54 Republican delegates.
They lined up outside a church in Columbia, home of the University of Missouri, before the doors opened.
“I don’t know what my role will be here, other than being in Trump’s corner,” Columbia resident Carmen Christal said, adding that she’s “just looking forward to this experience.”
This year will be the first test of the new system, which is run almost entirely by volunteers on the Republican side.
The caucuses were organized after Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed a 2022 law that, among other things, canceled the presidential primaries scheduled for March 12.
Lawmakers have failed to reinstate the primaries despite calls to do so from state Republican and Democratic party leaders. Democrats will hold a party-run primary on March 23.
Trump prevailed twice under Missouri’s old presidential primary system.
Next week on Super Tuesday, 16 states and American Samoa will hold primaries in what will be the biggest voting day of the year, aside from the November election. Trump is on track to secure the nomination days later.
Michigan Republicans at their convention in Grand Rapids on Saturday began allocating 39 of the state’s 55 Republican presidential delegates.
But a significant portion of the party’s grassroots forces were absent from the meeting due to the lingering effects of a months-long dispute over the party’s leadership.
Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley still seeking her first victory
Missouri voters gather on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at the Family Worship Center in Columbia, Missouri, to rally the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump handily won the Michigan primary last Tuesday with 68 percent of the vote compared to Haley’s 27 percent.
Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed cost-cutting legislation aimed at moving all of the state’s primaries to the same date in May, but the bill inadvertently eliminated the presidential primary altogether.
The Republican-led legislature considered holding a special session to reinstate the presidential primaries, but failed to agree on a proposal in time, leaving both parties with presidential caucuses as their only option.
The Republican Party presidential caucuses took place on Saturday, while the Democratic caucuses won’t be until May 23.
The last GOP caucuses in Idaho were in 2012, when about 40,000 of the state’s nearly 200,000 registered Republican voters showed up to select their preferred candidate.
For this year, all Republican voters who wanted to participate had to attend in person and vote after listening to brief speeches from the candidates or their representatives.
Trump came in a distant second in the 2016 Idaho primary, behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
The next race is the Republican Party primary to be held Sunday in the District of Columbia.