March 5 was Super Tuesday, with voters in 15 states and one U.S. territory choosing the candidates they wished to run for president. This particular day sees the highest number of primary elections nationwide until Election Day in November, according to The Associated Press. The votes accumulated from Super Tuesday are then tallied and awarded delegates, who then represent their respective communities at the presidential nominating convention, to select which presidential candidate will represent their party on the official election ballot. For a presidential candidate to win their party’s nomination, they must win the majority of delegates. 

CBS News reports that there were 865 Republican delegates available and 1,420 Democratic delegates available on Super Tuesday, with prospective candidates having to win 1,214 delegates out of 2,429 and 1,968 out of 3,934 delegates respectively. 

Former president Donald Trump won all GOP primaries, only losing Vermont to the former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, by a 4.3% difference. Haley’s losses on Super Tuesday pushed her to conclude her run for the presidency less than two months after she began.

In a March 6 statement, Haley commended Trump for his victory, but did not offer him an endorsement. “I congratulate [Trump] and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president,” Haley said. In her remarks, Haley referenced the advice of the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher: “Never just follow the crowd, always make up your own mind,” she reiterated.

“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it, who did not support him, and I hope he does that,” Haley said. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away, and our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.” She concluded her speech with an excerpt from The Book of Joshua and thanked the country. 

President Joe Biden won all 15 Democratic contests on Super Tuesday except for his loss against Jason Palmer in the American Samoa primary. Haley’s exit sets up the U.S. for a re-match between Biden and Trump. 

The New York Times states that this election will be the United States’ first presidential re-match to take place in nearly 70 years. The last instance took place between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956, according to the Pew Research Center. 

“[The election] will be an eight-month slog, with two nominees who polls show are deeply unpopular and who are each determined to make the race about his opponent, leaving both bent on running exceedingly negative campaigns,” noted the same NYT article. 

This trend was illustrated by President Biden’s State of the Union Address on March 8, where he referred to Trump 13 times, referring to him as “my predecessor” at each instance, AP said. 

Despite Biden and Trump’s sweeping victories in Super Tuesday, neither has received enough delegates to become their party’s official nominee. As of press time, Trump is short by 140 delegates, and Biden is missing 102.