Donald Trump Defeats Nikki Haley in Missouri's Republican Caucus

Former President Donald Trump took home another victory on Saturday, beating former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in Missouri's Republican caucuses.

The Associated Press called the caucus results on Saturday afternoon.

It is one of the last GOP events before Super Tuesday, which is on March 5, with the Idaho primary happening on Saturday as well, and the District of Columbia's Republican presidential primary scheduled for Sunday.

The Context:

No candidate has been able to topple Trump's winning streak in the GOP primaries. Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, is the former president's last major challenger to his reelection bid, but has lost by at least double digits in every primary vote against Trump so far.

Saturday's caucus was organized by state Republicans after Missouri lawmakers canceled the state's primaries as part of a broader elections bill signed by Republican Governor Mike Parson in 2022, the AP reported. Trump also won Missouri's GOP primaries in 2016 and 2020.

Republicans in Michigan also gathered on Saturday to allocate the state's remaining delegates left over after Tuesday's primary, where Trump won by over 40 percentage points against Haley. Michigan GOP members gave the state's remaining 39 of the state's 55 presidential delegates to Trump. The former president earned 12 delegates in the state's primary.

What We Know:

Saturday's caucus started the process of awarding 51 out of Missouri's 54 GOP delegates to the Republican National Convention (RNC). The remaining three delegates—the state party chairman and the Missouri GOP national committeeman and committeewoman—have the chance to support any candidate they want despite the results of the caucus vote.

If a candidate earns more than 50 percent of the total amount of voters at the caucus site, then they win all of Missouri's delegates up for grabs, meaning that Trump earned all 51 delegates at stake on Saturday.

Caucus-goers who casted a vote on Saturday had to be registered to vote in Missouri and sign a pledge that their "allegiance" is to the "Missouri Republican Party," according to the AP.

Views:

Haley has remained adamant that she is taking her fight against Trump all the way until the end despite her consistent losses in the primaries. In a recent interview with CNN, the former governor said that her and her campaign were "taking this one state, one day at a time," and called on her fellow Republicans to move past Trump and his policies.

"If 70 percent of Americans say they don't want Donald Trump or Joe Biden, we are giving them an option," she said. "What I'm saying to my Republican Party family, is we are in a ship with a hole in it. And we can either go down with the ship and watch the country go socialist left, or we can see that we need to take the life raft and move in a new direction."

Meanwhile, Trump issued a message to Haley a day after he won Michigan, writing on Truth Social, his social media platform, "People don't like her, and they know, as per the polls, that she can't beat Biden, or any Democrat!"

The former president also thanked Missouri Republicans in a post Saturday afternoon, saying, "THANK YOU, MISSOURI! Together, WE are going to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"

Newsweek has reached out to Haley's campaign via email for comment on the Missouri caucus results.

What's Next?

Idaho Republican caucus-goers are also casting their votes on Saturday. Results on that race are expected later in the day, followed by the Washington, D.C., GOP presidential election on Sunday.

Over a dozen states are holding their Republican primary races on Super Tuesday, and as with previous races, Trump is currently the overwhelming favorite to win. According to FiveThirtyEight's national polling average tracker, the former president is ahead of Haley by over 61 percentage points as of Saturday (76.7 percent to 15.1 percent, respectfully).

Update 3/2/24, 4:46 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.