In a remarkable moment on CNN, hosts Harry Enten and Kate Bolduan took to the airwaves to acknowledge what many have been asserting for some time: Former President Donald Trump is not only a frontrunner for the Republican nomination but also the clear favorite for the 2024 presidential election.
The hosts somberly outlined the electoral landscape, pointing out that Trump is “flipping states at this particular point” that were crucial to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. States such as Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, which Biden won, are now considered toss-ups or even leaning Republican.
The analysis didn’t stop there; the upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, pivotal to any presidential victory, were also mentioned as leaning towards the Republican side.
CNN senior data analyst Enten explained, “So folks, if you have it in your mind that Donald Trump is just popular enough to win the Republican nomination, lose that thought, because at this particular point, when matched up against Joe Biden, Donald Trump is a favorite which is something we couldn’t say at any point in 2020 and really wasn’t something that we could say at any point in 2016 when he was matched up against Hillary Clinton.”
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This candid admission from a platform often at odds with Trump and his supporters underscores a seismic shift in political dynamics as we head toward the 2024 election. The moment of recognition from CNN not only preludes changing tides in political sentiment but also sets the stage for a contested run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
On Super Tuesday, progressive voters in Minnesota sent a resounding message of disappointment to President Joe Biden, with a significant chunk of Democratic primary voters rejecting the incumbent in favor of an option expressing no preference for any candidate.
Biden, who faced a nominal challenger in Congressman Dean Phillips (D-MN), who garnered 7.8% of the vote in his own state, saw “Uncommitted” collect 18.9% after a concerted campaign by liberal activists seeking to dent his path to securing the party’s nomination.
While some believe no serious challenger to President Biden remains in the Democratic primary, Tuesday’s results are another indication that he has failed to secure large swaths of the party’s coalition of voters, including young people and voters of color. Recent polling shows Trump leading the incumbent among 18-29-year-olds while enjoying roughly 20% support among Black voters, which would represent the largest share for any Republican nominee since the Civil Rights era.
In the face of withering criticism about Israel, inflation, and the border, allies to Biden have attempted to cast him as a calm and steady leader willing to take on a less predictable Republican rival in Trump. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre has worked overtime to convince journalists that Americans concerned with Biden’s advanced age should not fear his ability to perform the world’s most demanding job, but that hasn’t stopped Vice President Kamala Harris from awkwardly defending her boss as “very much alive,” a less-than-convincing argument for reelection.
Trump has a clearer path within the GOP as well. Earlier Wednesday morning Nikki Haley officially ended her presidential run, capping a long-shot effort to deny, or at least delay Trump as the party’s nomination. She made the announcement in her hometown of Charlestown, South Carolina, the site where she began her improbable bid.
More than a third of all Republican delegates were up for grabs on Super Tuesday, with Trump nabbing 14 of the 15 states’ elections. At least 1,215 delegates are needed to secure the GOP’s nomination, and the former president has secured 995 of those already pledged. Haley, having won just Vermont and a small primary in Washington, D.C., holds just 89.