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Election advertising for Donald Trump: Clearly

Photo: Tess Crowley / EPA

Most of the competitors in the Republican field have already been eliminated, only Nikki Haley is still holding out.

Now ex-President Donald Trump has scored points again against his competitor in Michigan.

And it was clear: According to forecasts, he won around 67 percent of the votes in the Republican primary, although the counting had not yet been completed.

US President Joe Biden received not entirely clear support from the Democrats with around 80 percent of the vote.

With the primaries in Michigan, another duel between Trump and Biden in the presidential election on November 5th is becoming increasingly certain.

Trump is far ahead of Haley in internal party polls among Republicans and has already clearly won in primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina against the former US ambassador to the United Nations, who once had to represent Trump's foreign policy on the international stage.

Biden has no serious competition among the Democrats.

The Republicans will choose their candidate at a party conference in mid-July, the Democrats in mid-August.

But despite the clear lead, the 77-year-old Trump can't sit back yet.

Anyone who wants to become a presidential candidate in the United States must first prevail in internal party votes in the various states.

A special focus is now on March 5th, the so-called Super Tuesday.

On this day, Republican primaries will be held simultaneously in 15 states.

Waiting for Super Tuesday

Haley made it clear in an interview with CNN on Tuesday evening that she wanted to stay in the race at least until Super Tuesday.

In the past, Trump has been upset that the former governor of South Carolina did not want to drop out of the party's internal race despite a lack of prospects for success.

Because as long as the 52-year-old doesn't give up, he can't concentrate exclusively on his political opponent Biden.

Instead, Trump must continue to spend money and time campaigning against Haley.

Even without competition within the party, Trump will not be able to convince all Republican supporters.

Michigan is located in the north of the USA and has around 10 million inhabitants.

The industrially dominated state is considered a so-called swing state that cannot be firmly attributed to either Democrats or Republicans.

Many Michigan residents work for auto companies or their suppliers, and unions are very important.

The influential auto workers union (UAW) supports incumbent Biden.

But in the primary election the focus was on a foreign policy issue, the war in the Gaza Strip.

Only a few thousand votes could decide here: In the 2020 presidential election, Biden won the state by around 155,000 votes over Trump.

The question will be how many of these Haley supporters will end up voting for Trump in the November presidential election if he runs.

Some of them do not rule out even voting for Biden to prevent Trump from having a second term.

This may not apply to the majority of Haley supporters.

But if this group doesn't vote or supports a third, independent candidate, that could become a big problem for Trump.

mrc/dpa