As reported here, Virginia was one of 15 states holding Super Tuesday elections on March 5. Unlike many past primaries, where numerous candidates were still jockeying for position, this year had a lack of drama because both parties had a clear front-runner.
On the Democrat side, Joe Biden had the power of incumbency, plus the Democrat National Committee (DNC) has worked hard to suppress challengers from within the party. On the Republican side, former Gov. Nikki Haley was the last remaining challenger to former President Donald Trump, but her candidacy failed to gain traction.
On March 5, Virginia voters were given a choice for either a Democrat or Republican ballot. By state law, voters do not register for a party and could vote in either primary. However, a voter could only get one ballot to vote in one party’s primary, not both.
Since Biden’s wins were guaranteed and Haley was the last challenger in the GOP field to Trump, some Democrats may have requested Republican ballots to vote for Haley in an attempt to stop what supporters of the former president call the “Trump Train.” However, there is no way to ascertain that.
Below are some primary results from our region for Biden, Trump, and Haley. Votes for these top-three candidates are given below, plus the PERCENTAGE that Biden won in the Democrat primary and the PERCENTAGES Trump and Haley won in the GOP primary.
Some trends that appeared in our region:
- Biden carried 88-91% of the Democrat vote.
- Trump decisively beat Haley by nearly 2 to 1 in Roanoke City but up to 3.6 to 1 in Franklin County.
- Even though Roanoke City is heavily Democrat, there were 4,540 voters in the GOP primary but only 3,418 in the Democrat primary. (Again, that could partially be attributable to Biden’s virtually-unchallenged status in the primary and/or some Democrats cross-over voting for Haley.)
| ROANOKE CITY | # of Votes | % of vote won in primary |
| Biden | 3,024 | 88.47% of Democrat Primary Vote |
| Trump | 2,783 | 61.30% of Republican Primary Vote |
| Haley | 1,656 | 36.48% of Republican Primary Vote |
| ROANOKE CO. | ||
| Biden | 2,426 | 88.57% |
| Trump | 7,456 | 68.37% of Republican Primary Vote |
| Haley | 3,221 | 29.53% of Republican Primary Vote |
| SALEM | ||
| Biden | 519 | 90.58% of Democrat Primary Vote |
| Trump | 1,356 | 68.45% of Republican Primary Vote |
| Haley | 586 | 29.58% of of Republican Primary Vote |
| BOTETOURT CO. | ||
| Biden | 647 | 91.64% of Democrat Primary Vote |
| Trump | 3,555 | 75.43% of Republican Primary Vote |
| Haley | 1,088 | 23.09% of Republican Primary Vote |
| BEDFORD CO. | ||
| Biden | 1,241 | 89.73% of Democrat Primary Vote |
| Trump | 7,806 | 76.20% of Republican Primary Vote |
| Haley | 2,239 | 21.86% of Republican Primary Vote |
| FRANKLIN CO. | ||
| Biden | 993 | 90.27% of Democrat Primary Vote |
| Trump | 4,774 | 77.16% of Republican Primary Vote |
| Haley | 1,312 | 21.21% of Republican Primary Vote |
The morning after Super Tuesday, Haley suspended her campaign but fell short of endorsing the former president. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns are now courting former Haley supporters.
Thanks to former president Trump’s strong support across the nation on Super Tuesday, his status as the final GOP nominee now seems almost assured. Moreover, the former president’s resiliency appears even more remarkable considering the multi-year, multi-pronged, unprecedented opposition against him in both the nation’s media and courts.
The legacy media, including TV channels and major newspapers, have for years been overwhelmingly critical of the former president. A study dated June-July 2020 from the non-partisan Media Research Center documented 95% of the news coverage of Trump in that election season was negative. Put another way, there was 150-times more negative news about Trump than Biden.
Numerous court cases have been launched against Trump as well, all in Democrat strongholds likely to produce hostile juries. Charges have ranged from mishandling classified documents to overvaluing real estate holdings to sexual misconduct to leading an “insurrection.”
However, most of these cases have recently been stymied in various ways. Moreover, the US Supreme Court announced an unusual, unanimous decision on March 4 to nullify attempts in Colorado and elsewhere to keep Trump’s name off the ballot. The high court’s opinion to keep Trump’s name on all ballots nationwide helped him seal his Super Tuesday victories and further sets the scene for a 2020 Biden vs. Trump replay.
–Scott Dreyer
Sources for Democrat Primary and Republican Primary, searchable by locality.