As Republicans went to the polls in 15 states, the party’s two remaining major presidential candidates drew starkly different coalitions of voters.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump tended to be self-identified Republican voters, with Haley drawing her strongest support from self-described independents, as well as self-described Democrats who chose to vote in the Republican primaries.
A major split demonstrated the difference between Haley’s more traditional “Reagan” conservatism and Trump’s nationalist populism — Trump won the support of 76% of Republican primary voters without a college degree, compared to Haley’s 19%. That’s according to an exit poll by Scripps News partner Decision Desk HQ. Scripps uses DDHQ, a national election analytics provider, for exit polling, vote data and analysis of race calls.
Among college-educated voters, those with at least a bachelor’s degree, Haley drew 36% of the votes — stronger, but still below the 57% supporting the front-runner.
Scripps News is not calling election results before polls close in each state and sufficient votes are counted to make a reliable prediction.
SEE MORE: State-by-state Super Tuesday results
Biden nearly uncontested
With an essentially uncontested Democratic primary, the question for incumbent President Joe Biden has been how many voters turn out to cast protest votes for fringe candidate Marianne Williamson, vote "undecided," or write in “cease-fire” to express dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Tuesday marks the first test of whether the administration’s changing stance on Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza strip would have an effect on those in the party’s leftmost flank, who have sought the U.S. to push for an unconditional cease-fire amid the humanitarian suffering there.
In Michigan’s Feb. 27 primary, “undecided” captured 1.6% of the vote and 2 of the state’s 117 delegates — part of a campaign organized by progressives and members of the state’s Arab American community opposed to the administration’s support for Israel.
Vice President Kamala Harris made the administration’s strongest public comments Sunday — explicitly calling for a cease-fire — and met with a political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Monday.
Exit polling showed those voters did not show up in large numbers Tuesday, with only 9% of Democratic primary voters rating any foreign policy concern as their top issue.
The DDHQ poll of 2,520 Republican and Democratic primary voters was conducted Feb. 27 through March 5, and results were weighted to account for demographic factors.
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