Given that challengers to both President Biden and former president Donald Trump have officially dropped out of the contest, and that the primaries are closed (meaning only those registered as a Democrat or a Republican can vote in their party’s primary), the outcome of these primaries was never in doubt. Biden took 93% of the vote in the Democratic Party, while Trump pulled 83.5% of Republican votes.
However, the so-called “zombie” challengers to the frontrunners — Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips and Republican Nikki Haley — presented an opportunity for a protest vote from disgruntled partisans. Overall, Haley took close to 17% of the Republican vote, while Phillips garnered just 7% in the Democratic primary.
Not surprisingly, Haley did best in the suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia, taking about a quarter of the GOP primary vote in Montgomery, Delaware and Chester counties. Once heavily Republican, these affluent “Main Line” suburbs are now reliably Democratic and full of “Never Trump” Republicans. Biden carried these counties with more than 58% of the vote in 2020.
But it was notable that she also took some
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