Donald Trump is aiming to deliver a 'Super Tuesday' knockout blow to his lone challenger for the US Republican Party's presidential nomination, Nikki Haley, as 15 states hold Republican contests on the biggest voting day of the primary season.
The former president, who has dominated the party campaign from the start despite his litany of criminal charges, has swept all but one of the contests, reducing a sprawling Republican field of candidates down to two.
While Mr Trump cannot win enough delegates on Super Tuesday to formally clinch the nomination, another dominant performance would further pressure his remaining rival.
The contests will award more than one-third of Republican delegates and more than 70% of the number needed to secure the nomination.
The first polls are due to close in Vermont and Virginia tonight, with voting wrapping up in Alaska early tomorrow morning.
A third consecutive nomination for Mr Trump would set up a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden in November's election.
Mr Biden is expected to win the Democratic contests easily, though activists opposed to his Israel policy are calling on Muslim Americans and progressives to vote "uncommitted" in Minnesota in protest.
Ms Haley, a former UN ambassador under Mr Trump, has faced mounting questions about how long she will continue her long-shot campaign, particularly after losing her home state of South Carolina ten days ago.
Her campaign did not schedule any public events on Super Tuesday or beyond.
"As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I'm not ready to get out yet," she told Fox News in an interview.
Mr Trump was leading Ms Haley in every Super Tuesday state where public polling data was available, according to poll tracking website 538.
But her allies see a narrow window of opportunity to win states such as Virginia, Massachusetts and Vermont, which have more of the wealthy, college-educated voters who tend to support her candidacy.
Mr Trump told Fox in a separate interview that his focus was on Mr Biden, adding: "We're going to win every state tonight."
While Mr Trump will stage an event at his Florida resort, President Biden has no separate campaign events planned.
Pop star Taylor Swift encouraged her fans to vote in a post on Instagram, though her reach may have been limited by an extensive outage that affected that social media site and Facebook, both of which are owned by Meta Platforms.
"I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven't already, make a plan to vote today," Ms Swift wrote in a post that did not mention any specific candidate by name.
Mr Trump's advisers have said they expect him to eliminate Ms Haley mathematically no later than 19 March, when two-thirds of the states will have voted.
The former president is scheduled to begin his first criminal trial six days later in New York, where he is charged with falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to an adult film star during his 2016 presidential run.
What is Super Tuesday and how does it work?
Ms Haley's challenge has highlighted some of Mr Trump's potential vulnerabilities in a general election.
She has reached 40% in some state contests and argues that shows independents and moderate Republicans harbor unease about a second Trump term.
"She's a solid alternative to Trump," Mac Seidel, a retired IT worker from Southlake, Texas, said at a Haley rally. "She's supporting the moderates out there."
Mr Seidel said he voted for Mr Trump twice, but his conduct around the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters and the unprecedented 91 criminal charges he is facing make him an unacceptable choice now.
Mr Trump faces both federal and state charges for election interference, though it is unclear whether either case will reach trial before November's election.
He also faces federal charges for retaining classified documents after leaving office, as well as this month's hush-money trial.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in every case and claimed without evidence that they are part of a Democratic conspiracy to prevent him from returning to power, leveraging his legal troubles to raise money and maintain supporters.
Katherine Meredith, 65, voted for Mr Trump in California's Huntington Beach, which includes a significant Trump base despite California being deeply Democratic.
Ms Meredith, a two-time Trump voter, said she did not even consider Ms Haley. "I don't like how she's dividing the Republican Party. I think a lot of her issues are Democratic. I think she's causing a big divide."
Astronauts cast votes hundreds of kilometres above Earth
Two NASA astronauts have performed their civic duty on board the International Space Station.
Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara confirmed they had cast their ballots on Super Tuesday in posts on social media.
"Being in space didn’t stop (O’Hara) and I from voting. Go vote today!" Ms Moghbeli wrote.
Being in space didn't stop @lunarloral and I from voting. Go vote today! pic.twitter.com/a50wYE0mZs
— Jasmin Moghbeli (@AstroJaws) March 5, 2024
According to NASA’s website, after an astronaut fills out an electronic absentee ballot on board the space station, the encrypted document goes through a tracking and data relay satellite to a ground antenna at the White Sands Complex in New Mexico.
From there, the ballot is sent to the Mission Control Centre in Houston and forwarded to the county clerk’s office.
