Here's the latest from the 2024 campaign trail
- Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the 2024 presidential race after she lost all but one state in Super Tuesday's nomination contests.
- Haley’s move cedes the Republican nomination to former President Donald Trump and effectively kicks off the general election.
- Super Tuesday handed President Joe Biden blowout victories, as well, pushing him past the halfway point in the race to become the Democratic nominee. Biden has 1,818 delegates, with 1,968 needed for the Democratic nomination. Trump has 715 delegates, with 1,215 needed for the Republican nomination.
Katie Porter says she faced 'onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election'
Rep. Katie Porter, who failed to advance to the general election in the California Senate race on Super Tuesday, suggested on X tonight that she had battled an onslaught of billionaire spending "to rig this election."
"Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign and voted to shake up the status quo in Washington," Porter wrote. "Because of you, we had the establishment running scared — withstanding 3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election."
Trump has frequently referred to the 2020 election he lost as "rigged," despite assurances from election officials that votes were secure and there was no widespread voter fraud.
Porter also took aim at “special interests” that she said reigned over politicians.
“As we’ve seen in this campaign, they spend millions to defeat someone who will dilute their influence and disrupt the status quo,” she wrote.
Porter lost the Democratic Senate primary to Rep. Adam Schiff, who is set to face Republican Steve Garvey in November.
Steve Scalise at Trump fundraiser: GOP will have 'coalescence real soon'
Republican Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana urged party unity as they attended the Trump fundraiser in Washington.
NBC News asked the lawmakers about their message to Haley supporters whom Trump will most likely need to court to win.
"Hey, it’s time to unite. It’s time to win next fall,” Emmer said. “We’ll all get together. Everybody understands we can’t have four more years of Joe Biden.”
Scalise said he thinks the GOP will have a "coalescence real soon."
“Primaries are always tough, but at the end of the day, she was running because she didn’t like Joe Biden’s policies, and everybody’s got to come home,” Scalise said about Haley. “Donald Trump’s proven how he can get our economy going quickly, how we can secure the border [and] become energy independent, and we need to get there again quickly."
Donald Trump Jr. headlines fundraiser in Washington, D.C.
Hours after Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee for president, allies and friends of his held a fundraiser at the J.W. Marriott in downtown Washington — which, along with Vermont, was one of only two primaries he lost to Haley before she dropped out today.
The event, which was closed to the media, was headlined by remarks from his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and proceeds will go toward the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee.
An attendee who was in the room said Trump Jr. recounted going to a gas pump recently and being surprised at the price he had to pay. He then joked that if he, the son of a billionaire real estate mogul, thought it was expensive, he couldn’t imagine what everyone else thought.
Trump Jr. also ticked through the usual talking points about the importance of electing his father for the future of this country, according to the attendee.
The room was filled with a mix of donors and elected officials, some of whom arrived in suits and cowboy hats. Many of the attendees appeared to be college-age.
Trump senior advisers to meet with Senate Republicans
Trump senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita are expected to meet with the Senate Republican Conference next week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
LaCivita was previously engaged in talks with McConnell adviser and consigliere Josh Holmes to secure Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s endorsement. McConnell, R-Ky., endorsed Trump earlier today.
Wiles has functioned as Trump's de facto national campaign manager as he navigates a series of indictments heading into the general election.
'It's time to unite': Glenn Youngkin endorses Trump
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin endorsed Trump tonight, saying on X that "it's time to unite around strong leadership and policies that grow our great nation."
"Voters in the Commonwealth and across the country have spoken loudly for President Donald J. Trump and I endorse him for President of the United States," he wrote. "His record on border security, restoring American leadership around the world, reducing taxes and lowering the cost of living for all Americans stands in stark contrast to the open borders, failed leadership on the global stage, rampant inflation and higher costs of today."
Youngkin has long championed party unity heading into the November election, saying Republicans must “come around a nominee with universal support” this election in remarks at Washington and Lee University’s Mock Convention last month that Republicans must “come around a nominee with universal support.”
Prior to Haley dropping out this morning, the Virginia governor had indicated he would remain neutral until the primary was over. Youngkin did not use his well-organized and well-funded GOTV apparatus, “Secure Your Vote,” which he launched ahead of the 2023 statewide elections in Virginia, to help Trump or Haley.
Ohio GOP Senate candidates tangle over Trump and 'trust'
The three Republicans competing in Ohio’s March 19 Senate primary met tonight for their final debate — an hourlong clash that repeatedly focused on Trump and how closely the candidates hew to conservative ideology.
“Who do you trust?” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose asked in the early minutes at Miami University in Oxford. “You’re going to hear a lot of talking points tonight from both of my opponents. They’re both desperate to convince you that they’re conservatives.”
Businessman Bernie Moreno, who has Trump’s endorsement, led off his remarks by cheering the end of Haley’s presidential campaign, which cedes the GOP nomination to the former president.
“Do you want a senator that’s going to have President Trump’s back, that has his endorsement?” Moreno asked, before he name-checked more moderate Republicans. “Or do you want the Nikki Haley-Liz Cheney-Mitt Romney wing of the party? That’s the choice.”
State Sen. Matt Dolan, the only candidate who hasn’t tried to merge his political identity with Trump’s, was also the only candidate not to mention Trump in his opening statement.
“I know some of you don’t always agree with what I’ve said, but I can guarantee you this: You know it’s always been about Ohio,” said Dolan, who often emphasizes that he supports Trump policies. “My opponents are reinventing themselves for their political interest.”
The winner of the primary will face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.
LaRose and Moreno were critics of Trump in 2016, before he was elected president. And both have come under scrutiny for shifting their policy positions and tone over the years. LaRose, once a proud No Labels moderate, now tacks much further right. Moreno needled him tonight for a call the centrist group had planned with him this week but canceled at the last minute.
Dolan’s more consistent ambivalence about Trump became a focal point later in the debate, when LaRose pressed him to endorse the former president’s 2024 campaign.
“Of course I’m going to support President Trump,” Dolan replied. “But here’s the thing: I am going to fight for Ohio. My commitment in this race has always been about you.”
During another round of Trump questions, Dolan sought a little distance.
“His personality? It’s not me. His political style? It’s not me,” Dolan said. “But his policies that make your life better, that make America stronger, that will make Ohio stronger? That is me.”
LaRose acknowledged that people “may find [Trump’s] personality abrasive.”
Moreno, who eight years ago called Trump a “maniac,” keyed in on their comments.
“Let me just say something that needs to be said that hasn’t been said,” Moreno said. “He’s a good man. President Trump’s a good man. This idea that I support his policies but not the personal — it’s a bunch of BS.”
Nicholas Barry, a Miami University student who watched the debate, said he thought Moreno touted the Trump endorsement too much.
“I would prefer him to be able to stand on his own two legs, rather than using MAGA as a crutch,” said Barry, 20, who added that he thought LaRose won the debate.
Another student, Matthew Lodge, 20, said he didn’t see a clear winner.
“There was, however, a clear loser,” Lodge said. “Republican moderates.”
RFK Jr. campaign to host karaoke event just steps away from the site of his father's assassination
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign is hosting a "Sing for Independence" karaoke event at a venue across the street from the demolished Ambassador Hotel, where his father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign.
Asked for comment, the campaign said that the event was "simply an opportunity for the Kennedy24 Los Angeles team to connect with the local community" and that the venue was chosen "because of its diverse clientele and a long-standing tradition of celebrating a shared love of music."
Kennedy is not expected to appear at the event.
The date is also a coincidence, as Kennedy Sr. was assassinated the day after the California primary. The karaoke event is scheduled for tonight, the day after Californians voted in yesterday's Super Tuesday primaries.
‘A clarion call’: Democratic donors sound the alarm to Biden about strength of ‘uncommitted’
A network of major Democratic donors is raising the alarm about Biden’s performance in Michigan, calling the traction of “uncommitted” in last week’s Democratic presidential primary a “wake-up call” for the president in the critical battleground state.
In a memo to donors shared with NBC News by a recipient, Way to Win, the network of deep-pocketed progressives, urged members to “not try to argue ourselves out of the fact that Michigan is a major warning signal that something needs to change.”
“Michigan’s 100,000+ uncommitted voters in 2024 are a siren, and a clarion call,” wrote Way to Win’s co-founders, Tory Gavito and Jenifer Fernandez Ancona. “The energy behind ‘uncommitted’ is not something that should be ignored, taken lightly, or dismissed as isolated to Michigan. Michigan 2024 is not an anomaly, just as Michigan 2016 was not.”
Bill Cassidy on whether he will endorse Trump: 'I plan on voting for a Republican'
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said simply that he plans to vote for a Republican when he was asked whether he will endorse Trump.
"I plan on voting for a Republican," he told NBC News. "That’s kind of the only thing I’m saying about that right now."
Cassidy has been a critic of Trump. He has said he believes Trump should drop out of the race, and he voted to convict Trump after he was impeached for the second time in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump was acquitted after both impeachment trials.
Chuck Grassley urges Trump to 'put out a list' of SCOTUS picks
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, suggested on X this afternoon that Trump should "put out a list" of people he plans to appoint to the Supreme Court if he's elected, citing the former president's previous success after he made such a list ahead of the 2016 election.
Before the 2016 election, Trump released a list of potential picks to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia as Senate Republicans were blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for the vacant seat, contending that it should remain open until after the election.
There are no vacancies on the Supreme Court. In 2022, Justice Stephen Breyer retired at age 83 after having served more than 27 years on the court, enabling Biden to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson. The oldest justice is Clarence Thomas, who is 75. He has served on the high court for over 32 years.