Primaries called for Biden and Trump in North Carolina, AP reports

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The Associated Press has declared Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump as winners of the presidential primary race Tuesday in North Carolina.

Polls closed at 7:30 p.m. and Trump’s win was declared around 8 p.m., according to the wire service.

Just after 8:10 p.m., Biden had 90 percent of the vote statewide in North Carolina with 73,940 votes. Meanwhile, Trump had 77,802 votes or 73.18 percent, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

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Trump’s rival Nikki Haley had nearly 24 percent of the Republican vote with 21,724 votes.

President Biden and former President Trump started off the night by winning Virginia, which with North Carolina is among several states voting on Super Tuesday.

Biden, 81, and the 77-year-old Trump continue to dominate their parties despite both facing questions about their age and neither commanding broad popularity across the general electorate.

The earliest either can become his party’s presumptive nominee is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden. But, in a departure from most previous Super Tuesdays, both nominations are effectively settled, with Biden and Trump both looking ahead to a reprise of the 2020 general election.

“We have to beat Biden — he is the worst president in history,” Trump said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”

Biden countered with a pair of radio interviews aimed at shoring up his support among Black voters, who helped anchor his 2020 coalition.

“If we lose this election, you’re going to be back with Donald Trump,” Biden said on the “DeDe in the Morning” show hosted by DeDe McGuire. “The way he talks about, the way he acted, the way he has dealt with the African American community, I think, has been shameful.”

Despite Biden’s and Trump’s domination of their parties, polls make it clear that the broader electorate does not want this year’s general election to be identical to the 2020 race. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds a majority of Americans don’t think either Biden or Trump has the necessary mental acuity for the job.

“Both of them failed, in my opinion, to unify this country,” said Brian Hadley, 66, of Raleigh, North Carolina.

The final days before Tuesday demonstrated the unique nature of this year’s campaign. Rather than barnstorming the states holding primaries, Biden and Trump held rival events last week along the U.S.-Mexico border, each seeking to gain an advantage in the increasingly fraught immigration debate.

After the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 on Monday to restore Trump to primary ballots following attempts to ban him for his role in helping spark the Capitol riot, Trump pointed to the 91 criminal counts against him to accuse Biden of weaponizing the courts.

“Fight your fight yourself,” Trump said. “Don’t use prosecutors and judges to go after your opponent.”

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