Michigan 2024 primary results: Donald Trump wins GOP primary over Nikki Haley

• Former President Donald Trump wins Michigan Republican primary over Nikki Haley 
• Win solidifies Trump’s frontrunner status and sets up likely general election rematch against President Joe Biden
• Trump, Haley will compete for additional nominating delegates at the Michigan Republican Party caucuses on Saturday

LANSING — Former President Donald Trump scored a decisive win in the Michigan Republican primary on Tuesday, strengthening his grip on the GOP nomination with a strong performance in the battleground state. 

With roughly 98% of all ballots counted as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, Trump secured nearly three times the votes as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, securing 68.2% compared to Haley’s 26.5%. 

The Associated Press called the race for Trump at 9 p.m. Tuesday as the state’s last polls closed in the western Upper Peninsula.

Related:

• Why Michigan GOP has a presidential primary and caucus convention this year
• In northern Michigan, voters admit qualms about Trump, still will vote for him
• Michigan 2024 primary results: Joe Biden wins the Dem ticket

The victory means Trump will secure a majority of the 16 presidential nominating delegates that were up for grabs in the GOP primary.

The Michigan Republican Party plans to award another 39 national nominating delegates through congressional district caucuses on Saturday, a process complicated by a leadership feud that spawned dueling conventions.

President Joe Biden won Michigan’s Democratic primary on Tuesday ahead of a likely general election rematch with Trump, who he beat in the state by 154,188 votes four years ago.

The primary proved another stinging blow for Haley, who came into the contest reeling from a weekend loss in her home state but campaigned in Michigan and has vowed to stay in the race through Super Tuesday elections next week. 

Trump’s win shows his staying power with Michigan Republicans, who backed the former president despite multiple ongoing criminal cases, including a federal indictment stemming from his failed bid to overturn his 2020 loss.

Prosecutors allege Trump’s efforts in Michigan, including his attempt to pressure election canvassers and his campaign’s promotion of “fake electors,” were part of a criminal conspiracy to undermine democracy and stay in power. 

Trump has decried the charges as a political “witch hunt” and so-far unsuccessfully argued he should qualify for presidential immunity that would shield him from criminal prosecution. 

Some voters who spoke to Bridge ahead of the election said the charges against Trump had only steeled their loyalty to him. Others cited economic factors for their desire to see Trump return to the White House. 

Calls for GOP unity

Trump repeated his claims about Michigan's 2020 election on Tuesday morning, telling a conservative radio host that a victory this November would be "even sweeter" because the last contest was "rigged."

"I love Michigan, he said. "We're going to bring your jobs back. They've been stolen over many years."

Trump celebrated his primary win later Tuesday, calling Michigan voters "incredible" and saying the state will be important to his general election campaign.

"We have a very simple task: we have to win on November 5, and we're going to win big, and it's going to be like nothing that anybody has ever seen," Trump said in a phone call to Michigan Republicans gathered at a primary night watch party in Grand Rapids . “It's going to be fantastic."

The primary results show Michigan voters want "Trump's leadership in the White House," state House Minority Leader Matt Hall, a Richland Township Republican who endorsed Trump earlier this month, said in a statement.

"It’s time for all Republicans to unify behind President Donald J. Trump so we can lead our great state and nation back to prosperity," Hall said. "Together, we will win up and down the ticket this November.”

But a Haley campaign spokesperson argued Trump's win came with "flashing warning signs" for the former president because 3 of 10 GOP primary voters showed they wanted an alternative.

Michigan Republicans have lost several key elections since Trump became the party’s standard bearer, and under his leadership, the state GOP is “now fractured and divided,” Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, a Kent County judge ruled former Michigan Republican Party Chair Kristina Karamo was properly removed from her post last month. The decision paved the way for Trump-backed Pete Hoekstra to lead the state GOP in the general election. 

Hoekstra on Tuesday called Trump the party’s “presumptive nominee” ahead of a state party presidential caucus Saturday in Grand Rapids.

‘The people element matters’

Trump focused heavily on Michigan in his first two presidential campaigns, capping both with large rallies in Grand Rapids. His 2016 win over Hillary Clinton made him the first Republican to carry the state in nearly three decades. 

He was unable to repeat that feat in 2020 when moderates and suburban voters abandoned him in large numbers to back Biden in a pandemic-era election that was marked by the COVID-19 crises. 

Bridge Michigan spoke to several voters Tuesday in Kent County, a former GOP stronghold that Biden won last year by six percentage points, the largest margin for a Democratic presidential candidate there since 1964.

Gina Doorn, a 60-something from Lowell Township, said she voted for Trump in the GOP primary because of his "policies that put people first,"  citing crime and immigration as two of her top concerns heading into the fall general election. 

Doorn told Bridge she has voted Democratic in the past, including for Barack Obama in 2008, but feels the party has "crossed the line beyond common sense on several issues."

As an athlete and coach herself, Doorn said she’s "disgusted" by the push to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls sports, which Democrats have generally championed as a form of inclusion. 

"The people element matters," she said, "and I feel like Democrats have lost the people element entirely.”

Jill Golden, a 69-year-old Grand Rapids resident, said she voted in the Republican primary too but couldn't support any of the candidates at this time, so she cast an "uncommitted" ballot instead. 

Golden said she voted for Trump in 2016 but backed Biden in 2020. Now, she has "concerns about lots of different issues" and is frustrated that Biden and Trump are likely to be the nominees again this fall. 

"I really don't feel like I have a good choice for myself," she said. "I don't think that's going to change before the (November) election, so I have to do some serious soul searching before then."

Trump has continued to focus on Michigan this cycle with three campaign rallies over the past year. He most recently returned to Oakland County, a former battleground he lost by a wide margin in 2020. 

In his visits, Trump has worked to woo blue collar workers by blasting Biden’s support for electric vehicles, which he argues will ultimately cost Michigan jobs because they require less human labor to build. 

Trump lashed out at United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain last month when the union endorsed Biden, who had joined a Detroit picket line amid a strike that concluded in October with higher-wage contracts. 

Trump has repeatedly predicted Michigan auto workers will vote for him despite the UAW endorsement. 

“If we win Michigan, we win the election,” he said this month.