Former President Donald Trump has won the Missouri Republican Caucus over former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC).
The Associated Press called the caucus for Trump at 12:40 p.m. Eastern. As of 2:05 p.m., Trump had secured 100 percent of the 247 votes cast by statewide delegates, while Haley had not procured a vote from one of the more than 900 statewide delegates, according to the AP.
Missouri carries with it 54 national delegates, and the caucuses on Saturday kick off the allocation process, as the Associated Press notes:
Fifty-one of them are awarded to candidates through a monthslong process that begins Saturday. Eleven delegates will be awarded to candidates at the statewide level, while five delegates will be awarded from each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. That’s a combined total of 51 delegates at stake in what’s known as a “caucus-convention” system. The remaining three delegates are the state party chairman and Missouri’s Republican national committeeman and committeewoman, who may support any candidate they wish regardless of caucus results.
After he was declared the winner, Trump took social media to thank Missourians.
“THANK YOU, MISSOURI! Together, WE are going to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social:
This marks one of three Republican nominating contests underway on Saturday, as the Michigan State Convention and the Idaho Caucuses are also taking place.
This latest victory for Trump comes on the heels of his more than 40-point win over Haley, his last remaining opponent, in the Michigan Republican primary on Tuesday, where 16 of the state’s 55 delegates were bound; the rest will be allocated at the state convention. That was preceded by an embarrassing loss for Haley in her home state of South Carolina on February 27.
Saturday’s defeat in Missouri also follows Haley’s first endorsements from U.S. senators, which came on Friday. Haley landed the support of moderate Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME). In comparison, Trump is closing in on two dozen endorsements from members of the upper chamber.