Biden and Trump notch more wins Tuesday as primary voters urge them to keep up the fight

As Joe Biden and Donald Trump moved closer to a November rematch, primary voters around the country on Tuesday urged their favored candidate to keep up the fight and worried about what might happen if their side loses this fall.

There was little suspense about Tuesday's results as both candidates are already their parties' presumptive nominees. Trump easily won Republican primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Biden did the same except in Florida, where Democrats had canceled their primary and opted to award all 224 of their delegates to Biden.

Instead, the primaries and key downballot races became a reflection of the national political mood. With many Americans unenthusiastic about 2024’s choice for the White House, both Biden and Trump’s campaigns are working to fire up their bases by tearing into each other and warning of the perils of the opponent.

Those who did turn out to vote Tuesday seemed to hear that.

Pat Shackleford, an 84-year-old caregiver in Mesa, Arizona, said she voted for Trump in Arizona's primary to send the former president a message.

"I wanted to encourage him that the fight has been worthwhile, that more of us are behind him than maybe the media tells you,” Shackleford said.

Supporters of Donald Trump cheer at a campaign rally.

Jamie and Cassandra Neal, sisters who both live in Phoenix, said they were unenthusiastic Biden supporters until they saw the vigor the president brought to his State of the Union speech. It fired them up for the coming election.

"Beforehand it was like, ‘Well, he’s the only decent one there,’” said Cassandra Neal, 42. "After his address it was like, ‘OK, let’s do it!’”

Jamie Neal, 45, said Biden had been "way too nice” before and needed to match Trump, whom she described as "vicious.”

"I hate to say it, sometimes you need to equal the lowness to get the person out," she said. "Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.”

In Ohio’s Republican Senate primary, Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno defeated two challengers, Ohio Secretary of State Frank Frank LaRose and Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team.

Moreno and Trump appeared together Saturday at a rally where Trump praised his endorsed candidate as a "warrior” and ramped up his dark rhetoric, saying that were he not to be elected, "it's going to be a bloodbath for the country.” His campaign insists he was referring to the auto industry and not the country as a whole.

Associated Press