Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Projects Trump Wins North Carolina, Virginia; CNN Projects Trump Wins North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 05, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: So you - we'll watch that play out in the next hour. But if you are the Trump campaign, especially in rural America, you're watching this, this was not one of your best states if you're Donald Trump in 2016. John Kasich came in right behind you in second place.
More of a quirky place, more of a libertarian place, a lot of independents in Vermont, so we'll watch this one play out, Jake. But if you look at the big picture and pull it out, again, that's a lot of Trump red as we start to move into the busy hours of the night.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. And we are closing in on 8 PM Eastern when all voting will end in five states with a total of 211 crucial Republican delegates up for grabs. And we now have a key race alert. It is too early to call in the following states, Alabama, which has 50 delegates at stake, too early to call; Maine, which has 20 delegates at stake, too early to call; Massachusetts, with 40 delegates at stake, too early to call. Let's look at Oklahoma. Oklahoma, 43 delegates at stake, too early to call; Tennessee, 58 delegates at stake, too early to call.
Now let's look at some of the voting as they're actually coming in, actual votes. Back to the state of Vermont, Donald Trump still in the lead, 10 percent estimated vote in. Donald Trump has 51.4 percent of the vote, 3,601 votes. He's 456 votes ahead of Nikki Haley, who has 44.9 percent of the vote. Again, that's with only 10 percent of the vote in, but still, at some point, we're going to see whether Nikki Haley is able to even make one stand in Vermont this evening, because we thought - she thought, her campaign thought, maybe she was going to be able to at least make a stand of some sort in Virginia. We've already called Virginia for Donald Trump.
KING: And you just teed up the states where we'll get votes in the minutes, and then hours ahead. You don't have to follow politics every day like we do to think you're not expecting Nikki Haley to beat Donald Trump in Oklahoma. You're not expecting Nikki Haley to beat Donald Trump in Alabama. You're not expecting Nikki Haley to beat Donald Trump in Tennessee. So the question is, can she do anything tonight? Again, to convince her donors it's worth staying on another Tuesday or another couple months and the like.
At the moment, you see nothing. So you go back and look at the Vermont votes, just again, since you were here. No updates since you were here. You're watching a very tiny amount come in. You need them up in Burlington, you need them in Rutland, Montpelier's the state capital. Again, a more quirky state, a more independent-minded state, where, as you noted earlier, the Republican governor, who is no fan of Donald Trump, has endorsed Nikki Haley. The Republican senator, no fan of Donald Trump, Susan Collins, has endorsed her here in Maine.
Does that matter anymore in politics, is it enough, that's the big question. Because one of the things, Donald Trump is now the Republican establishment. I think that's a fair statement. But he runs against that old Republican establishment. Anyone who had a title or was involved before he got here, he runs against them.
And again, as you - just look at the map, and you pull it up, Jake, it's amazing. I just want to pop, we've already projected this, but you look at this, right? So we have a lot of votes to count still. We've projected this.
TAPPER: Only 2 percent of the vote has been ...
KING: Only 2 percent of the vote.
TAPPER: ... yes.
KING: But we have our exit polls, we have key precincts, so we're very safe and confident in our projection. But if you just look at this, it just gets you at the fundamental strength, and then the glaring weakness of Donald Trump as we look ahead into the general election. So just, I'm going to pick a random, okay, 80 percent, right? This is what Donald Trump does. Only 1 percent of the vote in, but watch, we'll come back at the end of the night, it'll be relatively close to that as you go through it. That's in a county there.
So watch this. Let's bring that back up. Let's bring Rockingham County back up. Let's come over here and we're going to look at education, right? So only 26 percent of the people in that county have college degrees. When you have a non-college degree environment, people with a high school education are left, that is Donald Trump's wheelhouse. That is where he gets numbers that look like that, right?
So let's move this down here for a minute. That's Rockingham County. Let me pull back out to the statewide map. You see the Haley yellow in these places, right? So let's pull up right here. We'll pull up Wake County, right? Look what just happened. She's getting nearly 57 percent of the vote, look at the difference. The percentage of college graduates goes up to 64 percent, right?
Hard to follow as I switch around. So I'm going to leave this up here. We'll leave this up here. That's Wake County. I'm going to move over here to Durham County, right? Again, 59 percent of the people have college degrees. Nikki Haley winning with 57 percent of the vote. Then you move up - then just pick one here, Donald Trump's winning here with 81 percent of the vote. Look what just happened, right? The percentage of college degrees drops way, way down.
It is the single biggest dividing line in American politics period right now and we're watching that dividing line play out in a fascinating way in the Republican primaries, where Donald Trump is marching to the Republican nomination. But among voters with a college degree, a bachelor's degree or higher, who tend to live in suburban areas across America, he has a giant problem. And many of them were the Republicans who elected Glenn Youngkin, governor of Virginia. George W. Bush, the last Republican before Donald Trump, elected president of the United States.
Those are the kind of voters they are. But they are voting more and more Democratic in general elections. A lot of them are voting for Nikki Haley tonight. And again, as we watch Donald Trump's considerable strengths, and I do not want to understate them, they are many, as he marches here toward the nomination, he has some big holes, big holes. And is North Carolina a battleground state? We'll see when we get to November.
[20:05:03]
But a lot of people like that live in suburban Milwaukee, live in suburban Detroit, live where you're from or right in the collar counties around Philadelphia, there's a lot of voters just like that. And Donald Trump, for all his strengths, still has a glaring weakness with them.
TAPPER: Yes. David Chalian, this is really interesting and important. Two things that we're looking at here, one, and most importantly, without question, the dominance of Donald Trump when it comes to the Republican primary field. As of right now, we have some votes in from Massachusetts, just a few, barely any.
KING: Right.
TAPPER: But generally speaking ...
KING: You ever been to Norton, Massachusetts?
TAPPER: Sure, I've driven through it, I think, but ...
KING: You probably have (inaudible) ...
TAPPER: But the complete dominance of Donald Trump when it comes to the Republican primaries, we've never seen anything like this in modern presidential politics, a non-incumbent. He didn't win the D.C. primary, but he's won every other contest. But David Chalian, some red flags for the Trump campaign, in the sense that Nikki Haley is winning areas of North Carolina, even though she lost the state, we've already projected it. Nikki Haley is winning parts where the voters - a majority of voters have a college degree.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. There's no doubt about that. And as John is saying, that college divide, normally you don't see the same kind of divide play out in a general election as you do inside a primary, but it speaks to the fundamental divide in the Republican Party. The Trump takeover of the party and where the party has moved in the Trump era. The divide between the Haley and Trump voters, as it comes to the education level, is the same kind of divide we're going to see between Joe Biden and Donald Trump come November. So you are getting a preview of that.
I would just note, Jake, we are seeing, in some of these North Carolina results, the work that Donald Trump is going to have to do to bring some of that Haley support into the fold. Some of it will happen naturally, of course. They'll put on the R jersey in November, and they will vote for Donald Trump.
But you can see here, among people who say they're not part of the MAGA movement, which is a significant chunk in North Carolina. Haley wins them, as you might expect, 50 percent to 45 percent. So I just take a look at that and say, okay, how much of that Haley 50 percent of those that don't identify with Trump's big political movement naturally comes to Donald Trump in November and how much remains resistant where Joe Biden can go fishing for votes?
We could do this sort of demographic by demographic in these primary results, Donald Trump dominating inside his party. But there are pockets of voters that we will be asking about for the next eight months across these states as to what slice of these Republican primary voters remains so resistant to Donald Trump that they may actually be available voters for Joe Biden, maybe stay home, maybe vote third party.
KING: And so to jump in and to follow up, I want to go to the other map, to the 2020, come back to the 2020 presidential election to echo the point. So Joe Biden has some bleeding problems, too, right? Donald Trump has made inroads with Latino voters, especially males. There's some evidence he's making some inroads - modest inroads with African- American voters.
TAPPER: Especially African-American men.
KING: African-American males as well. That matters in Milwaukee. That matters in Detroit. That matters in Philadelphia. That matters in Atlanta. I can go across the country in the background states. But to David's point about who can get there, can Joe Biden stop the bleeding in the Democratic base and then who gets those Haley voters? You say, oh, why does that matter?
Well, this was a good one. Joe Biden, 155,000 votes nearly here, 154,000 in change here. Of the battleground states, that was the big lead, right? Every vote matters. If you're bleeding those Muslim- Americans who are mad at you, can you get the Haley voters?
Well, look at the margin here. The other battleground states were so close. The other battleground states were so close in 2020 and also in 2016 that if Donald Trump is bleeding Haley voters, they're available to Joe Biden, that's enough to make up a margin, in a place like that, 20,000 votes. You come here. In a giant state, 7 million votes cast almost 81,000 votes is your margin, right, in Pennsylvania. You go down to Georgia, it's 11,000 votes. And so close elections are won on the margin, so where do those Haley voters go? Can Joe Biden shore up the bleeding he has in the Democratic base? And I'll pose a question tonight that we won't - we can't answer tonight, we won't be able to answer for some time, in what states do which third party candidates get on the ballot?
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: In an election this close, I think that may end up being as defining a question as the education divide and the other divides in our politics in what states or which candidates from the third party perspective on the ballot.
TAPPER: Punch up the North Carolina map, if you would, John. I want to bring in Jeff Zeleny, because he's been talking to people on the Biden campaign.
And Jeff Zeleny, what can you tell us about the Biden campaign? I'm sure this evening they're looking at North Carolina, not just for the Democratic votes, but for the Haley votes.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORREPONDENT: Without question, Jake. And this is something that the Biden campaign has really been studying week by week in Michigan, of course, but particularly in North Carolina.
[20:10:05]
And here is why, you look at the fast-growing suburbs around Raleigh, Wake County, around Charlotte, Mecklenburg County that John was just talking about there. And this is why the Biden campaign believes that North Carolina could offer promising ground for them in November.
The margin of victory for Donald Trump shrunk considerably from 2016 to 2020 by some 74,000 votes. Those fast-growing areas certainly offer some promise. I was at a Nikki Haley rally just over the weekend in Charlotte talking to many of those voters. And it's remarkable to hear these conversations come alive.
Many Republicans, we're not talking protest votes here, they say they simply can't vote for Donald Trump. Now, some say they also can't vote for Joe Biden. John was just mentioning third-party candidates. That came up again and again and again from Nikki Haley voters. They are just frustrated by this - the idea of a rematch here. So the Biden campaign at their headquarters in Wilmington and, indeed, at the White House, they're looking at these results very carefully.
So even though the lessons for Nikki Haley, her supporters may not help her candidacy, but we'll see how that goes, they certainly could be very telling. The Biden campaign is already opening a headquarters in Raleigh. They'll be opening others there. So the Trump campaign knows they will have to spend considerable money in North Carolina as well.
But again, talking to a Democratic official there, they say, look, the area is growing in other places as well. Many people are moving down from Pennsylvania, other Northeast states. So it is a fascinating laboratory, that's what's interesting about every presidential campaign year by year. North Carolina now is certainly part of that Sun Belt, will be watching this in November, 16 electoral votes. It certainly could be an insurance policy, Jake?
KING: Jeff, I'm going to jump in (inaudible) I'm jumping quickly. I'll get to Jake in a second. I just want to echo the point ...
ZELENY: John.
KING: ... that Jeff is making there.
ZELENY: Sure.
KING: Here you are, the research triangle. Here you are here. You come out, I'll just circle the Asheville area out here as well. And you look at, this is where Nikki Haley is doing well tonight. We'll see what the final results are, but this is where Nikki Haley is doing well tonight. North Carolina is probably the greatest demographic, education-wise, political parties, tug of war, one of the greatest states in the United States to watch a 50-50 tug of war.
So you see the circles there are where Haley's doing very well tonight. Then you go back to the 2020 presidential map. Overlaps, right? Those are the places Joe Biden won in North Carolina, even though he lost the state.
So some Trump supporter might say, oh, well, they're just Democrats. No. They are Republicans, Jake. There are some Democrats, they're independents, but they are suburban voters who, if we were back in the day of George W. Bush, even George H.W. Bush, when Republicans won the suburbs on issues like crime, on issues like lower taxes, they're those kinds of voters.
But we have seen in recent years since the Obama presidency and especially in the Trump age, more money in their pockets, higher education level, they tend to vote Democratic and they are voting for Nikki Haley tonight in North Carolina, and those are the very voters. Joe Biden, as Jeff said, lost by 75,000 votes, 74,000 and change in South Carolina.
But that was a lot better than Hillary Clinton did four years before that. So we talk about, is Virginia back in play? I doubt it. Is North Carolina back in play? I doubt that too, except for that down-ballot governor's race. You never know. That's why these nights are so interesting.
TAPPER: All right, John King. Let's bring you now a key race alert because we are getting actual votes now from some of these commonwealths and states. In the state of Texas, 161 delegates at stake. Donald Trump is by far in the lead, 72.3 percent of the vote, 179,250 votes. That's 123,354 votes more than Nikki Haley, who has 22.5 percent of the vote. That's 11 percent of the estimated vote in.
In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where 40 delegates are at stake, Nikki Haley is, right now, with a very few votes in, just over 500, in the lead. She has 49.7 percent of the vote, 282 votes. That's 27 more than Donald Trump, who has 45 percent of the vote. That's 255 votes. That's just a few votes sprinkled in there.
In the state of Vermont, Donald Trump, 17 delegates at stake. Donald Trump is in the lead, 51.2 percent of the vote. That is 5,535 votes. He's 630 votes ahead of Nikki Haley, who has 45.3 percent of the vote. That's with an estimated 15 percent of the vote. That is still a lot of votes to be counted.
John King, show me what we got in Texas, if you would. I see you have the Commonwealth of Massachusetts up there, but that's just about 500 votes, so ...
KING: Yes.
TAPPER: ... what do you got out of Texas?
KING: Texas is a little bigger. Texas is a little bigger. We've got more than 200,000 votes already in Texas, and you're seeing it play in. Again, no major population centers. If you look, you see Dallas, you see Austin, you see Houston, one of the fastest-growing areas, if not the fastest-growing area in the country.
Ed Lavandera was out in El Paso, San Antonio, Laredo.
[20:15:01]
No - none of - but you're looking up here some of the Dallas suburban areas coming in, Collin County up here Trump winning. That's a quick count, right? So you have a quick count in the state here Donald Trump winning north of Dallas, Donald Trump winning Denton County here. This is a - this was - this is a Trump state. We're not looking. But again, you're going to look for the same questions, what about the Dallas suburbs? What about Austin, which is a college town? It's a blue spot within the state of Texas. What about when you get down here to Harris County in Houston? Do you see the same things happening?
But this is a giant. You mentioned second only to California when it comes to your batch of delegates and it's an early lead for Donald Trump and there is zero expectation. We'll count votes as we always do, but the Trump people believe they have this one wired quite well, especially because you get later in the campaign like this, you're not spending as much time campaigning in these states. You're not spending as much money on television in these states. This is indigenous support, and Donald Trump's support in Texas is deep.
TAPPER: It is indeed. Nikki Haley with 22.5 percent of the vote. It's only about a 10th of the vote in.
KING: Right.
TAPPER: This isn't a state that she is particularly raising expectations on, although she did visit the other day. But in the same way that we're looking at other states to see where Donald Trump's potential weaknesses might be, and certainly we spent a lot of the night of the Michigan primary a week ago talking about Joe Biden's potential weaknesses, but when you're looking at Donald Trump's potential weaknesses, not over the state of Texas, but in terms of demographics ...
KING: Right.
TAPPER: ... specific voters, who might actually go for Joe Biden, even if they are Republicans, what parts of Texas are you going to be looking at?
KING: Well, so Harris County votes just come in, so let's start here. Again, this is a giant, fast-growing county. It has the city of Houston, but then the county has been stretched out. It's an incredible, diverse - very rich, diverse. There's a lot of - Republicans were mad about the drop boxes down here. This is one of the states Gov. Abbott rolled back some of the COVID voting things down here. This was a huge battleground for voting rights in 2020, but it's one of the fast-growing.
So you've got an urban area here that will be solid blue, and then you have some suburbs where you have a fair amount of Republican voters. And so you watch how that plays out. About half the vote in there already, Trump - getting 77 percent, if you round that up there in Harris County. But again, that's something we want to look at.
Is Haley - and it's in the places where Haley did not campaign as much or spend as much, where maybe there's not as much attention on the race, does she stay above 30 or is she declining in these states? Now, the Trump campaign will make the argument - this is a Republican state and her number's lower if it stays like that and that's their way to make the case that - careful with the fire alarms.
Now, I make the argument and I'll make it through November, suburbs in 2020 and 2018 in the midterm elections, the suburbs were Donald Trump's kryptonite, and we still see some evidence of his weaknesses in these primaries. So you keep making the case. But as they watch this happen, they'll look down here. Travis County is where Austin is. This is a strong Democratic stronghold. Doesn't mean there's not Republicans there. That's where the state capitol is.
So we'll look for that as more results come in, in Texas to see if, in the urban areas, does it pull down ultimately that percentage? Is Haley getting enough votes in places? Because I just said, there's a ton of Trump, especially in these small, rural counties. I mean, if you go back, just take a look at the 2020 election. Democrats can win the cities and the close-in suburbs, even in a place like Texas, you think of it as a red state, but just look at that. I mean, this is what Donald Trump does. And when you go into these counties, this is the general election.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: He's getting 77 percent. This is his foundation. It makes him an incredibly formidable candidate anywhere that has small-town and rural America in it. So we come back to the here and now, and you bring it in. We're waiting for that to fill in. So, you, I just showed you how he did in the general election last time. None of this has filled in yet. Most of that vote's going to him.
The question is, again, in the suburbs, like everywhere else, we have some Oklahoma. Oklahoma's another fascinating state. So many of these states demographically are changing. Oklahoma's a red state, you know, Oklahoma's a red state. But Oklahoma County, where Oklahoma City is, if you go back in time, you come back here, it's - Joe Biden, that's pretty close, right? That's pretty close.
So there are a lot of Democrats in the Oklahoma City area here. So you watch this play out. Now we're back here, but you have, at the moment - at the moment, you've totally - total Trump red. So as he moves into the southern states and you move west, Trump is expecting not only to win, but to dominate. The challenge is, can Haley, again, let's just check on Vermont. It's close as we get more votes in Vermont. It's close-ish there, so you keep an eye on that one and then you come down here, where she's leading in Massachusetts.
But at the moment, it's just Norton and Provincetown, that's all we have out of my commonwealth. Two very small communities have reported so far. And after tonight, we have the Commonwealth of Virginia. So what's left? We have Pennsylvania and Kentucky, but we'll focus on this commonwealth for a little bit as we count the votes.
TAPPER: Yes. All right. Donald Trump is dominating the early contests on this Super Tuesday with wins in Virginia and North Carolina just so far. We're standing by to see how he fares in a slew of other states. We're going to get an update on the key delegate count right now.
With another poll closing time just around the corner, so much more ahead, we're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:23:54]
TAPPER: It's Super Tuesday on CNN. We have another projection to share right now. CNN is projecting that Donald Trump will win the Oklahoma Republican primary, 43 delegates at stake. Donald Trump will win the Oklahoma Republican primary. That is the third one this evening that we have called for former President Trump. Let's take a look at all the states that Donald Trump has won to date.
He has won Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and this evening we projected that he would win the Commonwealth of Virginia. That is quite a romping for a non-incumbent presidential candidate.
Let us now look at the Democratic primary in Oklahoma where CNN projects Joe Biden, the incumbent president, will win with 36 delegates at stake. That is Joe Biden's latest victory this evening that we projected in addition to victories in other commonwealths and states.
[20:25:03]
Let's go to North Carolina right now because earlier, Boris Sanchez noted a projection for the Republican nominee for the governor. There's a big governor's race, and you have some news on the other side of the aisle.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. CNN is now projecting that North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein will be the Democrat in this race come November. Stein made a name for himself as Attorney General by suing the Trump administration multiple times on a variety of issues, including the environment. Stein has a big war chest as well as the backing of the state's governor, Roy Cooper, who is term limited. This is a preview now as we look at the projection that CNN has made on the Republican side that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will be the Republican candidate in that race. This is a preview of what will no doubt be one of, if not the most competitive governor's race come November, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Boris, thanks so much. Appreciate it. We have a key race alert for you now because we're getting actual votes in for some of these states that we have yet to call. In Texas, with 161 delegates at stake, Donald Trump is in the lead, 74.1 percent of the vote. That's 394,099 votes. More than 283,000 votes, more than Nikki Haley, who has 20.7 percent of the vote. That's with an estimated 24 percent of the estimated vote, about a quarter of the vote in from Texas.
Tonight, in the state of Vermont, with 17 delegates at stake, Donald Trump is in the lead. It's close, but he's still in the lead, 48.8 percent of the vote, with 9,244 votes. That's 211 more than Nikki Haley, who has 47.7 percent of the vote. That's with an estimated 27 percent of the vote in.
In the state of Tennessee, with 58 delegates at stake, Donald Trump is in the lead with 80.6 percent of the vote. That's 25,112 votes, and that is 19,998 more than Nikki Haley, who has 16.4 percent of the vote. That's with only an estimated 4 percent of the vote in.
In Maine, which should prove a battleground again in November, Donald Trump has 74 percent of the vote, 1,552 votes. That's about 1,000 more than Nikki Haley, who has about a quarter of the vote, 24.4 percent of the vote. Twenty delegates at stake there. That's only 2 percent of the estimated vote there.
And then in Massachusetts, with 40 delegates at stake, this is the one place where Nikki Haley is, at least as of right now, in the lead, 48.6 percent of the vote, 1,371 votes. That's 48 votes more than Donald Trump, who has 46.9 percent of the vote. Not a lot of votes in from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Let's take a look at Vermont now, if we can. Donald Trump just jumped ahead of Nikki Haley at 48.8 percent of the vote. He has 9,244 votes. That's 211 more than Nikki Haley with 47.7 percent of the vote. That's 27 percent of the estimated vote.
And let's go back to Vermont. She just jumped. Nikki Haley has 48.3 percent of the vote over Donald Trump, 48.3 percent of the vote. Nikki Haley just jumped ahead of Donald Trump. That's only three votes more than Donald Trump. That's a 28 percent of the estimated vote.
David Chalian, what are you guys getting in there at the exit poll desk?
CHALIAN: Well, we're also tracking delegates here tonight, Jake. And I got to tell you, one place that Nikki Haley is not getting anything is in the realm of delegates tonight. There are 865 delegates at stake tonight on this Super Tuesday in the Republican contest. We have been able to allocate 109 delegates so far, all to Donald Trump. Nikki Haley, zero delegates so far tonight.
This could be the story of the night. Donald Trump stretching his delegate lead to an almost insurmountable place, so far 109 tonight. Look at now where his totals are to date in this contest. You need 1,215 delegates to become the Republican presidential nominee. Donald Trump, 385 now. Nikki Haley, way back at 43. That is going to be the key metric to watch all night long, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, David Chalian. Let's look at the vote board here, the magic wall. What are you looking at right now? First of all, it looks like Massachusetts has jumped back to Trump.
KING: Massachusetts and Vermont are jumping around. One second before we get there, just to reinforce what David said. Look, Nikki Haley has no public events past tonight, right?
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: And so I have no inside information, I'm just saying it is hard. It is hard. She stayed in this race because she had donors backing her. And she said it was important to give Republicans a chance, give Republicans in more states ...
TAPPER: A choice, yes.
KING: ... a chance and a choice, right?
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: So that's math number one. You can look at it that way. By the end of the night, that's likely to be over a thousand, right?
That's another way to look at it.
TAPPER: Yes.
[20:30:05]
KING: It is hard, even for the deep pocketed, never trumped donors in the Republican Party, and there are a lot of them. They don't have to waste their money. And so the idea was, can she have a chance? So that's part of it right there as you bring that up. So now you look, where are we?
You're looking at this. You're looking at the map here right now. And again, if you're Governor Haley, Ambassador Haley, you want to convince those donors, I want to stay in another week, if that's what she wants, you need some wind somewhere. She's three votes ahead right now in Vermont, so we need to be very careful. We'll just continue to count to about 28 percent of the vote. My home state, Massachusetts, has been jumping back and forth. Again, we're early in the count. 401 votes ahead. That's what makes election nights interesting. You watch the seesaw as the votes come in. Sometimes I say fun, but I know partisans at home don't like it when I say that word. They're not having fun watching this play out.
Just check a few others. We have some early votes in Alabama. Donald Trump, you know, it's 44 to 6, so it's very early, but a big lead there. And Jake, if you look at Texas as well, the numbers pouring in there as well, 73 percent for the former president of the United States.
TAPPER: All right, we have another projection to make. And CNN can project that Donald Trump will be the winner of the Tennessee Republican primary. 58 delegates at stake, another big victory for Donald Trump in a Super Tuesday that has turned out so far to be pretty super for him. That's Donald Trump, the projected winner of the Tennessee Republican primary.
Let's take a look at all the primaries that he has won, primaries and caucuses. Donald Trump has won in Idaho, Iowa. We're doing this in alphabetical order, as I'm sure you can tell. Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina. Tennessee, which we just called a second ago, and Virginia, which we called about an hour ago.
On the Democratic side, we have another projection for you as well. In Tennessee, we're projecting that incumbent president Joe Biden will pick up the state of Tennessee with 63 delegates at stake. No real contest there. Joe Biden will win Tennessee. Let's bring you a key race alert for you right now.
And right now, Arkansas, the polls just closed and CNN is saying it is too early to call the state of Arkansas with 40 delegates at stake. Polls closed at 8:30 Eastern Time. Right now, too early to call. And John King, once again, Donald Trump, and this has not happened in modern presidential politics for a non-incumbent. And then people can say, oh, he's like the incumbent. OK, but he's not.
He's not the actual incumbent. People did jump into the race to run against him. There was a whole field. You might remember Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida. People thought he was going to dominate. No. The dominant politician on the Republican side is Donald Trump.
And to give the man his due, he has won, with the exception of Washington, D.C. He's won every contest.
KING: Right, and we'll watch to see if Vermont adds a state. He's won Washington, D.C., which is a very tiny vote. He's also won down here. We don't show the territories enough, but he did also win down the U.S. Virgin Islands as well. So now you're watching to see Vermont.
Just check on it. It was three votes before. It's now 31 votes. But we're only about a third of the way in. Major population centers just starting to trickle in. So if you just look, the map, again, sometimes you don't need to speak words. The map tells you what you need to know.
The delegate count tells you what you need to know. The percentage of it has actually jumped up even more. It's 88 percent of the delegates, so you're looking at the percentage. Donald Trump cannot mathematically clinch tonight but he can get within a hundred or so of what he needs, and he can do that next week.
And so what you have here is, you know, he has remade the party in his image. There are still some Republicans who are trying to take it away, like take it back, right? That's over. That's over. There's no back. That party doesn't exist anymore.
TAPPER: Right
KING: It just doesn't. You know, it just doesn't. Look at the House of Representatives. Look at what's happening in the United States Senate. Mitch McConnell stepping aside. You know, and some of the more governing conservatives trying to keep their power even just within the Senate Republican conference.
This is a new Republican Party. And so you have a very formidable Republican frontrunner who has remade the party in his image. And I know a lot of people at home are asking, well, wait a minute. We all saw January 6th. Wait a minute. Innocent until proven guilty, but there's all these cases.
He has convinced them he won the last election, never mind anything that happened since then. A majority of these voters are going to the polls in most of these states, still saying that, you know, Donald Trump should be president.
And so this is his party. And again, sometimes I think you have to stop talking. Just look. This is his party. And he is on a march to the nomination. That does not mean, if the election -- if the general election were tomorrow, there's a lot of data that suggests he would win --
TAPPER: Right.
KING: -- at this moment in time. It is not tomorrow. It's eight months from now. So you have two very strong frontrunners, who both have very significant weaknesses. And then you have the question of the third party candidates, which I raised earlier.
[20:35:00]
TAPPER: And so the weaknesses come in the sense of -- in very much the way you're talking about how he is reforming the Republican Party. More working class people, including voters of color, African American, men primarily, but also Latinos. And also, the Democrats picking up more educated voters.
There's also -- so you talked about the education divide, also a big gender divide.
KING: Yes. TAPPER: Men voting Republican, women voting Democrat.
KING: And so you mentioned the gender divide. We have seen evidence since the Dobbs decision, the reversal, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, that that issue helps Republicans. We have not had a presidential election.
TAPPER: Helped --
KING: Helped the Democrats, I'm sorry. That issue helps the Democrats motivate and turn out their voters. We've seen that in state after state, including, you know, red states like Kansas, purple states like Michigan.
TAPPER: Montana.
KING: States like Montana.
TAPPER: Ohio.
KING: Yes. We have not seen that in a presidential election context.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: So, you know, is that -- you know, Joe Biden has an -- Trump does not have an enthusiasm problem among his people. Among his people. He has an enthusiasm problem, again, pick a place, we'll go to North Carolina. He has a problem among the places where -- that are voting for Nikki Haley.
Republicans voting for them. So you watch that play out, and then you come up here, we were talking earlier, he was behind in Vermont, now he's one vote ahead.
TAPPER: One vote.
KING: Yes, one vote. One vote.
TAPPER: Tell me that your vote doesn't matter.
KING: Right, right.
TAPPER: One vote ahead.
KING: Right, which, again, we're not done for the night, but if you do what we do and you're on live television all night long, the seesaw is part of the magic of democracy. And so, 48.2 to 48.2, a third of the vote in. We will continue to watch Vermont. We do that because it's important.
All 50, all 50 states matter and every vote in them matters. But again, to not overstate it, it's fun and it's interesting, it's fascinating to watch it. But when you just look at the scope of that, Jake, from coast, we'll see where we are, we touch the other coast tonight and we get to Alaska.
TAPPER: Yes, we're going to get to that coast.
KING: Right, right. And so, Susan Collins of Maine had the guts to stand up to Donald Trump. Trump was already winning. The easier thing to do was either endorse him or stay quiet. She stood up. We'll see what happens in Maine tonight. We're very early in the count right here.
She knows what she's doing. She did it. Lisa Murkowski, the other, you know, female Republican senator, the maverick from Alaska, who actually lost to a Tea Party candidate, remember? And then won as a write in. Lisa Murkowski stood up, endorsed Nikki Haley.
So, you do still have a small faction of the Republican Party that is willing to stand up and make clear, not only does it not want Trump, but it's willing -- they are, those two Republican women, most of the Republican men have gone running, those two Republican women have stood up and said, even though I see what's happening, I still want to say I don't like it.
TAPPER: All right, John King, thanks so much.
We're closing in on another important hour when voting ends in three states, including the second biggest prize of the night, the state of Texas, that could give Donald Trump another big jolt to his delegate count, or perhaps, pack a surprise.
We have more results coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:41:49]
TAPPER: And CNN has another projection for you now. CNN can project that in the state of Maine, incumbent President Joe Biden will be the winner of that state's Democratic primary. 24 delegates at stake. Joe Biden will win the main Democratic primary. CNN can also project that in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with 92 delegates at stake, incumbent President Joe Biden will be the winner of that state's Democratic primary.
Let me bring you a key race alert now because we're getting votes in four important states in the Republican primary process. Let's take a look at the vote board in Vermont with 17 delegates at stake. Donald Trump maintains his lead, 48.2 percent of the vote. He's one vote ahead.
When I was talking about the lead he maintained, I'm referring to this one vote. Donald Trump has 10,992 votes. Nikki Haley has 10,991 votes. That's about a third of Vermont's vote is in, a third estimated vote. Donald Trump has one more vote than Nikki Haley.
In Texas, in the Republican primary, 161 delegates have staked Donald Trump far in the lead. 74.9 percent of the vote, 674,785 votes. That's almost 500,000 more votes than Nikki Haley, who has 19.9 percent of the vote. That's with a pretty big chunk of the vote in, 40 percent of the estimated vote in from Texas. Donald Trump off to a rather healthy lead there.
In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 40 delegates at stake. Donald Trump, again, with a sizable lead. It's only 2 percent of the estimated vote, but he has 60.7 percent of the vote, 8, 894 votes. That is about 3,700 votes more than Nikki Haley, who has 35.4 percent of the vote. Again, that's a minuscule amount of the vote there, 2 percent of the estimated vote in Massachusetts.
In Maine, with 20 delegates at stake, Donald Trump has 71.2 percent of the vote. 71.4 percent of the vote, I'm sorry, they just updated it, 7,295 votes. That's more than 5,100 votes more than Nikki Haley, who has 21.3 percent of the vote. That's what the 10 percent of the estimated vote in. Donald Trump off to a very healthy lead in the state of Maine, which will prove crucial in November.
Let us turn now to the Republican caucuses out west in Utah. That's a state where Nikki Haley has some hope trying to cut into Trump's support. And CNN's Brian Todd is at a caucus site in Sandy, Utah. That's in the general vicinity of Salt Lake City.
Brian, what are you hearing from Haley's supporters? What are you seeing there?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to talk to a Haley's supporter in just a second, Jake. But we have hundreds of voters who are just jacked up to be here tonight. So much so that they were instructed to show up here at 6:00 p.m. local time, 8:00 p.m. Easter time, just to check in.
Well, they started showing up a half hour before that. The line extended out the door here. Then it got freezing outside, so they kind of moved the line in here. It extends all the way down the hallway here.
I'm going to talk to a Haley supporter right now. His name is David Janke (ph). David's lived here, you said, for about 39 years.
DAVID JANKE (?), UTAH VOTER: 39 years.
TODD: Why do you want to support Nikki Haley in this race?
JANKE (?): I'm supporting her because, number one, she's a great, strong conservative. She has many of the same policies as Donald Trump, but I like her policies regarding Ukraine and NATO much better, because I'm a strong supporter of Ukraine as well.
[20:45:15]
TODD: And you say that if Donald Trump wins the nomination, you're going to switch over to him?
JANKE (?): Whoever wins, I'm going to vote for passionately. And I just think Nikki Haley, with her character, with her policies, she would be a better united -- uniter, rather, for our country. And I'm going to support her if she comes out on top, absolutely. TODD: Well, David, good luck in the caucusing tonight. Are you excited? It's an exciting process. Tell people from outside who don't know what a caucus is like how much fun it is.
JANKE (?): It's a lot of fun because we gather together in a neighborhood broken down by precinct. When I go to a caucus meeting, I see half the people there I know. And it's like meeting your old family right here in Utah. So it's a lot of fun for a lot of people, a lot of excitement. You can probably hear it in the background.
TODD: Absolutely. It's great to meet you. Good luck, David. Good luck in the caucusing. And have fun tonight.
JANKE (?): You bet.
TODD: All right, guys. Quickly, we're going to show you where people are checking in over here. You check in. You get a wristband. Then you're told to go to your caucus room. There are 36 precincts voting here tonight, 36 caucus rooms. We're going to show you some of that activity and the count as it's happening. Jake?
TAPPER: All right. Brian Todd, thanks so much. It looked like an episode of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" was about to break out there.
Let's go to David Chalian, who's digging deeper into our exit polls, especially with the question that we've been wondering about, the Nikki Haley voters in North Carolina. Who are they? Tell us more about them.
CHALIAN: Yes, and I think this is going to be the important information that both the Trump and the Biden campaign will be looking at here that we've been talking about throughout the evening. So among Haley voters in North Carolina.
Now, remember, she's losing to the state badly right now to Donald Trump. She's got like 22 percent of the vote the last time I checked. But among Haley voters, a majority of them are out there voting against Donald Trump. They are anti-Trump voters. The motivation is voting against her opponent. 56 percent say so.
How about whether or not they think Donald Trump is mentally fit to serve effectively? Among Haley voters in battleground North Carolina, two-thirds of them say Trump is not mentally fit to serve. Feelings if Donald Trump wins the nomination. Obviously, you might suspect this will be a largely dissatisfied group.
73 percent of Haley voters in North Carolina say they will be downright dissatisfied if indeed Donald Trump wins the nomination. And what about, will you vote Republican in November regardless of who that nominee is? Haley voters, and this is the warning sign for Donald Trump, 81 percent of them say no. They are not an automatic vote for the Republican nominee
We know they're out there voting against Donald Trump. Donald Trump and his team are going to have to bring some of these people back into the fold, Jake. TAPPER: Fascinating stuff, David Chalian.
I'm back here at the Magic Wall with our good friend John King. We're talking about Haley voters in North Carolina. Tell me what you're looking at here.
KING: So, her percentage has dropped. It's 24 percent now, right? And if you look, remember when you were here last time, she was leading in some counties. We're not done yet. It's possible she will --
TAPPER: She's not leading in any counties now.
KING: She's not leading in any counties right now.
TAPPER: OK.
KING: And so, you know, she was leading here in Wake County. You know, she's down to 40 percent --
TAPPER: Wow.
KING: -- as more votes come in. Right, exactly.
TAPPER: In Raleigh.
KING: And then you move over here to Durham County at 44 percent. So she's getting higher percentages. It's about half the vote. Could swing. Let's stay with it and go through it. But, as we talk about Donald Trump's weaknesses, and they are weaknesses, at the same time I want to give him his due. I want to give him his due. And part of this is Trump's support.
Part of it might also be a psychology in the Republican Party that we're over. We're done.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: It's time to --
TAPPER: Time to rally around.
KING: Yes. It's time to come home. You heard the gentleman Brian Todd was talking to. He's going to vote for Nikki Haley tonight, but he said he'll be passionate for any Republican come November.
So that's the question, right? Are more Republicans like that gentleman who says, I'm for Haley tonight, I'm going to go to a caucus. That's harder, right? You're looking someone in the eye and said -- and then, but he's going to be there in November.
But here, as you look through it, you still have, it's Trump red, so, but, you know, 45 percent, right, in the key places. Charlotte and the suburbs around it. Close elections in the battleground states. North Carolina is on the edge of being a battleground state. Your home, Commonwealth, Pennsylvania. That's what you're talking about. These are the people who live, you know, in Bucks County and in Delco and around in there, and they decide close elections. They're suburban voters. They have college education. Some of them have advanced degrees. And so hats off to Trump who's, now county by county, looking even stronger in North Carolina.
But, but you still see the same weaknesses and I'm just going to pop up to my home state. We don't have enough votes yet to see this here. I'm trying to get out into the Boston suburbs area to see if it's the same area out there. Again, Massachusetts is a blue state. It's going to be blue in November. We're not trying to suggest otherwise.
You just try to learn lessons from these places as you go through them. Go ahead.
TAPPER: We've called Virginia, but what do you got in Virginia? I mean, there might be more votes coming in there that could tell us stuff.
KING: Right. Yes, Virginia, you see -- you do see here, again, more of a blue state, right? More of a -- North Carolina, I would lean red. There are some people want to call it --
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: -- a battleground state. I would call it a light red state if -- in presidential politics, since Obama won it once 2008 historic black turn up, it stayed pretty consistent Republican system.
[20:50:15]
But when you come here, again, this is -- it will see if the North Carolina results stay all Trump red across the counties. But here, Richmond County, it's the state capital. It's the blue spot within a blue presidential state, but a purple statewide state in state elections at the Commonwealth of Virginia.
That's where Nikki Haley's winning there, and you come up to the northern Virginia suburbs. This is a warning sign for Donald Trump. This is an area Joe Biden won big. This is an area that's been trending Democratic. Again, the more affluent, upscale, college educated suburbs.
George W. Bush could win here. Donald Trump cannot. That's the world we live in right now. So she is winning up here in Arlington County. Again, much more liberal. She's getting 74 percent of the vote. You point to those small rural county, Jake, where Donald Trump gets 74 percent. I say that's the foundation. There's so many of them, especially in the bigger states.
Well, this is the flip side of that. You know, Nikki Haley getting 74 percent in Arlington County. No Republican's going to win Arlington County come November. But that is a warning sign to Donald Trump that a certain type of voters who live in Virginia, live in Wisconsin, live in Pennsylvania, live in Arizona, live in Georgia, live in the states that pick our presidents, the places that pick our presidents, have a problem with Donald Trump.
TAPPER: Very interesting. John King, we are nearing another critical hour on this high stakes Super Tuesday. The polls are going to close in 9:00 in Texas and in Colorado and in Minnesota. A total of 237 Republican delegates will be at stake in those three states. More than two-thirds of them in one state in particular, Texas.
A Lone Star state has the second biggest delegate stash of the night. The biggest is way out in California. Donald Trump is angling for a big victory in Texas. Nikki Haley has campaigned in Colorado and Minnesota more so than in Texas. She views those states as potentially friendlier turf. We'll see if she was right.
Former President Trump lost both Colorado and Minnesota to President Biden in 2020. While Republicans tout Delegate Ridge, Texas as Trump country, clearly.
Let's go back to Ed Lavandera, who's in El Paso, Texas. Ed, set the scene for us as your polling place gets ready to close there in El Paso.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are at one of the busier polling places here in East El Paso. We've got about 10 minutes left and people who are in line will be able to cast their ballots tonight. So there's a long line of people coming out of this particular polling location. So as I mentioned, about 10 minutes left and we've been here all day taking the pulse of voters that we've heard from Democrats and Republicans.
I'm joined out here by Bruce Gomez. Bruce, do you mind if I ask you who you voted for and why you did that?
BRUCE GOMEZ, TEXAS VOTER: Yes, so I'm here. I'm an attorney and I'm supporting the judges. I support Lyda Ness Garcia, Marlene Gonzalez, Linda Perez here, Selina Saenz, and that's who I voted for. And it's very important for El Paso to be out here early voting.
LAVANDERA: So you've been involved in the local races. How about at the presidential level? Who did you vote for?
BRUCE: I can't disclose that.
LAVANDERA: Oh, you're going to hold out on me now?
BRUCE: Yes.
LAVANDERA: All right, all right.
BRUCE: Yes.
LAVANDERA: Well, let me ask you to you this way. Joe Biden, this is El Paso, very democratic, right?
BRUCE: Very democratic, right.
LAVANDERA: Is there enthusiasm for Joe Biden out there from what you're sensing?
BRUCE: I don't think so.
LAVANDERA: And why do you think that is?
BRUCE: Just the way he's been running the country lately, but yes, I don't think he's our -- I mean, if we had a better choice.
LAVANDERA: Right. So are you worried about what this portends for November?
BRUCE: I am. Yes, I don't -- I mean, if I could have a ballot with Democrats and Republicans, I think that'd be a better choice, but, unfortunately, El Paso is very Democrat.
LAVANDERA: Right.
BRUCE: So, in order to help my colleagues and the judges here, I have to vote Democrat.
LAVANDERA: Right. As things are shaping out right now, we probably are seeing Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the ballot come November. What do you do then?
BRUCE: I don't know. That's a good question.
LAVANDERA: I mean, can you see yourself voting for Donald Trump?
BRUCE: I don't think the ballot allows me. So if I'm voting -- if I have a -- if I'm voting for judges here that are Democrat and I'm a Democrat, then I'm running -- I only have one option.
LAVANDERA: Right.
BRUCE: I'm not going to vote for Trump, but if there's a better Republican candidate, I would vote for them.
LAVANDERA: Got you. Got you. All right. Well, thank you, Bruce. I appreciate it.
So, you know, it's kind of interesting as we've heard here in El Paso, a democratic stronghold, Jake, you know, a great deal of support for Joe Biden. But what we've heard over and over, it's in very kind of lukewarm support. And as you heard from this voter, wouldn't tell us who he voted for. And that's, you know, kind of one of the things that Democrats are concerned about.
We've also heard from several Republicans, I should point out that say they wanted to vote for Nikki Haley and that they were thinking that if Donald Trump is the nominee, that they would sit it out in November if that's the case. Jake?
TAPPER: Interesting, Ed Lavandera in El Paso, Texas.
Let's go to Colorado now where we find John Berman at a polling place in Castle Rock, which is just outside Denver. John, just a few minutes left to vote there.
[20:55:06]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just about closing time, as Semisonic would say, Jake. We have one voter in one of the booths behind me here really vying to be the last voter here in Castle Rock, Colorado, in Douglas County. They have been coming in all day to vote here in person, which is interesting because well over 85 percent of Colorado's -- Coloradoans vote by dropboxes, one of the dropboxes here.
Nearly a million people had already voted before these in-person polling locations opened this morning. We were here when the doors opened. We'll be here when the doors close. I'm going to speak to a voter. I've got to walk more than 100 feet here from the polling location to speak to a voter.
And I just want to say the people here in Douglas County, these poll workers have been amazing. They're incredibly polite, they're incredibly efficient, and they stick to the rules. And I give them credit for making us walk these 100 feet. Not just because I can get my steps in, Jake, while working, covering elections, but also because it shows just how fairly elections are.
We talked to a lot of Republican voters and Democratic voters. One of the things I've heard from Democratic voters is they're here to support Joe Biden. They very much know the State of the Union address is Thursday night, and they are looking forward to what he has to say.
I do have a voter here. I have no idea who she voted for.
What's your name, ma'am?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Katie (ph).
BERMAN: Katie, why'd you show up tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just think it's really important for our voices to be heard and for our politicians to listen to us as citizens.
BERMAN: What's the most important issue to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now it's education for me.
BERMAN: Who'd you vote for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe Biden.
BERMAN: The State of the Union address is Thursday night. What do you need to hear from him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His policies on education, his policies for human rights his policies on how he's going to be handling global issues coming up as well.
BERMAN: How do you feel like the election is going for him so far? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's OK. I think that he needs to speak up more. I think he needs to listen to what the people are saying, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.
BERMAN: And how do you feel about his age?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that we need younger people in politics in general. I don't think that the age of any of our politicians is great right now. So hopefully we'll see younger representation.
BERMAN: Thank you for coming out to vote. Thank you for talking to us.
Jake, let's go back to you.
TAPPER: Thanks, John Berman in Castle Rock, Colorado.
Let's go over to the Magic Wall and see where more votes have come in. And from those votes, John King will glean wisdom and analysis.
KING: The headline there is that's all Trump read, right? So what you're looking at at the moment is not only a big night for Donald Trump, but big nights in the margins.
TAPPER: It's a little yellow right there.
KING: It's a little tiny. Yes, that's just --
TAPPER: A little baby.
KING: That's the District of Columbia. We can stretch it out for you. Nikki Haley's only win at the moment is the Republican primary in the District of Columbia.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: So far. And that, you know, that's not to make light of. You know, she got the two person race she wanted and she's run and she's had donors behind her and the Republican Party has said no.
And I think the Republican Party tonight, when I show you some of these margins. Remember when Joe Biden won South Carolina, after he lost the first three contests in 2020.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: He won South Carolina and the Democratic Party said, we're done. But OK, we're with him and we're done and you had a contested race up to that point. I think we're seeing a bit of that tonight too.
Number one, Donald Trump is strong. Don't -- I'm not trying to say he's not. He's very strong anyway, but you're just starting to see it in the margins here. And now we're not done counting everywhere yet, but he's stretching out. We've called this day projected North Carolina.
He's stretching out the size of the lead there. And then you come over here into more of Donald Trump's wheelhouse, Tennessee. Again, more votes to count. But you see right there, your eyes don't lie about that number. You move down to Alabama. It's even more overwhelming. Long way to go in the count here.
So that number is likely to change. But you see that happening right there. Then you come, you see the early results in Arkansas, (INAUDIBLE) 75 percent. You know, it's just the South. The South is saying we're fine with Donald Trump. You know, and look at Oklahoma. That's all every county so far, about a third of the vote.
Again, things can change as you go through. Ed Lavandera just came to us from El Paso. Some of Texas still open to vote in the places where they are reporting votes already. You have one small county, Robertson County, 215 to 1. We'll see if that stays that way. It's only 9 percent of the vote. But again, just step back, look at the county lines, look at all that red.
So you pull out and you look, and you're thinking, OK, this could be Nikki Haley's last stand tonight. Is there anything where you can get a Republican donor to say, I want you to stay in the race, Governor. So we're going to watch these states up in New England. Vermont is still very close. Donald Trump ahead, but only by about 755 votes there.
Ways to count over here. You come over to Maine. A healthy early lead. It's about 12. That's not so early. It's 27 percent of the vote right there as you watch. You see only a smattering of the votes, you know, when it comes to the small town. Some of these small towns can be a little slow in counting. That's the nature, again, my home state.
Donald Trump with a healthy lead there as well. Only 5 percent of the vote, we'll see what's happening. But if you see it play out, I was noticing earlier, I just want to check. Only 20 votes, it's hard for me to fathom, it's my home city, that a city reports votes. And they only report 20. It has to be the tiniest of precincts that the city of Boston has reported the votes right there.
But we'll watch as that one plays out. But if you look at the map, the margins in New England are a bit smaller, although that's an early one in Maine is still a big one. Vermont is a small margin.
