The United States was holding its biggest day of voting of the year on Tuesday before a likely November rematch for the White House between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Fifteen states were holding Republican contests on “Super Tuesday” including the two most populous, California and Texas, with Mr Trump looking to build up an impregnable lead over his rival for the party’s nomination, Nikki Haley. More than a third of delegates - 865 of 2,429 - were up for grabs, with at least 1,215 needed to win the nomination.
Mr Biden is running for the Democrats as the incumbent president, setting up another clash after he defeated Mr Trump in 2020. The Republican’s groundless attempts to overturn his loss set in train multiple lawsuits that now dog him on the campaign trail.
But it is a matchup between two elderly men that many Americans would rather avoid, with Mr Trump (77) threatening to reprise all the bitter divisions of his first White House term and Mr Biden (81) increasingly showing his age.
A majority of Americans do not believe that either candidate has the necessary mental acuity for the job of leading the free world, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
After thumping wins in the first five nominating contests, Mr Trump is far ahead of Ms Haley, but she is vowing to stay in the race - lying in wait in case he gets tripped up by his legal troubles.
"We can do better than two 80-year-old candidates for president," the former South Carolina governor said on Monday in Texas.
However, the ex-president went into Super Tuesday on the back of one legal breakthrough after the Supreme Court threw out attempts by Colorado and other states to throw him off the November ballot because of the “insurrection” waged by his rioting supporters on Capitol Hill in January 2021.
Noting that he faces 91 criminal counts, Mr Trump accused the president of weaponizing the courts. "Fight your fight yourself," he said after the Supreme Court ruling. "Don't use prosecutors and judges to go after your opponent."
Mr Biden is pointing to his own record in office as he prepares to deliver the annual State of the Union address to Congress on Thursday, including “record job creation, the strongest economy in the world, increased wages and household wealth”, according to the White House.
Nominating contests were being held on Tuesday in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and the US territory of American Samoa.
Each candidate is vying to win enough party delegates to seal their nominations at the Republican and Democratic conventions in the summer. Mr Trump cannot mathematically seal the deal on Tuesday but is likely to cross the finishing line later in March.
