Washington: Former US President Donald Trump tightened his grip on the Republican Presidential nomination with big wins in the Super Tuesday primaries, setting up an all-but-certain rematch with President Joe Biden in November.

This year’s Super Tuesday had been sapped of much of its suspense as Biden and Trump had effectively secured their parties’ nominations before a ballot was cast Tuesday.

Fifteen states including California and Texas were staging nominating contests on the biggest day of the 2024 race so far, with both candidates coveting a second term in the White House. Texas was among a clean sweep of victories for Trump over Nikki Haley in the first ten states called, and he notably won comfortably in Virginia, taking one of his long shot challenger’s best chances to win a state off the table.

A former UN ambassador Haley has failed to throw any significant obstacles in Trump’s path to the nomination, losing every state since finishing a distant third in the first contest in Iowa in January.

Polling averages from Real Clear Politics show Trump two points ahead of Biden in a hypothetical one-on-one match-up. Haley looks set to collect only a handful of the delegates needed to secure the nomination with her narrow support base of affluent, suburban university graduates.