Donald Trump secures Republican presidential nomination with Washington delegates

Mar. 12—Former President Donald Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, and it was Washington state that gave him the last delegates to do so.

Trump received nearly 74% of the vote in Washington's presidential primary as of Tuesday night. An estimated 183,000 ballots remain to be counted; counties have until March 26 to certify their final election results, though the vast majority will be tallied by the end of the week.

In Spokane County, Trump received a nearly identical 74% of votes. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won nearly 21%.

In contest after contest, Trump's march to the nomination has been nearly without obstacle. Only in delegate-poor elections in Vermont and Washington D.C. was Haley able to win a narrow victory and deny Trump another outright win.

If the Republican presidential nominating contest was a foregone conclusion earlier this year, it was even more so by Tuesday. Trump was not the only Republican name on ballots that went out to Washington voters, but he was the only candidate on the ballot who hadn't dropped out by election night, nearly a week after Haley suspended her presidential campaign following a resounding defeat on Super Tuesday.

Still, some voters declined to support the former president in Tuesday's primary elections. In Georgia, one of the key states where Trump falsely claimed widespread election fraud after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020, Haley and other candidates still collectively earned more than 15% of the vote as of Tuesday night. Trump appeared to have better consolidated Republican voters in Mississippi, where he was capturing more than 92% of the vote.

Tuesday's results weren't surprising, said state Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, who voted for Haley almost immediately after receiving her ballot but said she would support Trump now that he's the party nominee.

"I have met Nikki Haley in the past, and I would love to see a woman president someday," Warnick said. "I think she was one of the most genuine, qualified people I have met."

For many Republicans, however, there was only ever one serious candidate in the race.

"(Haley) wasn't a second thought to any of us here," said Spokane resident Ida Hightower, a former Republican precinct committee officer in Spokane County. "There was no one else that could ever, ever be to the level of Donald Trump."

Mead resident Steven Webbenhurst, a current precinct committee officer for the county GOP, agreed that Tuesday's results were a foregone conclusion, but said he was disappointed that there wasn't a real competition by the time the primaries reached Washington.

"Four years ago, Trump was the nominee and the incumbent, and this time we feel again like Trump was our only choice, which kinda takes away the thrill of voting in a primary," Webbenhurst said. "I think a lot of people are supportive of Trump policies and ideas and are perhaps less supportive of the Trump personality."

Webbenhurst added that he was going to be watching closely to see who Trump taps to join his ticket as a vice presidential candidate.

"Whoever Trump chooses is going to be a huge factor in determining whether he can pull in some of those swing voters and independents," he said.