President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have amassed enough delegates to become the presumptive nominees for their parties, according to The Associated Press. This comes after Biden and Trump won their primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington on Tuesday, and finalizes a broadly anticipated but unwanted rematch.
During the primaries, Biden didn’t face strong opposition, easily earning the required 1,969 delegates needed for the nomination. As of Wednesday, 2,107 delegates have pledged to him.
But Trump faced several opponents early on in the race and was up against former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley up until Super Tuesday on March 5. A day later, Haley suspended her campaign. While Haley siphoned at least 94 delegates, 1,241 delegates pledged to Trump as of Wednesday, putting him 26 delegates above the required threshold for the nomination.
In his latest campaign video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Biden celebrated securing the nomination.
“Today’s a day, a call to action,” Biden says in a voiceover. “With your voice, with your power, with your vote — come November, we will vote in record numbers, and can do it, we have the power to do it. Are you ready? Are you ready to defend democracy? Are you ready to protect our freedom? Are you ready to win this election?”
The Trump campaign also posted a video on X in reaction to clinching the nomination.
“Last week was something very special — Super Tuesday — but now we have to get back to work because we have the worst president in the history of the country. His name is Joe Biden, sometimes referred to as crooked Joe Biden, and he must be defeated,” Trump said.
The two candidates will have to wait until the parties’ nominating conventions this summer to be officially declared the nominees.
The general election is still eight months away, marking this as one of the longest runways to the presidential election in American history. This is also the first presidential rematch since 1956, when Dwight D. Eisenhower faced off against Adlai Stevenson, according to Axios.