WESTFIELD — Joseph Biden and Donald Trump widened their leads in the presidential nomination races on March 5, and voters in both Massachusetts as a whole, and Westfield in particular, placed themselves firmly in the front-runners’ corners.
Both major-party candidates in the 2020 presidential election cruised to wide victories in the 2024 “Super Tuesday” vote. Biden, the incumbent president, took 83% of the vote in the statewide Democratic primary, and better than that locally, winning Westfield and all its surrounding towns. Trump, the former president, captured 60% of the statewide Republican vote, and even better, about 70%, in Westfield.
Republican Nikki Haley’s 37% statewide result in Massachusetts was among her stronger results of the day, which saw presidential primary elections in 15 states from Alaska to Virginia. She won only one of those contests, with 49.9% of the vote in Vermont. In the wake of a disappointing Super Tuesday, Haley dropped out of the race the next day.
The other five candidates on GOP ballots, all of whom had dropped out of the race before voting began, got only a smattering of votes, in line with totals of less than 1% statewide for Ryan Binkley, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump had at least double Haley’s support in every ward and precinct. In all, Trump got 2,604 votes, Haley got 1,041, “no preference” got 44, Chris Christie and Ron DeSantis got 30 each, Vivek Ramaswamy got 11, Ryan Binkley got 7 and Asa Hutchinson got 5.
Two challengers to Biden, Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson, made little impact, with shares under 5% in the statewide race and similarly low totals locally. In Westfield, Biden got 2,323 votes, no preference got 215, Phillips got 139 and Williamson got 122.
The primary election for U.S. representative, state senator, state representative and several other elected regional offices is Sept. 3. The general election is Nov. 5.
