Biden, Trump Score Early Wins In GA Primary; Biden Projected Nominee

GEORGIA — In what is expected to be a second showdown between incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump, both presumably clutched nods in Georgia's 2024 presidential preference primary, the Associated Press and NBC News projected Tuesday.

Their projected victories come as a sequel for the longtime rivals, who faced off against one another in the 2020 presidential election.

Biden became his party’s presumptive nominee when he won enough delegates in Georgia. That pushed Biden’s count past 1,968 for a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August, where his nomination will be made official. Former President Donald Trump is expected to clinch the Republican nomination shortly.

Election Day voting began Tuesday, a week after last week's Super Tuesday and two campaign stops from both Biden and Trump.

The likely opponents visited battleground Georgia to make their pleas ahead of the presidential primary, with NPR reporting both candidates chose to skip to November in their campaign speeches.

Biden spoke to supporters in Atlanta, while Trump stood before supporters in Rome.

Per the Georgia Recorder, the longtime rivals both gave fiery speeches during their stops, attacking one another using their words.

Both Biden and Trump hinted in their speeches that Georgia voters will help either of them win their re-election.

“You’re the reason we’re going to win,” Biden said to his supporters, per the Recorder.

Trump proclaimed, “Look, if we win Georgia, we’re going to win the election. Let me put it that way. We have to win Georgia.”

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The campaign trails have been bumpy for the two candidates, with Biden's immigration policies being questioned after the recent death of Augusta University student Laken Riley and with Trump's multiple pending criminal cases against him relating to the 2020 presidential election and the subsequent Jan. 6 insurrection of the nation's Capitol.

Trump is facing several charges in Fulton County, alongside 18 allies, after being accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Meanwhile, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could potentially be removed from trying his case after news broke of her suspected romantic involvement with her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade. A Fulton County superior judge could determine Willis' fate in Trump's case this week.

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"Trump has spent the last three years insisting he didn't lose the state, putting it ... on the frontlines of the fight over the direction of the GOP and how Trump-like its future should be. Biden won in Georgia by stitching together a disparate coalition that he needs to replicate this year, including young people, Black, Hispanic and Asian American voters and moderate suburban types that backed his campaign in 2020," NPR wrote Tuesday.

While Biden does not face any major players for the Democratic nomination, Trump's most significant challenger - former United Nations Ambassador Gov. Nikki Haley - dropped out of the race on Wednesday, CBS News reported.

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Both Trump and Biden were seemingly inches away from clinching their respective party's nomination, BBC reported Sunday. The outlet reported Trump was 139 delegates away from primary victory while Biden needed 109 more delegates.

Polls closed at 7 p.m., and voters must be in line by then for their selection to count.

See live 2024 presidential preference primary results from the Georgia Secretary of State's office below: