Missouri, Louisiana to hold presidential primaries on Saturday

Missouri and Louisiana will hold presidential primaries Saturday, offering President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump more chances to collect delegates.

Biden will appear in the Democratic primary in both states. Republicans will vote only in Louisiana as the Missouri GOP already held caucuses on March 2.

None of the races will offer suspense. Biden and Trump have already clinched their party nominations and beaten their major competitors. But the primary races are still closely watched by insiders for turnout and signs of protest voters.

For Biden, some liberals are registering their anger with Israel’s war against Hamas following the militant group’s October 7 attack. More than 30,000 people, two-thirds of them women and children, have been reported killed by Gaza authorities since Israel launched its offensive. A protest movement launched by Arab American communities in Michigan has spread to several other states.

Trump is his party’s dominant figure and has locked up a third straight Republican nomination. But he faces dissent from people worried about the immense legal jeopardy he faces or critical of his White House term, which ended shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection mounted by his supporters and fueled by his false theories of election fraud.

Saturday’s primary will be the Missouri Democratic Party’s first party-run presidential contest since a new law took effect in August 2022. Louisiana’s primaries, meanwhile, come almost four years after the state was the first to postpone its primaries due to the Covid-19 pandemic.