Trump sweeps March 19 Republican presidential primaries

Former President Donald Trump swept Republican presidential primaries in five states on Tuesday.

The Associated Press projected that the former president would score victories in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio.

Trump campaigned in Ohio on Saturday, on behalf of businessman Bernie Moreno, the candidate the former president endorsed in the Buckeye State’s competitive GOP Senate primary.

The victories for Trump come a week after he clinched the 2024 Republican presidential nomination after sweeping last week’s contests.

WHERE THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACES STAND

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024.  (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Hours before Trump became the GOP presumptive presidential nominee, President Biden clinched the Democratic nomination, to become his party’s 2024 presumptive presidential nominee.

Biden and Trump will formally become the major party nominees at the Democratic and Republican national nominating conventions this summer.

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The 2024 rematch – which polls indicate most Americans are anything but enthused about – is now firmly in the general election phase. 

President Joe Biden speaks at the Washoe Democratic Party Office in Reno, Nev., Tuesday March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The general election campaign started earlier than at any point in 20 years – when then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts locked up the 2004 Democratic nomination in early March and faced Republican President George W. Bush.

The November showdown between Biden and Trump is the first rematch in the race for the White House since 1956, when Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated former Democratic Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois as they faced off a second time.

Trump is running a third straight time for the White House. Trump’s last rival for the nomination, former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race the day after Super Tuesday in early March, after he sweept 14 of 15 GOP contests.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub