Former US Donald Trump will lead the Republicans in a third consecutive presidential election after clinching the nomination on Tuesday.
With wins in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state, Mr Trump surpassed the 1,215-delegate threshold needed to become the presumptive Republican nominee.
He will formally accept the nomination at the Republican National Convention in July, by which point he could be in the remarkable position of being both a presidential candidate and convicted felon.
Mr Trump has been indicted in four separate criminal investigations and his first trial, which centres on payments made to a porn actress, is set to begin March 25 in New York City.
His victory in the Republican primaries ushers in what will almost certainly be an extraordinarily negative general election campaign that will tug at the nation’s already searing political and cultural divides.
He will face President Joe Biden in the autumn, pitting two unpopular figures against each other in a rematch of the 2020 campaign that few voters say they want to experience again.
Thirty-eight per cent of Americans viewed Mr Trump very or somewhat favourably in a February poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs, compared to 41% for Mr Biden.
Mr Trump is attempting to return to the White House after threatening democratic norms in the US.
He refused to accept his loss to Mr Biden in 2020, spending months grasping at baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud that were roundly rejected by the courts and his own attorney general.
His rage during a rally on January 6, 2021, helped rile up a mob of supporters who later violently attacked the US Capitol in an effort to disrupt the congressional certification of Mr Biden’s win.
Only in the wake of the insurrection, with store fronts in the nation’s capital boarded up and military vehicles parked on streets to prevent further violence, did Mr Trump accept the reality that Mr Biden would become president.
He has since called January 6 “a beautiful day” and aligned himself with those have been imprisoned for their actions — many for assaulting police officers — labeling them “hostages” and demanding their release.
Mr Biden clinched a second straight Democratic nomination on Tuesday when he became his party’s presumptive nominee when he won enough delegates in Georgia.
That pushed Mr 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.
Mr Biden, who mounted his first bid for president 37 years ago, did not face any serious Democratic challengers to his run for re-election at age 81.
That is despite facing low approval ratings and a lack of voter enthusiasm for his presidency — driven in part by his age.
Mr Biden and his allies are betting that over a bruising seven-and-a-half-month general election, his Democratic base and independent voters fearful of a second Trump presidency will stand with him despite their misgivings.
Their strategy to constantly highlight Mr Trump’s perceived shortcomings – combined with Mr Trump’s plan to attack Mr Biden in brutally personal terms — sets up a spiritless campaign that many Americans said they did not want but will have to decide in November anyway.
Mr Biden has tried to frame the race as a battle for freedom, both at home and abroad.
