WASHINGTON  -  Donald Trump looks to cement his hold on the Republican presiden­tial nomination Tuesday as the first polls open on one of the most im­portant days of the US electoral cal­endar. “Super Tuesday” -- the pri­mary cycle’s largest single day of voting, with contests in 15 states and one territory -- is historically a defining moment in the race for the presidential nomination.

But the suspense of previous elec­tion years will largely be absent this time around, with Trump expected to continue his sweep of Republican primary states, closing the door on sole remaining challenger Nikki Ha­ley. “We’ve been sort of in a rocket, we’ve been launching like a rocket, to the Republican nomination,” Trump told supporters at a weekend rally in Richmond, Virginia, touting his victo­ries in Iowa, New Hampshire, Neva­da and South Carolina. But he made clear that he is already looking past the primary to the autumn presiden­tial election itself, telling the crowd: “The biggest day in the history of our country is November 5.” Presi­dent Joe Biden, who trails Trump in most swing state polls for the gener­al election, has his own primary con­test on the Democratic side, but his victory is considered a formality. 

Haley lost the early nominating states to Trump by wide margins, but has vowed to remain in the pres­idential contest at least until Super Tuesday voters have their say. 

The lineup of states up for grabs in­cludes the giant battlegrounds of Cal­ifornia and Texas, allowing hopefuls to bag 70 percent of the delegates they need to be named the presump­tive nominee. Trump cannot mathe­matically close out the contest Tues­day night but expects to be anointed by March 19 at the latest, according to his campaign. Haley, 52, has been making an electability argument -- that the public has rejected Trump­ism in almost every vote since 2016 and would do so again in November.

She also warns of the “chaos” sur­rounding a candidate who in just the last few months has been labeled an insurrectionist by a federal judge and found liable for sexual assault and business fraud running to hun­dreds of millions of dollars.