Election 2024

Tuesday’s primaries include a key Senate race in Ohio and clues for the Biden-Trump rematch



(AP) — Five states will hold presidential primaries on Tuesday as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump continue to lock up support around the country after becoming their parties’ presumptive nominees.

Trump is expected to easily win GOP primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Biden is expected to do the same in all those states except Florida, where Democrats canceled their primary and opted to award all 224 of their delegates to Biden. That’s not an unusual move for a party with an incumbent in the White House seeking reelection.

Other races outside of the presidency could provide insight into the national political mood. Ohio’s Republican Senate primary pits Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno against two challengers, Ohio Secretary of State Frank Frank LaRose and Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team.

Chicago voters will decide whether to assess a one-time real estate tax to pay for new homeless services. And voters in California will move toward deciding a replacement for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who resigned his seat after being pushed out of Republican leadership.

Trump and Biden have for weeks been focused on the general election, aiming their campaigns lately on states that could be competitive in November rather than merely those holding primaries.

Trump on Saturday rallied in Ohio, which has for several years been reliably Republican. But there are signs the state could be competitive again in 2024. Last year, Ohio voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights in its constitution and voted to legalize marijuana.

Biden, meanwhile, is set to visit Nevada and Arizona on Tuesday.

Both men are running on their records in office and casting the other as a threat to America. Trump, 77, has portrayed 81-year-old Biden as mentally unfit. The president has described his Republican rival as a threat to democracy after his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and his praise of foreign strongmen.

For the last year, Trump has synthesized his campaign with his legal challenges, including dozens of criminal counts and civil cases in which he faces more than $500 million in fines.

His first criminal trial was scheduled to start Monday in New York on allegations he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments. But a judge delayed the trial for 30 days after the recent disclosure of new evidence that Trump’s lawyers said they needed time to review.

A new report from Fidelity Investments finds that over half of Millennials and Gen Z believe they will have a harder time saving for retirement due to the higher cost of living.

Fidelity's 2024 State of Retirement Planning study found that 57% of Millennials and 56% of Gen Z believe they will have a harder time saving for retirement than their parents did due to the higher cost of living – figures that are markedly higher than the 38% of Gen X and 16% of Boomers who expressed those concerns.

Respondents across generations cited higher costs from inflation, consumer debt, and the need to build emergency savings as the main barriers to reaching their retirement savings goals. However, younger generations cited additional challenges such as dealing with student loan debt, saving for a home and a wedding, as well as childcare costs.

In light of those challenges, Americans of all generations said they wished they had started planning for retirement earlier. The study found that on average, Gen Z respondents said they started planning for retirement at age 20 when they wished they had started at 17, while Millennials started at 27 and wished they had at 22.

Woman shopping for groceries

Over half of Millennial and Gen Z workers said they think it will be harder for them to save for retirement than their parents because of the cost of living. (Photo by Paola Chapdelaine for The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Retirement savers noted that recent legislative changes have made it easier for them to save, such as the enactment of the SECURE 2.0 Act. 

The law gave employers the ability to make contributions to workers' retirement accounts while they pay down student loan debt, and it also established emergency savings accounts of up to $2,500 for non-highly compensated employees that they and their employer can contribute to until the cap is reached.

Fidelity Investments Sign

Fidelity Investments found that Americans of all generations wish they had started saving for retirement sooner. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images / Getty Images)

One-third of Gen Z respondents said they believe their employer could leverage the new law to help them save more by making a matching retirement contribution when they make their student loan payments. Additionally, one-third of Gen Z and Millennials said it will help them to save more for retirement while also building up their emergency savings.

An overwhelming majority of respondents – 85% across all four generations included in the study – said they want to retire while they are still healthy enough to be active, targeting an average retirement age of 61-62. 

Retirement Savings Stock Market Investing

Gen Z and Millennial workers cited challenges like the high cost of living, student loan debt, and saving for a home or building emergency savings as barriers to saving for retirement. (Photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images / Getty Images)

However, motivating factors for retirement varied between generations, with Gen Z and Millennials saying becoming debt-free or reaching career goals are top factors, whereas Boomers said they will retire when they emotionally "feel" ready to do so. 

One-in-10 Gen X respondents have not determined when they plan to retire, although they are continuing to save at Fidelity's recommended savings rate of 15% of their income, a figure which includes employer and employee contributions. Younger generations are saving an even greater percentage of their income, with Millennials saving 20% and Gen Z saving 25%.

"Another way to look at the guidance is for people to aim to have 10 times their starting salary saved by the time they're 67, provided that they withdraw no more than 4.5% of their retirement savings – all of which should be adjusted up or down if they plan to retire earlier or later than age 67," Rita Assaf, vice president of retirement products at Fidelity Investments, told FOX Business. "As an example, for someone at age 30, we recommend them having 1x their starting salary saved for retirement; and for someone at age 40, they should have 3x their starting salary saved." 

 The Supreme Court on Monday continued to block, for now, a Texas law that would give police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. while the legal battle it sparked over immigration authority plays out.

A one-page order signed by Justice Samuel Alito indefinitely prevents Texas from enforcing a sweeping state immigration enforcement law that had been set to take effect this month. The language of the order strongly suggests the court will take additional action, but it is unclear when.

It marks the second time Alito has extended a pause on the law, known as Senate Bill 4, which the Justice Department has argued would step on the federal government’s immigration powers. Monday’s order extending the stay came a few minutes after a 5 p.m. deadline the court had set for itself, creating momentary confusion about the measure’s status.

Opponents have called the law the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since an Arizona law more than a decade ago, portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court. The court battle is unfolding as immigration emerges as a key issue in the 2024 presidential race.

The office of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said the state’s law mirrored federal law and “was adopted to address the ongoing crisis at the southern border, which hurts Texans more than anyone else.”

Arrests for illegal crossings along the southern border hit record highs in December but fell by half in January, a shift attributed to seasonal declines and heightened enforcement by the U.S. and its allies. The federal government has not yet released numbers for February.

The Biden administration sued to strike down the Texas measure in January, arguing it’s a clear violation of federal authority on immigration that would hurt international relations and create chaos in administering immigration law. Critics have also said the law could lead to civil rights violations and racial profiling.

A federal judge in Texas struck down the law in late February, but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals quickly stayed that ruling, leading the federal government to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in 2012 struck down key parts of an Arizona law that would have allowed police to arrest people for federal immigration violations, often referred to by opponents as the “show me your papers” bill. The divided high court found then that the impasse in Washington over immigration reform did not justify state intrusion.

The battle over the Texas immigration law is one of multiple legal disputes between Texas officials and the Biden administration over how far the state can go to patrol the Texas-Mexico border and prevent illegal border crossings.

Several Republican governors have backed Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts, saying the federal government is not doing enough to enforce existing immigration laws.