Super Tuesday Explained: What Is It, Who’s Predicted To Win?
Super Tuesday results usually predict who the presidential nominee will be for each party during an election year. Several U.S. states will host preliminary presidential elections this coming Tuesday. Thirteen states total will participate in the March 1 elections with one U.S. territory and Democrats abroad also casting votes, according to a detailed breakdown of Super Tuesday on Election Central.
State delegates selected on Super Tuesday will go on to vote in national conventions, where each party will officially nominate a presidential candidate. The number of delegates vary in each state. However, Texas is said to be the “big prize.” Republican candidates will compete for 155 delegates in Texas on Super Tuesday, while Democratic candidates will compete for a grand total of 252 Texas delegates.
Pledged delegates selected by each state are supposed to go on to national conventions and cast a vote for the candidate they support; although, they’re not actually bound to do so. Superdelegates, also known as unpledged delegates in the Republican party, aren’t required to indicate preference towards a certain presidential candidate.
Are you in a Super Tuesday state? If so, who are you voting for? https://t.co/nJgWOGAcJy pic.twitter.com/LnMLcllcjb
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 26, 2016
Candidates receive delegates based on the number of votes they receive on Super Tuesday. Democratic candidates need a total of 2,383 delegates to win their party’s presidential nominee, and Republican candidates need a total of 1,237 delegates to win their party’s presidential nominee. As of Wednesday, BBC News reports that Hillary Clinton has 505 Democratic delegates, while Bernie Sanders only has 71 Democratic delegates.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump currently has 82 delegates, Ted Cruz has 17 delegates, and Marco Rubio only has 16 Republican delegates. Up for grabs on Super Tuesday are 595 Republican delegates and 1,004 Democratic delegates. A majority of Democratic superdelegates already support Hillary Clinton, while Republican candidate Ted Cruz’s home state is Texas, the state that holds a majority of Republican delegate votes.
Cruz is said to be polling well in Texas, but a win for Cruz in Texas on Super Tuesday doesn’t necessarily mean the other Republican candidates are out since Texas allots delegates proportionally, meaning Cruz will only receive a share of delegates that is proportional to his number of winning votes in Texas. For example, if Cruz only wins 40 percent of Texas Super Tuesday votes, he will only receive 40 percent of that state’s delegates, which would total 62.
Plus, the other states on Super Tuesday also use proportional representation, and several winner-take-all states still have primary elections to go on March 15, March 22, April 26, May 3, and June 7.
What candidates are competing, and which states are participating in Super Tuesday 2016? Only two Democratic candidates are left, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Sanders is said to not be completely out of the race if Clinton wins big on Super Tuesday. Republican candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and Ben Carson will all compete for delegates on Super Tuesday.
States holding primary elections on Super Tuesday are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia with Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, and Wyoming holding caucuses. The American Samoa territory will also hold a caucus on Super Tuesday.
So far, according to recent Super Tuesday poll results published on International Business Times, Donald Trump is showing a majority of wins, with Ted Cruz taking Texas and Arkansas, and Ben Carson looking favorable in Colorado. Those same poll results show Hillary Clinton overtaking Bernie Sanders in all but two states.
BREAKING NEW POLL: Trump holds huge lead in southern Super Tuesday states https://t.co/9y8W0u5s1a pic.twitter.com/AzkqSJYEXi
— The Hill (@thehill) February 25, 2016
The term “Super Tuesday” has really only been around since 1988 to offset all the attention Iowa gets as the first state to cast primary votes in presidential races. States that participate in Super Tuesday vary from year to year, but, this year, many Southern states are voting. All of those same Southern states also have athletic teams participating in the 2016 American college Southeastern Conference, giving this year’s Super Tuesday the nickname SEC Primary.
The Hill reports that Donald Trump dominated Thursday night’s GOP debate, swatting away attacks from Rubio and Cruz. Trump also reportedly spent millions to buy ad spots that will air in a few of the Super Tuesday states on Super Tuesday, spending a majority of that budget to buy advertising in Cruz’s home state of Texas.
[Image via Shutterstock/catwalker]
