One of the busiest days in the United States election calendar is nearly here.
Super Tuesday takes place on March 5, with millions of voters expected to cast their ballots in presidential primaries and caucuses across more than a dozen states. Also on the ballot will be races for both chambers of the US Congress — the House of Representatives and Senate — as well as other contests.
President Joe Biden faces little opposition on the Democratic side and is all but guaranteed to be confirmed as the party’s nominee.
In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, however, Super Tuesday could spell the end of the road for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
She is the last major candidate still challenging the frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, but her campaign has failed to make a dent in Trump’s iron-clad grip on the party.
What is Super Tuesday?
Super Tuesday is the day when the largest number of states hold their presidential primaries and caucuses.
Those state-level races help candidates from the two major political groups — the Democrats and the Republicans — gather the delegates they need to earn their party’s nods. Delegates ultimately represent their states at a party convention, where they cast votes for the nominee based on the primary and caucus results.
During this year’s Super Tuesday races, 874 Republican delegates will be up for grabs — or about 36 percent of all those available. A candidate needs at least 1,215 of 2,429 total delegates to win the Republican nomination.
For Democrats, 1,439 of the party’s 3,979 total delegates will be at stake on Tuesday.
Which US states are voting on Super Tuesday?
Fifteen US states are holding votes on Super Tuesday:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
The territory of American Samoa will also be voting.
Why does Super Tuesday matter?
Super Tuesday matters because about a third of the delegates will be allocated by each party to decide their respective presidential nominee.
A strong showing can effectively give a presidential campaign a shot in the arm, helping White House hopefuls secure more financial contributions and build momentum. But a poor result can bring a campaign to a screeching halt.
“Because there are so many states holding contests simultaneously, candidates need to be really well funded, well organised and have good name recognition to do well across the board on Super Tuesday,” Caitlin Jewitt, an associate professor of political science at Virginia Tech, stated.
“If we have a clear frontrunner going into Super Tuesday, we often see that — after Super Tuesday — that candidate is by far the frontrunner and many others drop out of the race.”
What is likely to happen ?
“It’s much less important this year. It may be important because it might be Haley’s sort of last stand, but other than that, it looks inevitable that Joe Biden and Donald Trump will gain their respective nominations, and so we don’t expect very many surprises on Super Tuesday.”
Haley — who has lost to Trump by a sizeable margin in all the early state contests so far — said she planned to stay in the race until at least Super Tuesday. Her plans beyond that are unclear.
“I’m not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” she said after losing a February 24 primary in her home state of South Carolina.