All you need to know about ‘Super Tuesday’ in US presidential primaries
As many as 15 states and one US territory will be going to the polls on March 5 when Democrat and Republican supporters will vote for their preferred candidate
March 5, 2024 is “Super Tuesday” in the US presidential primaries when millions of Americans will vote for their preferred candidate to be nominated as the Democrat or Republican presidential nominee.
It’s called Super Tuesday because as many as 15 states and one US territory will go to the polls.
How do the US elections work?
Though the US is a multi-party democracy, most American voters are strongly affiliated to one of the two main political parties – the Democrats or the Republicans. The first part of the presidential contest begins with the process of identifying the official presidential nominee of each party. This process entails voting in the primary or caucus polls. In some, only registered Democrats or Republicans can vote.
In the primaries, voters go to polling stations and cast their vote for their preferred candidate. In a caucus, meetings are conducted in public places like gymnasiums or community centres or churches where they debate about various candidates in the fray and then raise their hands to show their preference for a particular candidate.
Each state in the US sends a certain number of delegates to the party conventions later in the year where they select the official presidential candidate of the party. The primaries and caucuses decide on how many delegates each candidate gets depending on the number of votes they polled.
In the Democratic party, the proportion of votes polled by a candidate decides on the number of delegates he or she gets. However, in some states in the Republican primaries, the winning candidate gets all the delegates from the state.
Which states are voting on Super Tuesday?
15 states are going to the polls on March 5 for both the parties – Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.
In addition, Democrats in American Samoa, a US territory, will hold their caucus elections and those in Iowa, which had its caucus by mail earlier, will release the results on this day.
How many delegates are at stake?
In the Republican contests, 865 (out of a total of 2,429) delegates will be up for grabs on this single day of voting.
The Democrats, on the other hand, will be voting for 1,420 delegates.
How many delegates do they need to win the nomination?
A Republican candidate needs to win 1,215 delegates out of a total of 2,429 delegates to become the party’s presidential candidate.
A Democratic candidate has to garner 1,968 delegates out of a total of 3,934 delegates to represent the party in the November presidential elections.
What’s the likely result going to be?
President Joe Biden is most likely going to win the Democratic nomination, with Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate. He does not have any significant challengers. No incumbent president in the US has lost nomination since 1884.
On the Republican front, the contestants have reduced to just two – former president Donald Trump, and Indian-origin former ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley. Trump holds all the cards, since he has won all the primaries till now except for Washington DC, which Haley won. Trump’s campaign is predicting that he will win at least 773 delegates on Super Tuesday, which, if it happens, could be the end of Haley’s campaign.