Super Tuesday is a day on which the largest amount of primary elections takes place in one day. This year it will take place on Tuesday, March 1st. Presidential candidates use this day to cater to the needs of the voters in order to gain their support and votes. On Super Tuesday, a candidate’s electability is seen, and their future in the election depends on their performance. If the candidates do well here, it will secure a lead and if they do poorly, they may lose their chance at the nomination.
This year, primaries will take place in ten states for both parties. There will also be caucuses held in Alaska for Republicans and caucuses held in Colorado and American Samoa for Democrats. The difference between a primary and a caucus is primaries are where people vote for a nominated candidate for their party, whereas a caucus is more of a meeting of supporters of the party to decide which candidate they side with.
This year’s Super Tuesday has been dubbed with the name “SEC primary”, which is a reference to the Southeastern conference that has many Southern universities as participants, because of the large number of southern states contributing in this year’s Super Tuesday.
The reason for primaries and Super Tuesday is to pick the nominated candidate of each party. Delegates for each party in each state cast their votes for a candidate. Delegates are usually people who are involved in politics in some way and are aware and educated about the candidates. There are also uncommitted delegates or superdelegates who are usually elected officials. Superdelegates do not have to declare who they are committed to until voting takes place at the national convention level. That is what makes them even more influential than regular delegates.
It is a possibility that Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will drop out as they suffer from lack of votes. They have both fallen way behind the three front runners, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and businessman Donald Trump. They would drop out because they stand little to no chance of gaining the nomination. By dropping out, they will be able to pass some of their votes towards Rubio or Cruz instead of Trump.
“It would be better if [Carson and Kasich] dropped out so the front runners would face a more collective vote from the population of the states and it would make it more of a democratic decision between the candidates that actually have a chance at the nomination,” sophomore Aidan Holbrook said.
However, they are not the only candidates that stand to lose something. The once foreseen win for Cruz in his home state of Texas may not be as big of a sweep. Trump and Rubio are very much going for the win in Texas, and if they accomplish the upset, then Cruz may have a hard time coming back.
As for the Democrats, 1,034 delegates are up for grabs. Hillary Clinton, coming off a victory in South Carolina, already has a sizeable lead from guaranteed votes of superdelegates at the national convention. Bernie Sanders will have to do well on Super Tuesday to keep his close stance to Clinton. However, the ‘winner’ of Super Tuesday will not necessarily be the nomination, they will certainly be the leader of the race.
This year on Super Tuesday, upsets stand to take place and the nominated candidates for each party may show. Candidates likely will drop out and leading candidates may create larger gaps.