The biggest day of the U.S. primary election explained
Tuesday, March 1, 2016, or what most of us might call “Super Tuesday,” is the first date where a significant number of delegates are up for grabs in the U.S. primary elections.
During a primary election, each party holds contests—either caucuses or formal elections—in every state to determine which candidate will run under the banner of that party in the November general election. Each state is allocated a certain number of delegates based on its population. In order to be chosen as a party’s candidate, one must win a majority of the overall delegates in the primary.
This year, Super Tuesday saw 11 states holding their contests on the same day. Having such a large number of delegates up for grabs at one time makes Super Tuesday an important moment in a primary election.
When the results trickled in on Tuesday night, of the 11 states in question, Republican candidate Donald Trump won seven states, Republican candidate Ted Cruz won three, and Republican candidate Marco Rubio won one. Evidently, Trump won the most states and the most delegates overall. However, Cruz secured a win in Texas—the largest state of the night, which added over 100 delegates to his tally.
On the Democratic side of the contest, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won seven states and Senator Bernie Sanders won four. As of Super Tuesday, Clinton had secured 604 pledged delegates of the total 2,383 required to win the nomination. As of March 5, she had earned herself an additional 57.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…Republican candidate Donald Trump won seven states…[/pullquote]
According to Chris Cillizza from the
As far as the Republicans are concerned, Trump is certainly the man to beat. By the time the results were determined on March 1, Trump had secured 331 delegates. He now has 384 after four more states held contests on March 5.
This might not seem like much right now, but the New York Times suggests that if voting continues according to Super Tuesday results, Trump is set to quickly amass a majority of delegates. Beginning March 15, some states will be holding a series of winner-takes-all contests, handing all of the delegates to the winner in that state—potentially helping any one candidate earn a sweeping victory.
It seems that the big question for Trump is not whether he will have the most delegates at the end of the primary race, but whether or not he will have enough delegates to earn himself the candidacy. Depending on which candidates remain in the race, the United States could find itself in a situation where an open convention tries to take the spot away from Trump.
As for the Democrats, while it is evident that Clinton is the front-runner right now, many Sanders supporters are arguing that he is the candidate who would do better against the likes of Trump, Cruz, and Rubio in the general election.