If you are alive and have heard people’s conversations in the past few days, you have probably heard the term “Super Tuesday” used at least once. But what exactly is Super Tuesday? It’s one day in the presidential election where the primaries of twelve different states align and each of them vote at relatively the same time on the same day, which happens to usually be on a Tuesday (Politico). This day is important because the candidate who wins on Super Tuesday for each party is usually an indicator of who will go on to become the presidential nominee.
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This year’s Super Tuesday saw quite the results with Donald Trump, one of the five (now four) GOP candidates, won seven of the eleven states, placing himself even more ahead as the Republican frontrunner. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton also won seven states placing a gap between herself and Bernie Sanders; they seemed to be neck and neck for a long while, but the results solidified her lead (NY Times). Interestingly enough, looking at exit polls it is clear that there has been a sharp increase and decrease in Republican and Democratic voter turnouts respectively. According to NPR, “more than 8.5 millions Republicans turned out to vote,” versus their 4.7 million in 2012 and, adversely, there were 2.6 million less Democratic voters. This is quite shocking, as many liberals who have recently come of age are staunch supporters of Bernie Sanders (as well as his target demographic) and the grassroots movement that he has catalyzed, yet the amount that could be going out to vote simply aren’t (CBS).
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“But what does this mean for us as college students and why does it matter?” Is a question you’re probably asking yourself right now. Many people believe that politics has nothing to do with them, but this simply is not the truth especially now, as not only college students but women. The different debates on policies that have been going on in this particular election are heavily centered around women’s rights and education as well as foreign and domestic policy which affects all of us in more ways than can accurately be grasped. Whoever the next president is could either expand our rights and access to healthcare, not only as women but American people, give students a break or allow us to continue to suffer under the weight of student loans and poor school funding and so much more which is why it is imperative that each person exercises their right to vote more than ever within this election! There is no one candidate that can bring all the possibilites of America that we see as hopeful college students to a reality, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go out and vote. It might be a small hassle to register to vote and send in a ballot but, even if you think that your vote means nothing in the election, that vote could change the world (and that’s a cliche statement that everyone makes about voting, but it’s a cliche for a reason!) so please, take it upon yourselves to go and vote.
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Helpful Links:
Calendar of Primaries/Results of Previous Polls
Presidential Candidates and their Stances