The Results Are In: Your Guide to Super Tuesday
What is Super Tuesday? On March 1st, known as “Super Tuesday”, more states hold their presidential primaries than on any other day. These include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia as well as Colorado Democrats, Alaska Republicans, and American Samoa.
Why is it important? Super Tuesday offers candidates the largest opportunity to win delegates in a single day (661 for Republicans, 865 for Democrats), making it an important step toward the presidential nomination and a powerful potential indicator of voting tendencies and election outcomes.
So, who won, who lost, who was feeling the Bern, and who wouldn’t stop talking about China, immigration, and tractors? Read on to find out. Tl;dr? Check out this handy chart/interactive map from the New York Times with all the Super Tuesday results.
The Democrats
Hillary Clinton won big in seven states– Alabama, Arkansas (the state where Bill was governor and she was first lady), Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Massachusetts– plus American Samoa, bringing her to a total of 1,052 delegates. Following her trend with South Carolina, Clinton dominated among minority voters, winning more than 80 percent of the black vote in Virginia and Georgia, and the majority in all southern states including Alabama and Tennessee. Hillary has also been the favorite with seniors, moderate and conservative Democrats, and Latino voters. Clinton won by significant margins in southern states like Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia– the same string of states that went to Obama in 2012. The closest race was Massachusetts, where she pulled ahead with less than 2% of the vote. In addition to the delegates from Super Tuesday, Clinton holds 458 superdelegates*. In her speech in Miami, FL, Hillary confronted the GOP, not Sanders. Trump says ‘Make America Great Again’, Hilary says, ‘make America whole again’. She also discussed equal pay, diversity, and student loans.
*Superdelegates are elected officials who pledge to support a certain candidates; there are a total of 712 Democratic superdelegates, comprising around 15% of the total delegates. Their ‘pledge’ isn’t binding, so they can technically change their vote at the convention. Yes, elections are complicated.
Bernie Sanders took his home turf by storm, winning Vermont by almost 73 points. He also ended Super Tuesday with Colorado, Oklahoma, and Minnesota (all states where Sanders had campaigned heavily ahead of the primaries). Sander’s gathering in Burlington, VA included Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and renditions of This Land is Your Land, but Bernie didn’t mention in his speech where his campaign will go from here. He did say that his campaign was about more than winning the presidency– don’t count him out of the race anytime soon, though: Bernie is hoping for victories in the industrial Midwest like Kansas and Nebraska, banking on his biggest demographic– young, liberal Democrats. Despite endorsements from celebrities like Cornell West and Killer Mike, minority communities still aren’t feeling the Bern. Super Tuesday won Bernie 340 delegates, bringing his total up to 427, including 22 superdelegates.
The Republicans
Donald Trump won ‘yuge’, taking Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia for a total of 237 new delegates, which gives him 319 of the 1237 required for the GOP nomination. Despite Sarah Palin’s endorsement, Alaska went to Cruz by a narrow margin; Vermont was a close race for the GOP as well, with Trump beating out Ohio Governor John Kasich by only 2%. In contrast, Trump won Massachusetts by a landslide, more than 30 points above Kasich, the runner up. Introduced in Palm Beach, FL, by Governor Chris Christie (NJ), Trump spoke in favor of Planned Parenthood and building a (really big) wall. He pledged to get rid of the Common Core, rebuild infrastructure, and keep his deportation promises. He emphasized democracy, unity, and his millions of supporters, and criticized Clinton. In a nontraditional move, he also took questions from the press– perhaps hoping to appear more presidential. Despite the rift he’s creating with the GOP establishment (#NeverTrump), he recommitted in Thursday’s Republican debate to support the Republican candidate, whoever that might be. He’s assuming that will be him, of course. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post suggests that “[t]he two most probable paths for the race at this point are 1) A Trump delegate win or 2) A near-Trump win with the possibility of an open convention where the party establishment tries to take it from him.”
Ted Cruz walked away with Alaska, Oklahoma, and Texas, ending the night with 209 new delegates. Although he picked up a large proportion of his home state Texas’ 155 delegates, his performance was underwhelming in the rest of the south– Trump trumped him everywhere but Oklahoma. In his speech, Cruz suggested other candidates “prayerfully” consider dropping out to unify the party. He, like Hillary, went for Trump, emphasizing his “liberal” views on socialized medicine and comparing him repeatedly to Bernie Sanders. Although lagging behind Trump, Cruz is emerging as the most serious contender, especially with coming primaries like Louisiana and Kansas offering potential wins. Still, his campaign faces serious challenges: he’s not winning southern and evangelical voters the way he was expected to, and he’s unpopular with the GOP establishment, making it hard to imagine they’ll rally behind him.
Marco Rubio scored a single victory in Minnesota, bringing his delegates to a grand total of 110; despite the poor showing, Rubio is banking on wins in the upcoming votes in Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois and the winner-takes-all states after March 15. He’s probably ultimately hoping for a brokered convention, likely the only way to wrest the GOP nomination from Trump. While many of the conservative and Evangelical states of the Deep South and Midwest that Cruz is relying on vote early, Rubio feels he’s still in the game with most of his support base of educated conservatives in the Mid-Atlantic, West Coast, and Great Lakes regions voting later in the primary calendar.
Ben Carson doesn’t see a “path forward” with his campaign and stepped back from the election after failing to win a single state in Super Tuesday. Rumor has it the GOP will offer him the opportunity to run for the vacant Florida senate seat; stay tuned to see if he’ll endorse Trump this week.
Something I missed? How do you think the election will turn out? Add it in the comments below.