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What’s Super Tuesday? Your Guide To Today In US Politics

My brain exploded so yours doesn’t have to.

Super Tuesday is one of the most important days in the US election calendar but until yesterday, I didn’t even know what it was. Voting’s happening now, so let’s have a quick look at what Super Tuesday is, why it’s so important, and what the experts think is going to happen.

What Is Super Tuesday?

First, we need to talk about how elections in the US work. US elections are, quite frankly, fucked. Unlike Australia where political parties pick their leader without a vote from the public, the US votes for who they think the best leader would be, and it’s decided at the party’s National Convention in the middle of the year. The Republicans already have a leader (Trump) so the last few months have been all about the Democrats choosing theirs.

Each state casts their vote for their candidate, and whoever wins that state gets the most delegates. I tried to understand exactly what delegates were but my brain leaked out my ears. You can read about it if you really want to here. All you need to know is that each state has a different number of delegates, and candidates need 1991 in total in order to be voted in as the leader at the Democratic National Convention.

Each state holds their vote on different days. We’ve had a few states already, with only 155 delegates distributed in total so far. Super Tuesday is the day where the most states have their vote scheduled on the same day. 14 states and 1 territory all have their votes today, with a whopping total of 1357 delegates up for grabs.

Why Is It So Important?

 

Because there are so many delegates on offer, Super Tuesday can really go any way. Bernie Sanders is in the lead right now so today gives him the chance to get a big old head start on the others. One of the other candidates might break away from the pack and catch up to him. After today, there’ll also probably be some candidates who drop out of the race. In just the last week, we’ve already had Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar leave their campaigns, so we’re down to five candidates.

Two of the states voting, Texas and California, have a huge number of delegates, with the latter having almost double the number Texas has. Whoever wins those states, especially California, will get a massive boost.

What’s Going To Happen?

Only the first few polls have closed at the time of writing, so we’re still ages off knowing the final results. Currently, Joe Biden has won Virginia and Bernie Sanders has won Vermont, with Biden projected to win North Carolina. Experts are predicting that today is going to be very close between these two candidates, and even though Bernie’s most likely to get the most delegates today, there’s a chance Biden could be a strong second place.

 

 

Elizabeth Warren has an incredibly dedicated group of supporters, and might end up getting a decent number of delegates. Unless she absolutely bombs, she’s not going anywhere.

Mike Bloomberg has straight up spent more than half a billion dollars on advertising in the states and territory voting today. Sucks for him because it looks like he’s going to bomb, and I can’t wait to see him drop out.

The final candidate is Tulsi Gabbard, who I honestly forgot about while I was writing this piece. When I went to Google to check that she was still around, the first piece that came up was “Why Is Tulsi Gabbard Still In The Presidential Race?” People expect her to drop out very soon.

And that’s the basics of Super Tuesday! My brain is literally fried trying to understand all of this, so I hope my pain was worth it for this guide. If you want to follow Super Tuesday as the results come in, check out some of the reporting here, here, and here.

Image Sources: GIPHY

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