The results are in for the "Super Tuesday" primaries. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has pulled ahead of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race, while Republican businessman-turned-politician Donald Trump holds a commanding lead over his own conservative competitors.
Simply put, Super Tuesday is a decisive moment during the American presidential election campaign that provides a reliable indicator of which presidential candidates are mostly likely to gain their respective party's nomination. During the primaries several candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties compete to win their parties backing.Voters in every state vote for their preferred candidate, and based on how the votes are distributed, a certain number of representative voters known as delegates are assigned to each candidate.These state-by-state elections are staggered, occurring either one at a time or in small groups from the beginning of the year through June.
But Super Tuesday is the most important of these primaries. Held during either February or March of a presidential election year, it is the day on which the largest number of states hold elections to select their party nominees. Because the states involved on this day are so numerous and diverse, Super Tuesday provides the most reliable gauge of every candidate's electability. A solid victory on Super Tuesday is the strongest boost to any candidate's bid for their party nomination.
In the Republican race this year, Florida senator Marco Rubio initially seemed like a tough contender after a strong performance during the Iowa Caucus. However, after only winning in Minnesota, out of a total of eleven states on Super Tuesday, his prospects are looking low. The Senator Ted Cruz did marginally better by securing victories in Alaska, Oklahoma, and his own home-state of Texas, but Trump was the real winner of the day - he crushed the competition through his conquests of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia, and even liberal Massachusetts and Vermont. Trump has been pledged 285 delegates, which puts him ahead of Cruz, who has a mere 161 delegates, and far ahead of Rubio with his measly 87. Delegates are elected officials who pledge to vote for a certain candidate at the national conventions of each party, where the final Democratic and Republican nominees are chosen.
On the side of the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were closely matched at the beginning, receiving nearly an identical number of votes during the Iowa Caucus. Now, Super Tuesday has granted a political boon to Clinton, and a major stumbling block to Sanders. Hillary is ahead of the game, with formidable victories in seven of eleven states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Sanders, by much closer margins, managed to win Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and his own home-state of Vermont. Clinton is now in possession of 544 delegates, while Sanders clings to 349.
However, as tempting as it may be to declare a winner after this year's ostensibly conclusive Super Tuesday, there are still three more months of decision-making left on the calendar. Much hangs in the balance of this year's U.S. presidential election, if the antics of Donald Trump are anything to go by. The next of series of decisions are due for release on March 5th - Republicans will be holding primaries in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine, while Democrats will be voting in Kansas, Louisiana, and Nebraska.
