On Super Tuesday, fifteen states and one US territory will hold Republican nominating contests, with more than a third of delegates at stake in the race to see if Nikki Haley can prevent front-runner Donald Trump from obtaining the Republican presidential nomination. Democrats will also vote in primaries and caucuses around the country on March 5, but President Joe Biden is a lock for the nomination, with only one long-shot candidate left. Super Tuesday refers to the day in the US presidential primary season when the majority of states vote. In the Republican primary, 874 of 2,429 delegates will be up for grabs, including those from the two most populous states, California and Texas. At least 1,215 delegates are needed to win the nomination at the Republican National Convention in July.
The Republican delegate counts for Super Tuesday votes are as follows: Alabama (50), Alaska (29), American Samoa (9), Arkansas (40), California (169), Colorado (37), Maine (20), Massachusetts (40), Minnesota (39), North Carolina (74), Oklahoma (43), Tennessee (58), Texas (161), Utah (40), Vermont (17), and Virginia (48). It is also the deadline for Democrats in Iowa to mail in their ballots for the state’s nominating contest, and the results will be released. This year’s Super Tuesday falls on March 5. With so many states and territories voting in different time zones, it may take some time to see the whole results. In California, vote-by-mail ballots are valid as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day and received by March 12. In addition, some states hold “open primaries” that allow registered voters to choose whether to cast their ballot in the Democratic or Republican primary, adding a possible layer of unpredictability.
The Super Tuesday results in North Carolina will be widely followed for indications of each candidate’s strength
Haley sees no clear strategy for defeating Trump. This may be her last chance to impede the former president’s road to the nomination, however. Polls show Trump as the clear favourite in California and Texas, as well as Alabama, Maine, and Minnesota. His campaign anticipates that he will win at least 773 delegates on Super Tuesday and secure the nomination a week or two later. Trump handily won all five Republican nomination contests thus far, including Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the United States Virgin Islands, and South Carolina. He has frequently urged Haley to withdraw, setting up a rematch with Biden in the 2020 election, which polls suggest many Americans do not want.
Following her defeat in South Carolina on February 24, she stated that voters had the right to a meaningful choice, not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate. “I must give them that option,” she continued. The Super Tuesday results in North Carolina will be widely followed for indications of each candidate’s strength in one of the possible battleground states that could decide the November general election. In 2020, Trump won the state by slightly more than one percentage point. On Super Tuesday, North Carolina will award 74 delegates. The state permits voters who are unaffiliated with a party to vote in whichever primary they want, which might help Haley’s performance given her relative success among independent voters compared to Trump.
