WASHINGTON – With contests in 16 states and American Samoa, the Super Tuesday primaries will be the largest day of voting of the year outside of the November election. Just how “super” it is may be a matter of perspective.
Both Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican front-runner Donald Trump hope to amass a string of lopsided victories that will help them move beyond the primaries and focus on their expected general election rematch. On the other hand, Nikki Haley faces a tough slate of contests mostly in the types of reliably Republican-voting states where she has struggled to win support or in states where party rules heavily favor the former president.
Super Tuesday has the largest delegate haul of any day in the primary calendar, representing more than one-third of the total delegates available in each party's nomination process and more than 70% of the delegates needed to mathematically clinch either party’s nomination. Neither Trump nor Biden will be able to claim the title of “presumptive nominee” on Super Tuesday. The earliest that could happen is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden. Trump would need to win about 90% of the nearly 1,100 delegates at stake through March 12 in order to clinch the nomination that day. Biden would need to win about 77% of the nearly 2,300 delegates at stake through March 19 to ensure his nomination by that date.