Super Tuesday, commonly known as one of the most important days in the United States’ presidential primary season, fell on March 1st this year. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia held their nominating contests for both Republicans and Democrats. The Republican Party also held caucuses in Alaska on Tuesday, and the Democrat Party held caucuses in Colorado as well. With that being said, 24% of the states chose their nominees for the election. “Now tonight, you’re going to see a lot of election results come in. And let me remind you of what the media often forgets about. These are not — this is not a general election. It is not winner-take-all. If you get 52 perfect, you get 48 percent, you roughly end up with the same amount of delegates in a state,” said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during his speech on Tuesday. 661 Republican delegates, or representatives, and 865 Democrat delegates were at stake this year; no other caucus or primary has this many delegates grouped at once, therefore making this event vital for the candidates driven to succeed.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump won 384 delegates, Ted Cruz won 300, Marco Rubio won 181, and John Kasich won 37. The GOP has turned into a “spectator sport,” according to Ohio Governor John Kasich, and with the results of Super Tuesday and Trump’s growing popularity, the other three remaining candidates are persevering through the competition for the nomination. The Republican National Convention is scheduled to take place from July 18th to July 21st in Cleveland, Ohio where a candidate with 1,237 delegates or more will be named the Republican presidential nominee.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Democrats, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, have been clawing at the nomination for some time now. With Clinton winning 1,123 delegates, which is including superdelegates, and Sanders winning 484 delegates, the race to the top still continues. In order to get the nomination on the Democratic side, one of the two must reach 2,383 delegates and their victory will be announced at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, which is being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 25th to July 28th.
As the pre-polling season advances, the tension grows among the candidates as well. Many from both the Republican and Democratic Party have been displaying their critique on the others via social media, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and even through subscription emails. Social media is playing a big part in this election because of the platform it gives the candidates, and also the supporters of them. It allows everyone to voice their opinion through frequent arguments, which can be quite chaotic, and in some cases, immature. Although it is still a bit too early in the season to pinpoint the exact nominees, the candidates are going to strive for the spot as these last few months of polling. By July, the United States will have the Republican and Democratic nominees finalized, and that will begin a whole new chapter for the two selected politicians lasting up until the 58th quadrennial U.S. presidential Election Day, which will be held on November 8th.
