Super Tuesday Is This Week — Which Key States Are Up for Grabs?

With the end of the early-voting contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the 2020 Democratic field is looking ahead to primaries on Super Tuesday. While it might not settle once and for all who the Democratic Party will nominate for the presidential election, March 3rd will still be a critical milestone that could quite possibly shape the rest of the 2020 race.

Let’s take a look at this.

Super Tuesday gets its name from the fact that more U.S. states hold their primary elections that day than on any other. The 14 states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and also the territory of American Samoa.

Candidates need 1,991 delegates to win the nomination of their respective parties, and with 1,345 delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday, this could be the day when Democrats establish a clear frontrunner and/or thin out their field of competitors. To put it another way, this could be the moment when most Democrats decide whether they will elect moderates like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, or if they will instead choose a progressive like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders.

In terms of which primaries will have the most weight, California is likely to have a major impact. Massachusetts, Vermont and Minnesota will also be telling because of their notable Democratic populations, plus the fact that they are the home states for Warren, Sanders and Amy Klobuchar respectively.

Super Tuesday should also be interesting for what it says about the future of Michael Bloomberg’s campaign. The ex-New York City mayor’s late entry into the race saw him skip over campaigning in the first four primaries, so most of his presidential ads were made to target Super Tuesday states.