What is Super Tuesday? The biggest day in the 2024 US Presidential election so far
What exactly is Super Tuesday? ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers explains
Super Tuesday is the single most significant day in the battle to win a party nomination in the US election.
Millions of Democrat and Republican-affiliated voters will choose their candidate for the presidential race.
But what exactly is it?
Why is it called Super Tuesday?
It is a bumper day for the US election, with 16 states, including California, Texas, Massachusetts and Virginia, and one US territory holding primary and caucus elections on Tuesday, March 5.
Until now, only one or two states have held primaries or caucuses on the same day.
What happens on Super Tuesday?
Democrats and Republicans vote on who they want to run for president and other offices.
This Tuesday, voters in 16 different states and one territory will be choosing who they want to run for president.
Once those votes are counted, delegates are awarded.
Delegates are people chosen to represent their community at their political party’s presidential nominating convention.
They select the candidate to represent their party on the November ballot.
Candidates need to win a majority of them to pick up their party’s nomination.
And no other date has more of those delegates at stake than Super Tuesday.
On the Republican side, 854 of 2,429 delegates - more than 35% - are up for grabs.
About 36%, or 1,420 delegates, are in play for Democrats.
Who will win?
It will almost certainly confirm - even though there's not much doubt left - that Donald Trump and Joe Biden will win their party's nominations.
The incumbent president faces no serious opposition within the party. But what's more of a concern for Biden is the number of Democratic voters who choose to mark the “uncommitted” box instead.
Over 100,000 voters in Michigan signed their ballot as "uncommitted" in protest over the president's position on Israel. If this repeats itself it could show a big drop in Biden's popularity.
The Republican nomination was more of an open field, with more than a dozen candidates. But Donald Trump has stormed to the front of the pack.
Nikki Haley is his last opponent standing, but she lags far behind Trump in the race for the nomination.
Although he cannot secure the nomination on Super Tuesday, Trump could strike a fatal blow to Haley's campaign, leaving her likely to suspend her presidential campaign.
While the winner of the 2024 election will not be decided, the big day will likely show for certain the race for the White House will be a re-run of 2020 - Joe Biden and Donald Trump competing for the most important job on the planet.
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