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| EFE |
This Tuesday is the big day for the presidential primaries in the United States, a key date known as Super Tuesday in which the largest number of delegates are distributed in a single day - more than 35% - and which can practically resolve the nominations for Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Why is Super Tuesday important?
The presidential primaries began on January 15 in Iowa for the Republicans and on February 3 in South Carolina for the Democrats, and since then only some states have voted.
These early dates have traditionally served to define the favorites and for candidates with less support to withdraw. This has happened this year with the Republicans, with the withdrawals of Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, or Vivek Ramaswamy.
The importance of Super Tuesday lies in the large percentage of delegates from the two major parties that are chosen at an early stage of the primaries, usually leaving the process very well on track for the future winner.
Which states vote on Super Tuesday?
There are 14 of the 50 states in the country that will hold Republican and Democratic primaries, including California and Texas, the largest in the country. The others are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.
California and Texas are the states that will assign the most delegates this March 5 and will practically resolve the nominations of Biden, who does not have a heavyweight rival, and Trump, since in the Republican case that candidate who exceeds 50% takes the majority of the compromisers.
In addition to these 14 states, Republicans in Alaska are called on this date, while Democratic voters abroad and in the territories of American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands will also be able to choose their candidate this Super Tuesday.
How many delegates are distributed?
Republicans will elect 865 of the 2,429 delegates who will be called to the Republican National Convention next July in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), that is, 35.6% of the total.
For their part, Democrats choose on this date 1,439 of the 1,934 delegates - 36.5% - who will proclaim their candidate at the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago (Illinois).
Can Biden win the primaries on Super Tuesday?
No. Even if Biden wins all the delegates at stake (so far only two have escaped him in the Michigan primaries), by adding his current 206 he would be left with 1,645, still 323 from the magic figure of 1,968 that gives the Democratic candidacy.
The most likely is that in the absence of heavyweight opposition, Biden will get the necessary number of delegates to consider himself the winner of the primaries on March 19, when another half dozen states have chosen their delegates.
And Trump?
Neither. Although the former president dominates the Republican primaries without problems, the presence of Nikki Haley in the contest is delaying the day on which the former president can claim victory.
Trump currently has 244 delegates and on Monday night, he achieved a victory in the North Dakota caucuses, which gives him 29 more.
Even if Trump took absolutely all the delegates - something unlikely - he would still not reach the 1,215 he needs to proclaim himself a candidate.
Will Haley survive Super Tuesday?
The only rival left for Donald Trump in the primaries, the former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, has been enduring the pressure from a large part of the party for weeks to withdraw from the contest after her successive defeats.
Haley, who has 43 delegates and this Sunday won her first primaries in the District of Columbia, has marked Super Tuesday as the goal to reach to show donors and voters that she can sustain her candidacy despite the suspicion that Trump will run again.
But if Trump sweeps across the states called to the polls, it will be very difficult for Haley to justify staying in the contest.