Topline: Super Tuesday marks the most significant date in the Democratic primary calendar with Democrats across 14 states casting their ballot for their preferred candidate for president, while more than a third of delegates up for grabs.
- Bernie Sanders goes into Super Tuesday as the lead candidate and polls indicate that he could be the only candidate to hit the 15% threshold needed to win statewide delegates in California.
- Biden’s campaign has started to build momentum after a difficult showing in the four early-nominating states. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the race and endorsed the former Vice President, who came out on top in the South Carolina primary over the weekend, with almost 50% of the vote.
- But Sanders, the current frontrunner, could have an edge over his rivals in the key battleground states of Texas and California thanks to his popularity with young voters and Latinos.
- While many commentators are calling it a contest between Biden and Sanders, Warren, making her last pitch before the Super Tuesday rally, told a rally in California on Monday: “Democratic voters should have more choice than that. America needs more choice than that,” The Daily Beast reported. Warren made a poor showing in South Carolina and has eight pledged delegates.
- Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has poured hundreds of millions of his personal fortune into the race—and dominated ad spend in all of today’s voting states in preparation for Super Tuesday—is facing his first test with voters, as he is appearing on the ballot for the first time.
- Bloomberg said he had no plans to drop out of the race after his poor showing in his first debate.
Which states are voting? Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts (Warren’s home state), Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont (Sanders’ home state) and Virginia. American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the South Pacific ocean, and Democrats who live abroad are also voting today.
What time will voting start? Polls open at 5 a.m. Eastern Time and wraps up at about 11 p.m. in California. Results are expected in the early hours of Wednesday but vote-by mail ballots in California could mean it could take weeks to confirm that state’s winner.
Key background: Democratic voters have so far cast ballots so far in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, where a combined 155 delegates have been awarded. Sanders has a narrow lead of 60 delegates, with Joe Biden in second place with 54 names.
Big number: Around $240 million in total has been spent by candidates on advertising in Super Tuesday states, according to CBS news, with California being the focus of campaign spending. With 20 million registered voters and around a third of delegates up for grabs there, the state will be decisive in setting the course of the rest of the contest—and determining which candidates will continue in the race to secure the Democratic nomination. Texas is the second most important state, with 228 delegates up for grabs.
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