WASHINGTON — More than a third of the total number of available delegates in both the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries will be awarded on Super Tuesday, when sixteen states and one U.S. territory hold presidential nominating contests.
On the Republican side, 854 of the 2,429 are at stake on Super Tuesday, traditionally the biggest presidential primary day in terms of the number of states holding presidential primaries and caucuses, as well as the number of delegates participating. . The Democrats will award 1,420 delegates. No one will clinch the nomination on Super Tuesday, but each party’s front-runner could come pretty close.
Former President Donald Trump, who has won every presidential election in which he appeared on the ballot and earned 122 delegates, needs 1,093 more to reach his so-called “magic number” of 1,215. Once he receives that many delegates, he will have won a majority of the available delegates to the Republican convention this summer and will be considered the party’s presumptive nominee.
The first time Trump can reach that number is March 12, but that could change depending on the number of delegates he receives on Super Tuesday and in the days leading up to it. The exact number of delegates available on a date may also change as states parties finalize their plans.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the last major candidate on the Republican side, enters this week having won a fraction of the number of available delegates in four of the six states and territories that have awarded them so far.
The rules for Republican delegates vary by state, but their system generally makes it easier for front-runners to quickly collect large numbers of delegates because many states — including Super Tuesday’s biggest prize, California — award all their delegates to candidates who win the obtain a majority of votes. In Texas, which has the second-largest number of delegates, 150 delegates will be allocated based on the Super Tuesday primaries, while state officials say they will allocate another 11 at the state convention in May.
On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden is in a position to pick up a significant number of delegates. Biden’s magic number is currently 1,968, but that could shift slightly depending on how the party decides to deal with New Hampshire, which broke party rules by holding his party’s primary in January. The earliest Biden can reach that mark is March 19. He currently has 206 deputies.
Democrats reward delegates proportionately everywhere, making it easier for lagging candidates to pick up delegates, at least in theory. Biden’s main challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips, has not been able to take advantage, but these rules open the door for voting options such as “not recorded” or “no preference” to receive delegates, should they qualify by meeting a voting threshold of 15.%, either statewide or in a congressional district.
These uncommitted delegates, who will arrive at the Democrats’ summer convention without a promise and can choose who to vote for, have so far been the only thing between Biden and a clean slate. In Michigan, the “uncommitted” voting option received two delegates. Seven Super Tuesday states — including Iowa, whose election results will be reported by mail that day — offer some sort of “no pledge” option.