2020 Presidential Primaries: 14 States Hold Elections on “Super Tuesday”

By Hannah Finley Last updated Aug 31, 2023

Source: Election results from National Election Pool/Edison Research | Notes: Gray areas were won by candidates who dropped out. Data as of 5 a.m. Wednesday. Image Credit: The New York Times

Super Tuesday happened this past Tuesday which means numerous states across the country held presidential primaries. Tuesday marks when the most states hold primaries or caucuses in order to elect delegates for the presidential race.

Republicans and Democrats alike were able to participate in the primaries on Tuesday.

In total, people in 14 states went to the polls to vote which results in 1357 delegates that are at stake for the national convention.

The 1357 delegates up for grabs is the most offered during any single day of the primaries, according to the Washington Post. So, if one candidate takes the lead on Super Tuesday, it could determine the presidential race or be close to determining it, according to The New York Times.

It is also important to keep in mind that the number to watch for is the amount of delegates a candidate receives rather than the amount of votes, according to the Washington Post. Each state awards delegates to the candidate by considering how many votes they received. In order to win the nomination, a candidate must have a majority of the almost 4000 delegations.

Voting on Tuesday is also due to a law created back in the 1800s. The law states that the president and vice president “shall be appointed in each State on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be appointed.”

Additionally, the reason that Tuesday was picked as the day to vote is due to the way American society functioned at that time. Sundays were deemed days for rest and religious practice, Wednesdays were days to buy and sell food and people who lived outside of town needed time to travel to their polling place. Therefore, Tuesdays seemed to be a perfect day for voting, as reported by The New York Times.

On Tuesday, former Vice President Joseph Biden won at least nine of the 14 states that voted, and could have ten states pending the results from Maine, based on an article from The Hill.

These states include North Carolina, Massachusetts, Virginia, Arkansas, Texas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama.

Senator Bernie Sanders won three of the states that participated on Tuesday. These states include Vermont, Colorado and Utah as stated by The Hill. The Hill also reported that former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg won American Samoa, but as of Wednesday morning he dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. Senator Elizabeth Warren did not win any states, and instead came in third in her home state Massachusetts. According to The Hill, a Warren campaign aide stated that Warren will be “talking to her team to assess the path forward.”