The Failed Plan
It’s said that the phrase Super Tuesday was first used in the 1976 presidential election, but not as we know it today. Super Tuesday back then was in June, when pivotal states like California and New Jersey voted in their primaries.
During the 1984 presidential election, Democratic candidate Walter Mondale was absolutely swept by Republican Ronald Reagan. In an effort to make their nominees more moderate, a group of Democratic Governors of southern states decided that it would be beneficial for them to “front-load” the primaries.
In other words, if a large group of southern states voted on this one early day in the primary cycle, the campaign of someone more moderate (unlike Walter Mondale) will be boosted. This would, as they hoped, give Democrats a well-equipped challenger to the eventual Republican nominee
Unfortunately for them, their plan failed.
On Tuesday March 8, 1988, voters in 20 states selected who they wanted their party’s delegates to go to. Both Democratic moderates Al Gore and Jesse Jackson split the southern vote, leaving liberal Governor of Massachusetts Michael Dukakis with the bulk of the awarded delegates. We never had a President Dukakis, so you can guess how that turned out…
Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday was born. After the backfired plan, several southern states decided to have their votes on the Tuesday after Super Tuesday, but Super Tuesday still held significant chunks of the primary delegate pool each subsequent election year.
2008 had the most Super of Tuesdays, dubbed Super Duper Tuesday. 24 states and American Samoa held their caucuses or primaries. About 41% of Republican delegates and 52% of Democratic delegates were allotted that day.
States can individually decide when to hold their elections and party leaders in many states at the time wanted to move up their election date. In doing so, they hoped that their state would have more of an electoral impact. The Republican and Democratic National Committees had to intervene at the time and disallow states from moving their primaries ahead of Tsunami Tuesday.
2024’s Super Tuesday will hold 15 state (and American Samoa) primaries and caucuses.. All together, about 36% of the available delegates for both the Republican and Democratic parties will be up for grabs.
The Importance
Every presidential election year, candidates spend enormous amounts of time, effort and millions of dollars campaigning in Super Tuesday states. Why wouldn’t they?
So far, the winner of Super Tuesday is always the winner of their party’s nomination. Making this the most pivotal day in US primary elections.