After four states in an already chaotic primary, the moment you’ve all been waiting for is here: Super Tuesday.
Super Tuesday is a day during the election cycle when 14 different states have nominating contests to determine their desired presidential candidate. This is a golden opportunity for candidates looking to make a splash to shower themselves in delegates. Of the nearly 4,000 pledged delegates in the primary, more than 1,300 of them are at stake on Super Tuesday, with a large chunk of them coming from California (415 pledged) and Texas (228 pledged).
Bernie Sanders has been on a hot streak in the early primary states and could make a killing on Super Tuesday. But there’s a formidable obstacle Sanders has to step over, billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg decided to forego registering to be on the ballot in the first four states and has placed his bets on a large turnout of support on Super Tuesday. He has done so by using his massive wealth to purchase half a billion dollars in media ads. And it doesn’t sound like he’s done spending anytime soon.
However, the key states to watch on Super Tuesday are the ones that are toss-ups in November, which, oddly enough, have Senate races, too.
Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado is by far the most vulnerable Republican in 2020. Meanwhile, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis in North Carolina are vying to keep their jobs and maintain a three-seat Republican majority.
While presidential primary voting isn’t always the best indicator for how a Senate race will shake out, you can at least get a good sense of what voters are prioritizing in November. Democrats just need to flip four seats to get a majority in the Senate. If they nominate a centrist such as Joe Biden or Bloomberg, that could spell doom for Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate.
