An email from former Secretary of State John Kerry to Joe Biden supporters on Tuesday afternoon summed up the pressure that the Super Tuesday contests put on the four remaining top-tier candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination: “What happens today will decide the trajectory of this race.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the socialist from Vermont, is trying to amass a delegate lead in part by turning out votes from young and Latino voters and cementing his place as the front-runner for the nomination.
The former vice president is hoping to seal his spot as the top alternative to Sanders and build on momentum from winning South Carolina by nearly 30 points and a wave of endorsements from former rivals Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Beto O’Rourke.
Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire founder of financial services company Bloomberg LP, will see if his unorthodox strategy of skipping the first four nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina and instead spending more than $500 million on advertisements nationwide is enough to push voters to choose him.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who placed third in Iowa, fourth in New Hampshire and Nevada, and fifth in South Carolina, needs to show enough support for her candidacy to keep a pathway to the Democratic presidential nomination open.
Results from 14 states plus the territory of American Samoa on Tuesday will account for 1,344 pledged nominating delegates, about a third of the total. A candidate needs a majority of 1,991 pledged delegates to win the nomination on the first Democratic National Convention ballot and prevent a contested convention, in which case around 770 automatic “superdelegates,” party leaders such as Democratic National Committee members and Democratic members of Congress, are permitted to vote for whomever they wish.
Delegates are allocated based on the proportion of statewide votes and votes within congressional districts (except for Texas, which allocates district delegates based on state Senate districts rather than congressional districts). Candidates must obtain 15% support statewide or in at least one district to earn delegates, meaning that a candidate could pick up some district delegates even if they do not capture more than 15% support statewide.
Here are the states voting and poll closing times:
Alabama — 52 pledged delegates
Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.
Arkansas — 31 pledged delegates
Polls in Arkansas close at 8 p.m. ET.
California — 415 pledged delegates
Polls in California close at 11 p.m. ET (8 p.m. PT).
About 40% of California’s primary electorate votes absentee by mail, meaning that Biden’s wave of endorsements from former rivals on Monday could have a smaller effect there.
Mail-in ballots could also delay declaring a winner in the primary. The last ballots are expected to arrive in mid-March.
Colorado — 67 pledged delegates
Polls in Colorado close at 9 p.m. ET (7 p.m. MT).
Maine — 24 pledged delegates
Polls in Maine close at 8 p.m. ET.
Massachusetts — 91 pledged delegates
Polls in Massachusetts close at 8 p.m. ET.
Warren and Sanders are neck-and-neck in the state, and a win for Sanders on Warren’s turf could increase pressure on her to bow out of the race.
Minnesota — 75 pledged delegates
Polls in Minnesota close at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT).
North Carolina — 110 pledged delegates
Polls in North Carolina close at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Oklahoma — 37 pledged delegates
Polls in Oklahoma close at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT).
Tennessee — 64 pledged delegates
Polls in Tennessee close at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET. (7 p.m. local time — the state is split between the Eastern Time Zone and the Central Time Zone.)
An overnight tornado in Nashville and surrounding areas that killed at least 22 people is likely to dampen turnout in the state. In addition to ravaging homes and businesses, the tornado damaged several polling locations, and polls in two counties opened one hour later than usual.
Texas — 228 pledged delegates
Polls in Texas close at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. (7 p.m. local time — most of the state in the Central Time Zone, but El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone.)
Nearly 13% of registered Texas voters cast early ballots in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.
Utah — 29 pledged delegates
Polls in Utah close at 10 p.m. ET (8 p.m. MT).
Vermont — 16 pledged delegates
Polls in Vermont close at 7 p.m. ET.
Sanders is favored to win his home state.
Virginia — 99 pledged delegates
Polls in Virginia close at 7 p.m. ET.
American Samoa — 6 pledged delegates
American Samoa holds a caucus starting at 3 p.m. ET (9 a.m. Samoa Standard time), and results will be announced after the territory’s Democratic Party tabulates results.
