Super Tuesday

In the United States, Super Tuesday, in general, refers to the Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party's presidential candidates are officially nominated. The phrase "Super Tuesday" has been used to refer to presidential primary elections since at least 1976. More delegates can be won on Super Tuesday than on any other single day of the primary calendar; accordingly, candidates seeking the presidency traditionally must do well on this day to secure their party's nomination. In 2008, Super Tuesday was February 5; 24 states held primaries or caucuses on this date, with 52% of all pledged Democratic Party delegates and 49% of the total Republican Party delegates at stake. The 2016 Super Tuesday will be held on March 1.

Since Super Tuesday primaries are typically held in a large number of states from geographically and socially diverse regions of the country, Super Tuesday typically represents a presidential candidate's first test of national electability. Convincing wins in Super Tuesday primaries have usually propelled candidates to their party's nomination. The particular states holding primaries on Super Tuesday have varied from year to year.

Super Tuesday, 2008

Super Tuesday 2008, Super Duper Tuesday,Mega Tuesday,Giga Tuesday,Tsunami Tuesday, and The Tuesday of Destiny are names for February 5, 2008, the day on which the largest simultaneous number of state U.S. presidential primary elections in the history of U.S. primaries were held. Twenty-four states and American Samoa^¤ held either caucuses or primary elections for one or both parties on this date. Furthermore, the week-long Democrats Abroad Global Primary began on this day.

The large number of states that held elections on February 5 could have shortened the period between the first caucus in Iowa, on January 3, 2008, and the de facto selection of a party's nominee to just a few weeks. Super Tuesday 2008 saw 52% of the Democratic and 41% of the Republican delegates awarded by early February 2008. By comparison, only about 1% of nominating convention delegates had been selected by that point in the 2000 election cycle. It was held approximately one month before Super Tuesday II.

Super Tuesday II, 2008

Super Tuesday II, 2008 is the name, for 4 March 2008, the day on which the second largest simultaneous number of state presidential primary elections was held for the 2008 presidential election cycle. On this day, Mike Huckabee withdrew from the race when John McCain won enough delegates to claim the Republican nomination for President. It was the second Super Tuesday election of 2008 and took place approximately one month after the first Super Tuesday of this election. The Democratic primaries saw 444 delegates selected on this date, with 265 delegates in the Republican primaries.

Names and prior election cycles

After the front-loading rush that saw twenty-four states hold their caucuses and primaries on Super Tuesday, 2008, only four states -Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont- remained on the traditional March Super Tuesday date. This caused pundits in the states left behind to note that "this year, however, Super Tuesday isn't so super." The 2004 election cycle saw a similar but smaller split, with seven states holding elections in February on Mini-Tuesday, and ten holding contests on Super Tuesday II on the traditional March date.