After the front-loading rush[3] 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."[4] 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.[5]
Under Democratic Party rules, all delegates are awarded via proportional representation, with a minimum 15% threshold required to receive delegates. A total of 444 delegates were pledged by the results of the March 4th primaries.
The Republican Party does not mandate a proportional representation system for delegate selection, but instead allows each state to determine its selection process. A total of 265 delegates were pledged by the results of the March 4th primaries.
Pundits have noted that this is the first time that Indiana has garnered widespread attention from presidential primary candidates since Robert F. Kennedy campaigned in the state during the 1968 election.[12] The unexpected relevance of the Indiana Democratic primary has also resulted in much higher than normal voter registration.[13] Likewise, North Carolina Democratic new voter registrations are triple the number reported for the same time period during the 2004 election.[16]
"Super Tuesday III" was largely considered the "Waterloo" of the Democratic primaries. Obama had been under fire for controversial remarks made by Jeremiah Wright, and his lead in North Carolina polls had been reduced to single digits, so Clinton's double-digit loss in that state was a major disappointment. Further hurting Clinton's campaign was the time-zone differences, as the defeat was reported in prime time, and the news of the narrow victory in Indiana had come too late. MSNBC's Tim Russert was quoted as saying "She did not get the game-changer she wanted tonight."[17] Demographics also played a role as North Carolina featured a lot of African-American as well as young voters in college towns, key groups who have favored Obama during the race. Indiana on the other hand had a significant number of blue-collar and rural voters, groups who favoured Clinton however the race was close as votes from nearly 330,000 people who live in Lake County, directly neighboring Chicago, an Obama stronghold were being counted.
Under Democratic Party rules, all delegates are awarded via proportional representation, with a minimum 15% threshold required to receive delegates. A total of 218 delegates will be pledged by the results of the May 6th primaries.
The Republican Party does not mandate a proportional representation system for delegate selection, but instead allows each state to determine its selection process. A total of 126 delegates will be pledged by the results of the May 6th primaries. The Republican primaries on this date were of little importance, as John McCain had already secured enough delegates in prior contests to win the nomination.
Super Tuesday IV was held on May 20, 2008, consisting of the Democratic Kentucky and Oregon primaries. A total of 125 delegates were seated as a result of these primaries. Hillary Clinton handily won the Kentucky primary and Barack Obama handily won the Oregon primary.
^"Q&A: US primary elections". BBC News. 2008-01-10. Retrieved 2008-01-12. In 2004, Super Tuesday split in two. There was a Mini-Tuesday (or Super Tuesday I) on 3 February, followed by a Super Tuesday II on 2 March.
^126 pledged district-level delegates are chosen during the primary on March 4. The remaining 67 pledged delegates are chosen during a caucus process culminating in a state convention on June 6–7.
