Super Tuesday 2024: Which states vote and what you need to know

Super Tuesday, one of the biggest days in presidential primary campaigns, is here: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump could each get more than a third of the total delegates needed for a rematch in November. 

Fifteen states and one territory take part in Super Tuesday, the largest delegate haul of any day in the primary calendar. Neither Trump nor Biden will be able to claim the title of "presumptive nominee" – the earliest that could happen is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden – but both could get pretty close.

Here’s what to know about this year’s Super Tuesday, and why observers largely don’t see it as being particularly super. 

What is Super Tuesday?

Super Tuesday is the day when more than a dozen states hold their presidential primaries on the same day. Fifteen states and the American territory of American Samoa vote on Tuesday. 

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Results are also expected Tuesday in the Democratic primary in Iowa.  

In the race for delegates at the nominating convention, Super Tuesday will decide 854 of 2,429 Republican delegates and 1,420 of 3,900 first-round voting delegates at the Democratic convention.

Trump, who has won every presidential contest in which he’s appeared on the ballot and earned 122 delegates, needs 1,093 more to hit his so-called "magic number" of 1,215. Once he receives that many delegates, he’ll have won a majority of available delegates to the Republican convention this summer and will be considered the party’s presumptive nominee.

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Biden’s magic number currently sits at 1,968, though that could shift slightly depending on how the party decides to handle New Hampshire, which broke party rules by holding its party primary in January. He currently has 206 delegates.

Super Tuesday dates back to the 1970s, but back then, it was often used to describe the last primary votes of the season in June, when key states like California and New Jersey used to hold their primary elections, according to the National Constitution Center. The 1984 presidential race was the catalyst for "the modern movement toward a more sweeping Super Tuesday in March," the website states. 

Which states vote on Super Tuesday?

The following states vote on Super Tuesday, as well as American Samoa: 

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia

Iowa’s democratic presidential nominating contest became a preference vote conducted by mail; the results will be released on Super Tuesday.

Why this Super Tuesday is less exciting

Super Tuesday wins are still crucial for both Biden and Trump, but each is considered the overwhelming front-runner for their party – big Super Tuesday showings are practically a given. 

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Trump has dominated nearly every primary race since the season began. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, his last major opponent still in the race, won in Washington DC but lost Michigan by more than 40 percentage points and her home state of South Carolina, where she served as governor, by more than 20 percentage points. 

Primaries on the Democratic side have been even less anticlimactic. 

The one speed bump for Biden came in Michigan, where an organized attempt to vote "uncommitted" in the primary there to protest Biden's support of Israel during the war in Gaza garnered 13% of the vote.

The only similar organized anti-Biden effort on the Super Tuesday calendar is one put together at the last minute by a handful of leftist groups in Colorado to vote "non-committed" like in Michigan. Some 700,000 people had already cast ballots in the all-mail state's primary. The other obstacles are the president's two longshot primary opponents who've yet to crack low single digits against him, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and self-help author Marianne Williamson, who revived her campaign after receiving a surprise 3% of the Michigan primary vote.

Who’s leading between Biden and Trump ahead of Super Tuesday? 

If the presidential election were held today, a recent Marquette Law school poll says Biden and Trump would be at a "dead tie." 

Charles Franklin, poll director at Marquette Law School, said the latest Marquette poll of registered voters showed 49% for Biden and 49% for Trump.

Likely voters who were polled, however, favored Trump at 50% and Biden at 49%.

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"About 12% say they're undecided, so that gives you a sense of how much potential for movement there is in that top line presidential race," Franklin said in an interview with LiveNow from FOX. 

When Marquette polled voters in November 2023, Biden was ahead by two points, "so the race has tightened." He said a recent Bloomberg poll had Trump up by five or six points; a New York Times/Siena College poll released this week also has Trump with a five-point lead.

"You can see a little range in the polling, but Fox and Marquette agree on the tie," Franklin said. 

What other big races are on Super Tuesday? 

The presidential race is at the top of the Super Tuesday ticket, but it’s also a big day for other races. 

One of the most consequential contests is the California primary for the U.S. Senate seat left open by the death of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The seat's temporary occupant, Laphonza Butler, isn't running for a full term. Rather than having the winners of party primaries face off in November, California throws every candidate into a single primary and has the top two vote-getters make it to the general election.

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Observers initially thought Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter would end up in the general election in November, but that's changed since former Dodgers great Steve Garvey threw his hat in the ring. Garvey, 75, is both a Republican and a novice at politics.

The idea is to unite the state's outnumbered conservatives behind Garvey so he and Schiff finish in the top two, denying Porter a spot in November. Schiff would then be the overwhelming favorite for the seat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.