Super Tuesday sounds like some sort of sporting event and in a sense, it is. But this year, it’s more of a boring, two-man race than anything.

It’s shaping up to be yet another Donald Trump and Joe Biden showdown in the November election.

Trump’s final rival Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor, exited the race on Thursday after she was defeated in 14 of the 15 Republican contests on Super Tuesday.

The former ambassador to the United Nations congratulated Trump as she suspended her campaign, but did not endorse him.

“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support him and I hope he does that,” she said.

In the run up to November’s 2024 presidential election, Americans must vote in the primaries to select one Democrat and one Republican candidate.

Super Tuesday has a lot at stake for those with their eyes locked on the White House.

Super Tuesday is the largest voting event ahead of the US election.

What is Super Tuesday?

Super Tuesday is the day 16 states and one US territory cast their vote for the candidate they want to run in the election.

The votes are then tallied and candidates are awarded “delegates” and those delegates will go on to represent their community, within their political party at the nominating convention.

It is the biggest day for primary elections and caucuses ahead of the actual election in November.

States voting:

Alabama, Alaska (only Republican candidates), Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa (only Democratic candidates), Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia

American Samoa is also voting on the Democratic race on Super Tuesday.

Basically, candidates in the primaries are hoping to get enough delegates to become either the Republican or Democratic candidate on the ballot in November.

Donald Trump is vying for the Republican nomination and was running against Nikki Haley, who was trailing behind the former president.

The incumbent, Joe Biden is also blitzing the Democratic races being held on Super Tuesday. Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson are also running in the Democratic race, but are yet to pick up any delegates.

Donald Trump was victorious on Super Tuesday.

Why is Super Tuesday significant?

Super Tuesday is simply a great time to pick up a decent number of delegates and it can be a good indication as to who will win the nomination for each party.

In 2020, Biden far surpassed Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday, winning 10 states to the Vermont Senator’s four.

A month later, Sanders suspended his campaign and endorsed Biden for president.

This year is less of a big deal. Biden and Trump have been the presumed candidates of their respective parties for months now.

Trump has already signalled his main focus was beating Biden, not Haley, and his advisers have said they expect him to formally secure the majority of Republican delegates no later than March 19, when two-thirds of the states will have voted.

So, who won?

Trump won the Republican votes in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Haley’s campaign no longer had a viable path to the nomination, despite her projected win in Vermont.

Biden won all contests on Super Tuesday. The remaining Democrats in the race are seen as long shots, so the win isn’t surprising.

However, the president did lose American Samoa to an entrepreneur named Jason Palmer, another long-shot candidate who hasn’t qualified to run in all US states.

It’s likely to be a Trump-Biden showdown in November.

Why Tuesday?

You’ll notice that there are a lot of elections, primaries and caucuses held on Tuesdays in the US and it’s all thanks to a law that dates back to the 1800s.

The law came about to set a single day to hold elections on, but back then, the US was largely an agrarian society, Brittanica explains. November was picked for the presidential election because harvest was over and the weather wasn’t too rough to make the journey to go vote.

However, picking a single day to vote was tricky. Plenty of Americans back then, and now, went to church, so it couldn’t be on a Sunday.

Wednesdays were generally market days and this law came to be before cars and many people would need to travel quite far to cast their vote.

“In rural areas, the nearest polling place might have been several miles away, and, in an era before automobiles, getting there could take a while,” Britannica explained.

So taking it all into account, they settled on Tuesday.