Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the presidential primary season. The majority of the states — this year it’s 15 of them, plus one territory — will vote for the presidential nominee for each party.
The votes cast on this day often comprise a third of the delegates to the Democratic and Republican conventions that are awarded to candidates. For example, Super Tuesday 2024 will account for 874 of the 2,429 Republican delegates: 36%.
The day can also prove quite contentious. In 2008, for example, 24 states held their primaries on the same day to sort out the frontrunners early, but Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ended up in a virtual deadlock.
But this year, Super Tuesday is going to be about as exciting as the pre-Trump administration news cycle.
If you don’t know by now that November is going to be a lackluster rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, you’ve either been living under a rock, or you’re still holding out hope for one of the two candidates who haven’t accepted defeat and dropped out of the race yet — sorry Nikki Haley and Dean Phillips.
According to the ABC News Republican primary poll, Trump is leading with 76.7% of the vote to Haley’s 15.1%as of yesterday morning. As for the Democratic primary poll, Biden leads with 75.5% of the vote to Phillips’ 7.9%.
I get it, “anything can happen,” but let’s be realistic. There’s absolutely no way Haley or Phillips can pull enough votes together to challenge the frontrunners of their respective parties.
I’m no math major, but even if they receive the entirety of the one-third of the delegates tomorrow, I still don’t believe either of them would have enough to surpass — or at least strongly challenge — Trump or Biden. Forgive me for the cliché, but it simply does not add up.
According to the New York Times, Haley could have remained competitive with Trump had she won, or even come very close to winning, in South Carolina or Michigan. But she didn’t — and South Carolina is her home state.
The numbers game aside, Trump and Biden both have too many advantages going for them. It makes me wish we hadn’t wasted these last few months hearing insufferable candidates like entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott spew bigotry on debate stages.
Biden, as sitting president, has the advantage of incumbency against Phillips. He doesn’t really have that advantage against Trump since he also served in office, but it will be the job for voters to rationally weigh each of their terms come November and decide which one they’d prefer to take the presidency for the next four years.
Biden’s been fighting criticism about his age and eating ice cream while being asked about the conflict in Gaza, and yet Biden will ultimately have the — possibly reluctant — support of Democratic and Trump-hating voters.
As for Trump, he’s been fighting court cases like it’s nobody’s business, with several lawsuits against him including for such crimes as election interference, unlawful possession of classified documents and “hush money” payments. Furthermore, he is an absolute and utter threat to United States democracy.
Yet — as shocking as it is to me — he hasn’t been deterred from running, aside from a few state initiatives to disqualify him from their primary ballots.
I honestly don’t know why Haley and Phillips are trying at this point, with how steadfast Trump and Biden’s leads have been despite their problematic histories.
On Friday, Haley vowed to stay in the race “as long as [she’s] competitive” with Trump. Phillips said that he would still remain in the race, but he had to lay off a significant portion of his staff.
Honestly, Haley and Phillips need to give up. They’re not competing with Trump and Biden, and they’re ultimately just blowing money on a dead-end journey. Maybe they think that their determination will earn them a respected cabinet spot if their party’s nominee wins. And maybe they’re right — but come on.
Believe me, I despise Trump, don’t love Biden and am generally not thrilled at the idea of either of them being elected president for another four years. But I accepted a long time ago that this primary is a bust.
I feel like we’re wasting our time waiting for confirmation that Biden and Trump are the nominees when we could be ramping up campaigning for November. This year’s election isn’t fueled by the same passion and urgency that 2020 was.
Take tomorrow as an opportunity to exercise your right to vote — it’s exciting that most of us college students are eligible this year.
It’ll be good practice for the real deal in November, when — despite both Trump and Biden’s flaws — we will have to vote not only for the candidate that will best represent our interests and our country for the next four years, but also for the one who will best uphold our democratic institutions.
