Wow, after months of anticipation Super Tuesday has finally come and gone.
Yesterday, Americans either voted or participated in caucuses in 24 different states. In order to provide some clarity to a process that seems to be terribly complicated, we've synthesized last night's results and provided them below.
The Democrats
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With the field finally whittled down
to two, many thought that the Super Tuesday primary would solidify a front-runner in the contentious race between Senators
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
In actuality, it proved that the Democratic race is closer than ever.
Senator Obama
celebrated victories in thirteen states, while Mrs. Clinton was
victorious in eight, including delegate rich California. Mrs. Clinton
excelled in the Northeast, where she won New York, New Jersey, and
Massachusetts.
Conversely, Mr. Obama dominated the Midwest and mountain states, winning Illinois, Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, and Minnesota.
However, although victories may get the headlines, it is delegates that will get the candidates the nomination. Awarded,
for the most part, by vote proportion in each Congressional district,
the Democratic nominee will need 2,025 delegates to win the nomination.
Current NBC estimates have Mr. Obama winning between 840 and849 delegates, and Mrs. Clinton finishing with between 829 and 838. If these estimates are accurate, Mr. Obama will be leading Mrs. Clinton by approximately 50 delegates overall. However,
due to the complexities of the primary system, these numbers aren't
likely to be confirmed for days.
The Bottom Line?
This race couldn't be much closer
The Republicans
For
the Republicans, it appears that John McCain is close to capturing the
nomination. McCain won nine states on Tuesday, accumulating over 522
delegates, while former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won five
states and 130 delegates.
The
surprise of the night was former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who
dominated the deep South-- winning Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee,
Georgia, and West Virginia for a total of 90 delegates.
Many Republican states have winner take all delegate systems, making it much easier to tabulate the GOP totals accurately. A total of 1,191 delegates are needed to win the GOP nomination
Where do we go from here?
On
Saturday, Democratic primaries will be held in Washington, Louisiana,
and Nebraska, and Republican primaries will be held in
Louisiana and Kansas.
Stop by the Disabled Politico blog for results, analysis, and more
For state by state primary results, go the New York Times election results page here
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