US delegates to vote in Super Tuesday
The Democratic primaries will have their biggest day so far on March 3 - known as "Super Tuesday" - when 14 US states will vote for the candidate they want to be the party's nominee for the November presidential election. California and Texas, the largest in terms of Democratic delegates and population, are among the states that will vote on Super Tuesday, reports Efe news.
Although so far the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina have allocated a total of 155 delegates to various candidates in their primaries and caucuses, on Super Tuesday 1,357 delegates are in play, a third of all the Democratic primary delegates nationwide.
California used to hold its primary in June, when virtually all its 415 delegates had already been allocated, but this year it has moved its primary up by several months, thus transforming itself from a largely "irrelevant" state into a "crucial" one in determining who will be the political parties' presidential nominees. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is widely predicted to win the Democratic primary here.
Texas with 228 delegates, is a conservative state on paper, but 37 per cent of its Democrats are Latinos. Texas will help decide whether Sanders' candidacy is unstoppable or whether a moderate candidate may be able to overshadow him.
North Carolina (110 delegates) has voted Republican in nine of the last 10 presidential elections, but it is one of the "swing states" that Democrats aspire to flip to their side of the ledger in November.
In many of the 99 delegate-strong Virginia's rural counties, Confederate flags are seen everywhere, but political control of the state was now in the hands of progressives and also a real breadbasket of Democratic votes.
For Massachusetts (91 delegates) presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren, Super Tuesday in her home state will - in all likelihood - be a question of life or death for her campaign.
Minnesota has 75 delegates, But on Monday, the state's Senator Amy Klobuchar ended her White House bid and has endorsed Vice President Joe Biden.
The other states in the fray are Colorado (67 delegates) which has appeared to be firmly in Sanders' pocket; Tennessee (64) is a fertile ground for moderate candidates to pursue their campaigns and tout their platform; Alabama (52) with a majority of African-American voters was likely to lean towards Biden; Oklahoma (37); Arkansas (31); Utah (29); Maine (24); and Vermont (15) Sanders' home state.
Meanwhile, Democratic voters living abroad are also able to vote in their states' primaries on Super Tuesday and voting sites have been set up in Australia, Mexico, Spain, Costa Rica, Thailand and many other countries to accommodate them.
American Samoa (six Delegates): The residents of the US overseas territories of Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa do not have the right to vote for the US President, but they can certainly participate in selecting the parties' presidential nominees. American Samoa will hold its caucuses on Super Tuesday to exercise that right.
In the fray are Biden, Sanders, Warren, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump who's facing no major Republican challengers, is expected to win the party's "Super Tuesday" primaries.
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