• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. big picture>

Why Super Tuesday is bad for candidates and the democratic process

Corinne Day
Anthony Lamorena
February 27, 2020
Democratic presidential candidates

"The current primary and caucus schedule only exists because the states that hold the first contests are not willing to give up that power," argue Corinne Day and Anthony Lamorena.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Day is a communications associate and Lamorena is a government affairs associate at R Street Institute, a nonpartisan and pro-free-market public policy research organization.

In the lead-up to Super Tuesday, presidential candidates are hustling across the country shaking hands, slapping backs and trying their hardest to stay in the race. For these campaigns, next week's primaries and caucuses will be a turning point. Over the years, many candidates –– Pat Robertson, Bob Kerrey, Dick Gephardt, and Ben Carson, to name a few –– have dropped out if they were unable to muster a strong enough showing on Super Tuesday.

While Super Tuesday is the end for many presidential hopefuls, the day is much more important for another reason. With 14 states holding primaries and 34 percent of Democratic delegates up for grabs, this year's best performer is the odds-on bet to become the party's nominee. However, these states do not represent the majority of the electorate and tend to be highly partisan.


Put another way, Super Tuesday actually disenfranchises voters in many politically powerful states. To fix this, the two major parties would be wise to reorder the primary and caucus processes in order to be more representative and to give the candidates a better shot at winning votes.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee set their own primary and caucus schedules. Super Tuesday, in its current form, came to be in the 1980s when Democrats wanted to nominate a more moderate candidate. The Democratic Party in Southern states moved their primaries to March in an effort to ensure their voice was heard earlier on in the process. Over time, a very inflated Super Tuesday has emerged. In 2008, for both parties, nearly half the states had their contests on one day.

However, this scheduling leaves a number of important swing states out of the mix. According to the Cook Political Report's 2020 Electoral College Ratings, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are "tossup" states. Of these five, only one holds its primary on Super Tuesday. The other four hold their primaries and caucuses at least two weeks later, with Pennsylvania not until April 28. In the intervening time, many candidates will likely drop out.

It makes little sense that candidates ignore these important tossup states until the spring. Just as troubling is why the first four caucus and primary states wield such power when they account for an insignificant portion of the vote and are not a representative sample of the American electorate. According to The Washington Post, "these states are small, contributing just 155 pledged delegates out of the Democratic total of 3,979, but they have an outsized role in the narratives that can determine the eventual nominee." Also minorities have little representation in the first two contests. States do not get much more heavily white than Iowa and New Hampshire."

Oklahoma and Vermont –– two of the 14 states in play on Super Tuesday –– are similar in demographic makeup. Oklahoma's population is more than 74 percent white and holds seven electoral votes. The state has been solidly red in presidential elections since 1952. Vermont's population is more than 94 percent white and holds only three electoral votes. The state has been solidly blue in presidential elections since 1992. Regardless of who wins each party's nomination, these states will go red and blue respectively this year. There is little value in having the base of each party decide who the nominee should be, seeing as their states are not in play in the general election.

The current primary and caucus schedule only exists because the states that hold the first contests are not willing to give up that power. However, the two parties should not be bullied into maintaining the status quo by solidly red and blue states. They should reevaluate their current primary and caucus schedule and let the voters in tossup states have a real voice in the process. It will better serve the party and the voter.

From Your Site Articles
  • 10 states that are representative of the nation as a whole - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • What is Super Tuesday, when is it, why it's important and what states ... ›
  • 2020 Presidential Primary Election Calendar - The New York Times ›
  • Super Tuesday primaries, 2020 - Ballotpedia ›
big picture

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Grand Canyon gap in America today

Dave Anderson

Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

Stephen E. Herbits

Conservatives attacking Americans’ First Amendment rights

Steve Corbin

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff
latest News

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

C.Anne Long
22m

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Debilyn Molineaux
37m

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
43m

America’s greatest resource- Education

William Natbony
29 September

The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

Ken Powley
29 September

There is no magic pill for postpartum depression

Priya Iyer
28 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
43m

Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

Our Staff
27 September

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
22 September

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September
Recommended
The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

State
It’s time to retire Calvinism

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Contributors
Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcasts
America’s greatest resource- Education

America’s greatest resource- Education

Big Picture
Grand Canyon gap in America today

Grand Canyon gap in America today

Elections
The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

Big Picture