Today is Super Tuesday in the U.S. and Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are hoping for wins in key states.
Vox reports that 12 states are holding primaries or caucuses today: Alabama, Georgia, Vermont, Virginia, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alaska.
Polls in all 12 states close at seven or eight o’clock p.m. or sometime in between.
Fox News reports that for Democrats, Super Tuesday holds the possibility of picking up 865 delegates, while the Republicans are in a race to earn as many of the 595 delegates as possible.
Texas has been at the center of Super Tuesday speculations. The lonestar state has 222 Democratic delegates to be earned and 155 Republican delegates. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is hoping to win his home state. Currently, polls show him leading frontrunner Donald Trump there.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been campaigning vigorously in Southern primary states such as Virginia and Georgia. Georgia offers the second most Republican delegates of Super Tuesday with 76.
There has been significant pushback against Donald Trump, especially after he refused to disavow the KKK, blaming his response on a faulty earpiece.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Sen. Bernie Sanders in most polls. Sanders has focused his campaigning efforts on Minnesota and Colorado. Clinton currently leads Sanders in delegates 543 to 85, including so-called superdelegates.
Going into Super Tuesday, Trump leads Republicans with 82 delegates. Rubio has 16 and Cruz has 17. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has six while retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has four.
Publication date: March 1, 2016
