Election News

Super Tuesday

On March 5, 2024, the most important day of the United States primary elections, nicknamed Super Tuesday, took place. This is the day where the greatest number of states hold their primaries and caucuses, including California and Texas, the largest states with the most delegates. This means the presidential nominee of both parties is usually decided as most of the candidates drop out after this point, leveling the playing field, and the candidate with the most delegates gains massive momentum and is within striking distance of winning the super delegate count needed to win nomination.

The states and territories which held their primaries on this year’s Super Tuesday were Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. Unsurprisingly, the frontrunners of the two parties, incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump dominated the night and won almost every primary. Trump’s only major challenger, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, was able to win the state of Vermont but every other Republican primary went to Trump. Trump’s clear victory caused Haley to drop out of the race the following day. 

On the Democratic side, Biden won every primary except for the territory of American Samoa which shockingly went to Jason Palmer, a completely unheard of entrepreneur who is not a major challenger. Only 91 people voted in the territory and Palmer won 51 votes. Regardless, American Samoa only has 6 delegates and is therefore irrelevant to winning the nomination. Biden didn’t have anything close to a major challenger as is typical for an incumbent president, but his closest rival Dean Philips dropped out the following day and endorsed Biden.

Biden’s delegate count went up to 1,520 and he needed 1,968 to win the nomination. Trump won 1,013 delegates and needed 1,215 to win his nomination. On March 12, otherwise known as Super Tuesday II, in a round of four more primaries both candidates won enough delegates to become the presumptive nominees of their respective parties. With no significant challengers left in the race and the nominations clinched, it is all but inevitable that the two presidents face off in a rematch in the general election.

California Senate Primary

On the same day as Super Tuesday, California held a primary for the late Dianne Feinstein’s vacated seat in the United States Senate. California has open primaries meaning instead of both parties holding primaries for a nominee, candidates from both parties are voted for in a single primary open to all voters. The two candidates with the most votes advance to compete in the general election. Since California is such a heavily blue state, two of its previous three Senate primaries advanced two Democrats to the general election.

The three democratic candidates for the primary were Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee. Adam Schiff currently represents California’s 30th Congressional District in the House of Representatives, and is well known for being an impeachment manager in former President Trump’s first impeachment trial. Katie Porter is also a current member of the House of Representatives, representing California’s 47th district. Porter is well known in the media for her questioning of officials with a whiteboard during congressional hearings. Barbara Lee is the representative for California’s 12th district, and has gained widespread public attention over her advocacy for a ceasefire in Gaza. The only major Republican candidate was former Major League baseball player Steve Garvey.

            Adam Schiff, the candidate with the most money and ties to the establishment, knew he would have a much better chance against Garvey than Porter or Lee as Republican candidates have historically stood no chance in statewide California elections. Therefore, his strategy was to spend millions of dollars on advertisements targeting Garvey, far exceeding Garvey’s own spending, to make him more widely known so Republican turnout for the primary would be higher than it normally is in a deep blue state. This combined with the Democrat vote being split across three serious contenders allowed Garvey to make it to the top two candidates along with Schiff. Supporters of Porter and Lee have criticized Schiff for using cynical political tactics, arguing he was afraid of facing off against one of them and that he recklessly risked losses to Republicans in local and district elections come November by likely increasing Republican turnout for Garvey. 

Schiff won the most votes, leading the primary with 32.6% of the votes. Republican Steve Garvey earned 31.8% of the total vote, putting him in second. Porter and Lee have amassed 14.9 and 8.7 percent of the votes respectively. Schiff and Garvey will face off on Tuesday, November 5 to decide who will earn the senate seat.