https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LP3CCxXZZM
The nickname “Super Tuesday” — while traditionally belonging to the first Tuesday in a presidential primary season which follows the designated early races (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina) — has entered into more general usage, with various members of the political media using it to describe any Tuesday that contains more than two or three races.
I like how CNN calls every day with multiple primaries “Super Tuesday,” like it’s Peter Gabriel c. 1980 choosing solo album titles.
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) April 27, 2016
Super Tuesday 2016 was ostensibly March 1; there were 15 contests on that day. March 1 has since been referred to as “Super Tuesday 1” by some in the political media who have chosen to re-use the term. Super Tuesday 2 usually describes March 15, 2016, a day on which five states and the Northern Mariana Islands held their primary contests. Super Tuesday 3 was April 26 — a Tuesday consisting of Northeastern primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
Super Tuesday 3 — also nicknamed the Acela primary after the Acela Express, the Amtrak line that carries passengers along the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston — was a hugely successful night for both front-runners: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side, and New York City businessman Donald Trump on the Republican side.
Super Tuesday states won by @realDonaldTrump @HillaryClinton & @BernieSanders No wins for @tedcruz & @JohnKasich pic.twitter.com/UiFQPfMmiR
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) April 27, 2016
Super Tuesday 3 saw Donald Trump sweep all five Northeastern states, while Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland, and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Clinton’s primary opponent, took Rhode Island.
Rachel Maddow , host of the popular MSNBC prime time news and commentary broadcast The Rachel Maddow Show , notably stated that the Democratic contest is “effectively over” based on the delegate math, prefacing her comment with, “I’m sure a lot of people will be mad at me for saying this.” This is likely due to the much-discussed passion on display by Bernie Sanders’s impressive number of supporters. Maddow’s comment was in response to an official statement from the Bernie Sanders campaign, which sounded like a concession.
“The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform that calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change.”
Super Tuesday 3 was not so super for Donald Trump’s primary opponents, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Governor John Kasich of Ohio, who each had zero wins on Tuesday, April 26. This comes on the heels of news reports that Cruz and Kasich are planning to team up to create an anti-Trump super-campaign in order to prevent Trump from winning the required 1,237 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination.
Ted Cruz and John Kasich both hope that Donald Trump will lose on the first ballot in a contested convention in Cleveland in July, because from the second ballot, the delegates are no longer bound by the results of their respective primary and caucus contests to vote for a specific candidate.
Wow, just announced that Lyin’ Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016
Ted Cruz and John Kasich — neither of whom has a realistic path to 1,237 following Super Tuesday 3 — hope that enough delegates to the Republican National Convention are loyal to the party and dislike Donald Trump’s disruption, therefore will abandon him after the first ballot. Trump stated on Super Tuesday 3 during his victory speech in New York City that he considers himself the “presumptive nominee,” which isn’t true according to the Republican party’s rules.
Super Tuesday 3 has all but ensured that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, and despite the fact that Donald Trump does not appear to be on a similarly inevitable path to a majority of delegates, many are picturing a Clinton v. Trump general election race after they both cleaned up in the Northeast.
[Image courtesy of Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]