What became known as ‘Super-Duper Tuesday’ was held on February 5th. Previous to this primary season in election year, the key day was known as ‘Super Tuesday’ and was invariably held in March. The fact that the date moved to February gives an indication of how important some states saw their primaries. ‘Super-Duper Tuesday’ had primaries in 22 states – though some were single party primaries. The most important primaries on ‘Super-Duper Tuesday’ were held in California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Georgia – states that returned more than 100 delegates each.

 

California: 441 delegates

The Roman Catholic Church in 1500
The Roman Catholic Church in 1500
 

New York: 281 delegates

 

Illinois: 185 delegates

 

New Jersey: 127 delegates

 

Massachusetts: 121 delegates

 

Georgia: 103 delegates

 

Minnesota: 88 delegates

 

Missouri: 88 delegates

 

Tennessee: 85 delegates

 

Colorado: 71 delegates

 

Arizona: 67 delegates

 

Alabama: 60 delegates

 

Connecticut: 60 delegates

 

Arkansas: 47 delegates

 

Oklahoma: 47 delegates

 

Kansas: 41 delegates

 

New Mexico: 38 delegates

 

Utah: 29 delegates

 

Delaware: 23 delegates

 

Idaho: 23 delegates

 

North Dakota: 21 delegates

 

Alaska: 18 delegates

 

It was generally assumed that at the end of ‘Super-Duper Tuesday’ both parties would have had their presidential nomination. In fact, for the Republicans this was essentially true. John McCain gained far more support than either Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee but statistically, both could have caught McCain in terms of delegates. However, by the first week of March both Romney and Huckabee had withdrawn from the Republican competition. The Democrats were left in a position whereby neither Hilary Clinton nor Barack Obama gained a definite advantage over the other in terms of delegate support and their campaigns went the full distance to June 3rd.