On Tuesday, March 5, voters in 15 states will play a major role in selecting the two major party candidates in this year’s presidential election. The Super Tuesday primaries represent an evolution from a system that once relied on congressional caucuses and nomination conventions to choose candidates.
It is widely expected that the current president, Joseph Biden, and the former president, Donald Trump, will face off in the November 2024 presidential election. While it is not uncommon for two candidates in a presidential election to eventually serve in the White House, it is rare for two candidates who have already served as president to contest the office in the same election.
In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate against incumbent President William Howard Taft and New Jersey Gov. Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt lost but came in second in the contest. In 1892, former president Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent President Benjamin Harrison, to whom Cleveland lost in the 1888 election.
In those two instances, presidential candidates were selected in a much different process than today’s primary system.
Caucuses and Conventions
In the period after the Constitution’s ratification, a convention of state delegates chose electors to represent their interests in the Electoral College. The top two vote getters in the Electoral College became president and vice president. (The Constitution didn’t establish procedures beyond that for the nomination of presidential candidates.) The system worked for America’s first two elections when George Washington was the unanimous choice for president; but it quickly fell apart when political parties formed after Washington left office.
In 1804, after the disastrous 1800 election and House runoff election between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr the 12th Amendment was ratified, which required separate votes for presidential and vice presidential candidates. Congressional caucuses were then used to pick presidential and vice presidential candidates.
But within three decades, national nomination conventions replaced congressional caucuses as the method for choosing party nominees for president. Another House runoff in 1824 between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson led to a renewed desire for state party leaders to have a bigger say in the process.
The first organized convention was held by the now-forgotten Anti-Masonic Party in 1831. Next, an anti-Jackson party, the National Republicans, had their own national meeting in December 1831. Henry Clay was picked as the party’s presidential nominee. The 1832 Democratic convention nominated Jackson to run for a second term.
The national party convention system stood unchallenged until the 1970s, but the first presidential primaries began in the early 1900s as part of the Progressive movement. By 1916, 20 Democratic and Republican parties had primary elections, but they had little impact on how political bosses picked convention delegates and influenced conventions.
The Primary System Era
The primary system came into play fully after World War II. Incumbent President Harry S. Truman lost in the 1952 New Hampshire presidential primary, amid poor popularity numbers, and dropped from the race. Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee won 12 of 15 Democratic primaries, but the Democratic convention instead chose Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, who skipped the entire primary season. Stevenson won on the third convention ballot after Truman and other party leaders persuaded him to run.
In 1960, Democratic Sen. John F. Kennedy won his party’s nomination at a Los Angeles convention by leveraging the system of primary elections as a new factor in presidential campaigning. Kennedy had to heavily lobby political bosses to get a first-ballot nomination. But his strong performance in the West Virginia primary made voter-driven state primaries a new force in the process of selecting a president.
The final crack in the traditional convention process came eight years later at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who won the most primary votes, lost to fellow Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey in the delegate count. Humphrey had not run as an announced candidate in the 17 primaries, and only 38 percent of convention delegates were chosen by voters in primaries. (Republicans picked just 34 percent of delegates in primaries.)
Both parties soon initiated reforms to ensure that more voters had a direct role in choosing political nominees. In 1976, Democrats selected 73 percent of convention delegates in primaries, while Republicans chose 68 percent. In 1980, the name “Super Tuesday” was used to describe the final Tuesday of the primary season in June, when a key group of states that included California and New Jersey cast votes.
The 1984 campaign was seen as starting the modern movement toward a more sweeping Super Tuesday in March using a concept known as “frontloading” the primaries. Nine states were in play on March 13, 1984, as Vice President Walter Mondale took Georgia and survived the loss of seven states to Colorado Sen. Gary Hart to remain in the presidential campaign and get the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. By 2008, 24 states had moved their primaries to Tuesday, Feb. 5, in an effort to sort out the frontrunners early by putting about half of the delegates in play on the same election day.
In this year’s election, Super Tuesday will be held on March 5, 2024. Primary elections will be held in 15 states and one territory (American Samoa) in the GOP presidential primaries. About 36 percent of Republican convention delegates will be elected in one day. The Democratic presidential primaries in 14 states and American Samoa will pick about one-third of party delegates.
Here is the list of Super Tuesday states, from the National Conference of State Legislatures:
Alabama
Alaska (GOP only)
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
The primary season concludes on June 4, 2024. The Democratic National Convention will be held from August 19-22 in Chicago. The Republican National Convention will be held from July 15-18 in Wisconsin.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
