Super Tuesday, 2008

Twenty-four states held caucuses or primary elections on Super Tuesday, 2008. Blue denotes Democratic-only contests (3), red denotes Republican-only contests (2), and purple represents contests for both parties (19). Note: American Samoa (not shown) is Democratic only.

Super Tuesday 2008,[1] Super Duper Tuesday,[2][3][4][5] Mega Tuesday,[6] Giga Tuesday,[7] Tsunami Tuesday,[8] and The Tuesday of Destiny[9] are names for February 5, 2008, the day on which the largest simultaneous number of state U.S. presidential primary elections in the history of U.S. primaries were held.[10] Twenty-four states and American Samoa held either caucuses or primary elections for one or both parties on this date.[11] Furthermore, the week-long Democrats Abroad Global Primary began on this day.

The large number of states that held elections on February 5 could have shortened the period between the first caucus in Iowa, on January 3, 2008, and the de facto selection of a party's nominee to just a few weeks.[2] Super Tuesday 2008 saw 52% of the Democratic and 41% of the Republican delegates awarded by early February 2008. By comparison, only about 1% of nominating convention delegates had been selected by that point in the 2000 election cycle.[12][13] It was held approximately one month before Super Tuesday II.

  1. ^ "Obama claims delegate lead". Politico.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ICABOAcnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference CPMCSDTcnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference IJCOSDTct was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference GMICTSTst was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Mega Tuesday". Archived from the original on 2008-02-13.
  7. ^ "News Producers Gird Their Loins For 'Giga Tuesday'". The New York Observer. 23 January 2008.
  8. ^ Chuck Todd (2007-05-10). "Will Tsunami Tuesday b an Afterthought?". NBC News. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
  9. ^ GOAD, BEN (January 10, 2008). "Earlier primary gives Californians a voice". Press-Enterprise. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  10. ^ Greene, Richard Allen (2007-05-30). "States jostle for primary power". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  11. ^ "Presidential primary and caucus dates" (PDF). Stateline.org. Pew Research Center. 2007-08-30. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  12. ^ Mooney, Brian C. (2007-08-21). "Michigan set to send slate of primaries into revision". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  13. ^ Balz, Dan (2008-01-15). "Feb. 5 Primaries to Pose A Super Test of Strategy". The Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved 2008-01-22.