!" Super Tuesday has been known to make or break a candidate, so why do we put ourselves through this early insanity when we still have so much to go in the election season? me to explain with pizza. Basically, on Super Tuesday, a candidate can get a third of the pie in one sitting. Or, in political terms, they can win more delegates than on any other single day in the primary race. 1,357 to be exact. And that's important because to get the Democratic Party nomination, you have to get at least 1,990 delegates. But even if a candidate gets half or even a third of that massive slice of the delegate pie, they'll leave the Super Tuesday pizza party happy. Plus, Super Tuesday is a good indicator of how a campaign is running. If their message resonates in several states, all with really different populations and issues, that's good news for a presidential hopeful. For a lot of candidates, it's a do or die day. Pretty much everyone who's dominated Super Tuesday has gone on to win the Democratic nomination. So how did Super Tuesday get to have so much power? Well, it all started because of fed up Southern Democrats. The budget will be squeezed. Taxes will go up. That's Walter Mondale. Anyone who says they won't is not telling the truth. He was the way too liberal Democratic candidate who lost to Reagan in 1984, like badly, like lost in one of the biggest landslides in the history of the United States badly. So 20 states, mostly Southern ones, decided to band together and hold their primaries on the same day. The idea was to have more influence as a region and get a more moderate candidate elected. Unfortunately for them, the plan backfired. Southern favorite Al Gore ended up splitting the South with Jesse Jackson, which ironically cleared the path for a Northern liberal candidate, Michael Dukakis, to win the nomination. An upset between moderate and progressive candidates leading to a fragmented primary? Now that doesn't sound familiar at all. Anyway, there was never a President Dukakis. But the strategy Southern Democrats had concocted did work in 1992 when Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won the nomination without winning Iowa or New Hampshire. And I'll be there for you till the last dog dies. Instead, it was in large part due to a Super Tuesday sweep. Super Tuesday. Big night for Governor Clinton in the South. Now, it's no secret that the Super Tuesday strategy was hatched up by white Southern Democrats looking to gain influence for white Southern voters. But they accidentally made Super Tuesday a pretty good barometer for who Southern Black voters are leaning toward. In states like Georgia and Alabama, over 50% of Democratic voters are Black. And that voting block can have a huge say, like they did with Bill Clinton in 1992. This definitely didn't hurt his case either. So let's come back to today. Now that we've tossed the dough and put the toppings on, let's toss this pie in the oven. With 1,357 delegates at stake, Super Tuesday can completely change the momentum of the race in just one day, even if we think things are going one way when the early states vote. For people who are voting in states that have primaries after Super Tuesday, they may have a better idea of who the most viable nationwide candidate is. We were actually in a similar situation back during the 2008 Democratic primary. The race was still hotly contested when Super Tuesday came up, and on that day, 22 states in one territory held their elections. With over half of all delegates up for grabs, Barack Obama won 13 states that day, and it solidified his status as the frontrunner. It proved that he was a viable nationwide candidate and that he could turn out voters in all parts of the country. Which, spoiler alert, he also did in the general election that year. What remains to be seen this year is whether the Democratic base can coalesce around a single candidate like they did in 2008. So whether it eliminates a candidate, strengthens a campaign, or outlines a clear frontrunner, Super Tuesday is gonna be one hell of a race. Share this video if you learned something about Super Tuesday.