Voting on March 3

California joins 13 other states voting in primary on Super Tuesday

Althea Ulin / Asst. News Editor / The USD Vista

The state of California will host its primary election on March 3, choosing candidates in each party for the general election coming in November. The Republicans are looking at a landslide victory for Trump while the Democrats still have eight presidential options in the race. California has a semi-closed presidential primary, meaning that only registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters can vote in the Democratic primary and only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican race. 

Presidential primaries have truly only existed for 50 years. Before the 1970s, party nominations were decided at conventions in which national representatives would appoint a single candidate for the general election. This method kept the nomination process out of the hands of the general voters. Primary elections are generally still elitist, both in who is running and who is voting. 

Caucuses can take multiple hours on a given day that often fall during the work week, making participation less accessible to working-class citizens. Even the campaign itself costs tens of millions of dollars for each candidate, if not more, and air time on televised debates is based on financial donor counts, making candidacy all the more intangible for middle- and lower-class Americans. The nomination is decided by a mix of primary voting systems and caucuses by state. The vote counts from each state decides the number of pledged delegates, representatives appointed by the Democratic National Convention that have promised their vote for a given candidate come the Convention meeting in July.

Nevada’s and South Carolina’s primaries, held on Feb. 22 and 25 respectively,  marked the last primary counts before Super Tuesday, March 3, when a huge amount of delegates will be awarded to primary candidates. 

Nevada proved the strong hold Senator Sanders has in the Democratic party by winning the state with 46% of the vote, the next highest being former Vice President Joe Biden who did not even come close to that with less than 20% of the vote. Nevada put former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg’s recent surge into perspective when he came in third, gathering only a bit over 15% of Nevada voters. The Buttigieg campaign has alleged that there are voting irregularities between himself and Biden, suggesting that Buttigieg should have come in second.

The race will come down to a select six who have any realistic shot at winning the polls in California. Though former Vice President Joe Biden led for a significant portion of the race in California, his polls dropped significantly recently. 

According to multiple polling sources including FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s major drop into fourth place in January puts Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in a strong lead followed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. 

Popular candidates who are expected to struggle in California include Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and  former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg. The other two candidates have shown little promise since their announcements for the nomination.

Tulsi Gabbard 

Hawai’i  House Representative, Tulsi Gabbard is a moderate, low-scoring candidate who often struggles to find a voice on stage in the Democratic debates. Her campaign is trailing by a vast margin, earning only 3% of votes in New Hampshire. Gabbard only received 0.1 percent of the vote in Nevada. Her support base frequently stems from Republicans who dislike Trump and enjoy her personal attacks on other Democratic candidates.

Tom Steyer 

Barely beating Gabbard, Tom Steyer is also a low-tier candidate whose campaign is run mostly on progressive climate change policy initiatives. Most well known as a California billionaire, Tom Steyer’s campaign hasn’t led to much as he only received less than 4% of votes in New Hampshire with similar numbers in Nevada, the second lowest scorer of those still running. He self-finances most of his campaign and has spent nearly $300 million since declaring his candidacy in July 2019.

Joe Biden

Though he led in the earlier part of this presidential race,  former Vice President Biden has fallen recently to competitors Sanders and Buttigieg. Former vice president to Barack Obama, Biden relies heavily on older Democrats looking for a leader with experience who miss the days of 2008-2016. He polled highly upon announcing his candidacy until December, but has fallen short since the beginning of the new year. He draws a lot of attention as one of the highest name values of the primary elections.

Amy Klobuchar 

Klobuchar has gained a lot of momentum as a leading female candidate in this race. Senator Klobuchar is a moderate democrat from Minnesota who supports the Labor Party.  She became a high-profile candidate by placing in the top three of the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary, despite a hit in Nevada falling behind Warren in fourth with roughly 5% of the vote. Her late surge coincides greatly with the declines of the Warren and Biden campaigns. 

Elizabeth Warren

Senator Warren was an early front runner for the 2020 elections, but has fallen short alongside Joe Biden in recent months. A long-standing Massachusetts senator, Warren is popular on coastal states, especially in the Northeast. She had a strong performance in the Las Vegas debate and kept her opponents on the defensive from her critical comments enough so to pull her voting poll numbers into third place, overtaking Klobuchar during the Nevada Caucus.

Pete Buttigieg 

Former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg is a late leader in the race. He has just been narrowly defeated by Bernie Sanders in the popular vote in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Buttigieg is a  newcomer to national politics as he lost in his state treasury run in 2010, losing by 25 percentage points. Buttigieg is only 38 years old, the same as opponent Tulsi Gabbard, which would make him the youngest president ever elected to office if he were to win in the primary and the general. Before this weekend, Mayor Pete was the leader in pledged delegates at 25, but Nevada surged Sanders’ campaign putting Buttigieg at an 11-delegate  deficit. He remains the leading moderate-left candidate despite struggling with black and Latino voters. 

Bernie Sanders 

The Democratic senator from Vermont is a frontrunner in the Democratic party, taking two early victories in New Hampshire and, debatably, Iowa. Sanders has a huge margin of victory at 39 delegates with a lot of momentum gearing toward his campaign. He aligns himself with the radical left, self-declaring as a “democratic socialist,” and reaches the largest population of young voters and voters of color. These demographics are  critical for a potential victory in the South Carolina and California primaries.

 This past week, state officials warned the Sanders campaign and voters that Russian forces are attempting to aid Sanders in securing the nomination followed by assisting the Trump campaign in the general.

Michael Bloomberg 

New York billionaire and former Republican mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg made a late entry into the race, and his campaign has used an unorthodox strategy buying social media coverage, immense amounts of self financing (spending $400 million since declaring in November 2019), and building  an entire platform around beating Trump. He participated in his first debate in Las Vegas on Feb. 19 and was instantly put on the chopping block by his fierce and unapologetic opponents. 

Key notes include his financial worth of an estimated $60 billion, allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the work place (and the non-disclosure agreements attached to them), and his Republican roots. His polling numbers are debated as his campaign has not followed any usual route, but remains a strong contender for the nomination if he can gather late voters.