Like leap day this Monday, Super Tuesday is a day that only comes once every four years.

In the past couple months, four states, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina voted in the primary elections, bringing the US one step closer to the general election.

On Tuesday, however, eleven states and territories voted in the primary elections at the same time. Because 1,237 delegates for the Republicans and 800 delegates for the Democrats were up for grabs, “Super Tuesday”  was the day that determined who their true front runners were in the presidential primaries. After all the votes were tallied, Clinton and Trump were both leading their respective parties.

So, what does that mean for the presidential election?

Traditionally, the candidates who score big on super Tuesday go on to win the primary elections, and because both Trump and Clinton won a great majority of the delegates available for Super Tuesday, it is harder for their competition, Rubio and Cruz of the Republican party, or Sanders of the Democrat party, respectively, to catch up with them in the primary election. The number of delegates each candidate has at the end of the primaries determines the nominee from each party (for example, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney).

What’s happened next?

After the Super Tuesday results came in, there was more tension between Trump and Clinton, supposedly because both of them see themselves as going head to head in the future. There was also renewed conflict between Cruz and Rubio; many political analysts believe that the only chance of any Republican candidate beating Trump at this point is if one of them drops out of the race and the remaining candidate gets the drop out’s old votes.

As many have probably heard, Trump also went up against Mitt Romney, the former 2012 Republican candidate, after Romney told the press that Trump was a “fraud” and that under no circumstances will he be voting for Trump, even if he gets the party nomination. Trump, of course, hurled his own insults at Romney and dismissed the former presidential candidate’s importance.

Although this may not seem like a major event, the fact that GOP members not running for the primary bid are disparaging Trump is important: it could be showing cracks within the Republican Party that might weaken it and/or affect the course of the election. But, like most other things in politics, we’ll just have to see how this plays out.

How have DHS students reacted to the presidential primaries?

Last week, the Dublin Shield included a straw poll in its election update. The results are in the table below:

Want to vote yourself? Click here to vote in our next straw poll.