Title: Transcript: What's at stake on Super Tuesday?
Course: US Election 2012 - Leuphana Copy > Section: The electoral system

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/super-tuesday-2012/

Super Tuesday is finally here. We thought Mitt Romney might have this race wrapped up in January, but surprisingly enough Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who lost his re-election race by 18 points in 2006, is posing a serious challenge to Romney.

So where are we today? We're in a race for delegates. And there are about 2,300 total delegates up for grabs in the primary process. And you need about 1,200 of those to become the Republican nominee. We're still very much in the infant stages. We've got just 345 delegates apportioned to date, with another 437 to be given out on Super Tuesday.

There are ten states in play all across the country on Super Tuesday. But there are a big four that you should really keep an eye on.

Let's start with Ohio. Now, this is 66 delegates in a mid-western, blue-collar state that's going to matter in the general election. Eight in ten voters in Ohio have a median income of $100,000 or less. This should be Santorum territory, but Romney cannot cede an important general election state to the former Pennsylvania senator.

Now let's move southward to Oklahoma, one of the most Republican states in the country. This should be a place where Santorum does quite well; Romney may not even in fact play very seriously.

Headed eastward over to Tennessee. There's a very religious electorate in Tennessee. Almost seven in ten Tennessee voters attend church weekly. Should be a good day for Rick Santorum in Tennessee, with the possibility that a son of the south, Newt Gingrich, does better than we expect.

Now, then there's Georgia. This is Gingrich's home state. If he can't win here, he can't win anywhere. Romney will probably make a run at him and finish second with a strong showing in the Atlanta suburbs. These are the counties that ring Atlanta proper and that really have fiscally conservative but socially moderate voters that are right in Romney's wheelhouse.

Now there are six other states voting on Super Tuesday. Two of them, Massachusetts andVermont, will be for Romney. He's the former governor of Massachusetts, he won the New Hampshire primary, and he's going to win the Vermont primary.

Heading south on the east coast to Virginia. This should be a competitive race, but only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul made the ballot. Romney is going to win.

And then we go west, to Idaho, North Dakota and Alaska. Now, all of these states hold caucuses, and they hold the hope for Ron Paul that low turnout could give him his first victory in a primary or a caucus since he began running for president, way back in 2008.

There are three basic scenarios on how Super Tuesday could play out. The first: Mitt Romney sweeps almost every state that's on the ballot. That would give him 300-plus delegates and give him a real stranglehold on the nomination.

Scenario No. 2: Santorum wins everywhere except Massachusetts and Vermont. That would be more than a 220 delegate windfall for Santorum, and really turn this into a two-man race between him and Romney.

Now the third and final option: Santorum and Romney split the votes. Santorum wins a few states, Romney wins a few states, heck, Ron Paul might even win a few states. All that means is that we're continuing on.

Now speaking of continuing on: Super Tuesday is super important, but we still have a very long way to go before we know who the Republican nominee will be.

So now you know everything you need to know about the Republican delegate hunt. To learn more, and to follow the 2012 presidential race, check out all the great tools on this page.

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