The Super Tuesday primaries are the largest voting day of the year outside of the November general election.
Voters in 16 states will choose who they want to run for president. Some states are also deciding who should run for governor or senator or district attorneys.
Party primaries, caucuses or presidential preference votes are being held in Alabama, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
Here’s the latest:
TAYLOR TELLS SWIFTIES TO GET OUT AND VOTE
NEW YORK — Taylor Swift has not announced an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race. But the influential pop superstar is encouraging people to get out and vote.
In a post Tuesday on Instagram, Swift reminded her vast army of followers that the presidential primary is being held in Tennessee, where Swift lives, and elsewhere.
She wrote, “I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.”
Swift endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and backed Democratic candidates in Tennessee in 2018 after breaking her longstanding refusal to discuss her political views.
HUCKABEE SANDERS PLACES BETS ON TRUMP
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she’s confident her former boss Donald Trump will win the Republican Party’s nomination and take back the White House in the November general election.
Sanders served as White House press secretary for the former president. She cast her ballot at a Little Rock community center Tuesday morning with her husband, Bryan Sanders.
She told reporters after casting her ballot, “This is a head-to-head matchup at this point between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and he’s the clear favorite, has all the momentum, and I feel really good about him winning again in November.”
Sanders also says she wasn’t surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Monday restoring Trump to primary ballots.
She said the fact that it was a 9-0 decision is “very telling” and added that “it should be a signal to stop trying to use our courts for political purposes.”
META PLATFORMS DOWN IN WIDESPREAD OUTAGE
Users of Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms are experiencing login issues in what appears to be a widespread outage.
Internet traffic observer Down Detector is reporting vast outages on several Meta properties on Super Tuesday.
The problems were spotted right across the world, suggesting that the outage could be global.
London-based internet monitoring firm Netblocks said on X that four Meta platforms —Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads — were “currently experiencing outages related to login sessions in multiple countries.” Andy Stone, Meta’s head communications, said the company is working on the issue.
BIDEN PROMOTES HIMSELF TO BLACK VOTERS
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden hit the radio airwaves as he aims to shore up his standing among Black voters, a critical constituency for Democrats in the November general election.
In a radio interview that aired on Super Tuesday morning with Ms. Jessica, a radio personality in North Carolina, Biden promoted his achievements for Black voters, such as increased funding for historically Black colleges and universities and key investments in infrastructure to benefit Black communities.
In another radio interview, with “DeDe in the Morning,” Biden took a sharp jab at his likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and what would happen if Democrats lose the White House.
“You’re going to be back with Donald Trump,” says Biden. “The way he talks about, the way he acted, the way he has dealt with the African American community, I think, has been shameful.”
TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL IS OUT FOR REVENGE
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton isn’t on the ballot on Super Tuesday but is urging voters to oust fellow Republicans who voted to impeach him.
Paxton is out for political revenge six months after his acquittal in the state Senate over corruption and abuse of office allegations.
His targets include the powerful Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who oversaw the vote that made Paxton only the third sitting official in the state’s nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.
Paxton wants to overthrow the leadership of the House. His efforts are being widely watched as an attempt to push one of the most conservative legislatures in the U.S. even further to the right.
But he faces legal risks. Paxton is scheduled to stand trial in Houston next month on nearly decade-old securities fraud charges and remains under FBI investigation over allegations that he abused his office.