Super Tuesday is the biggest day of competition in American democracy except for Election Day itself. So will it set everything straight in the chaotic presidential race?

Maybe. Quite possibly not.

The only thing that seems certain is that it will be a banner day for billionaire Donald Trump with victories in eight or more of the 11 states where Republicans will hold primaries or caucuses.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz should hold on in his home state and one other. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio might – might – win a contest.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired surgeon Ben Carson aren't expected to take home any medals at all, but they could collect handfuls of delegates in states that don't set a minimum voting threshold.

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ROCKY TOP: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump drew thousands to a Tennessee airport hangar for a rally on Saturday

CARRY ME BACK: Trump stumped Monday at Radford University in southern Virginia

HIGH STAKES: Five GOP candidates will spar over 595 Republican National Convention delegates on March 1. Here's how they're distributed – according to population

It's those delegates who will cast votes during the GOP's July convention in Cleveland, Ohio, determining who the party's nominee will be in November.

Five men are still in the Republican race, but all the talk is about front-runner Donald Trump. The New Yorker is driving toward the nomination and his rivals are trying to stop him with everything they have.

Tuesday will answer whether Marco Rubio's debate-night transformation last week from bland RubioBot to Marco Rambo will continue.

The fight that the Republican establishment long wanted has been engaged. Whether it's too late to stop the outsider billionaire is the question.

Rubio backer Trey Gowdy, Chairman of the House Benghazi Committee, acknowledged his candidate's gloomy odds tomorrow in an interview with DailyMail.com this afternoon.

'I cannot contradict the polling, which has Trump winning the majority of the states,' he said.

He suggested that Rubio intends to stay in the race until March 15, when the senator's home state votes, Florida, either way.

Similar suspense, with fewer insults, animates the Democratic race. Hillary Clinton, the establishment pick, scored a weekend blowout in South Carolina on Saturday. She looks strong in many Super Tuesday states.

A surprise could reinvigorate Bernie Sanders, her socialist-populist rival who has tapped deep political passions but needs more victories, and soon.

Voters will come to polling places with a host of issues on their minds, including immigration policy, the U.S. debt, the uneven spread of wealth and hard questions about how to approach the Islamic State group, terrorism and civil liberties.

The fate of fundamental social policy is also up for grabs as the Supreme Court stands ideologically divided. A vacancy may not be filled until after the next president takes office in January.

Trump's agenda lacks detail on most fronts. But there's little doubt about his approach on several major issues.

He would try to push trading partners and others into doing his will. He wants to somehow carry out mass deportations of people in the country illegally, and temporarily ban non-U.S. citizen Muslims from coming into the country.

STATE BY STATE: What's at stake for Republicans on Super Tuesday? Alabama primary – 50 delegates Latest poll: Trump 42, Rubio 19, Cruz 16, Carson 11, Kasich 5 Trump could romp through Alabama if no one else reaches the minimum 20 per cent threshold needed to claim 'at-large' delegates. The other 24 are awarded based on district-by-district results, but Rubio and Cruz would have to overcome a massive disadvantage to avoid repeating their goose-eggs in South Carolina. Right-wing Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions endorsed Trump on Sunday. that will hold more weight than the more moderate governor Robert Bentley's endorsement of Kasich. Cruz has all but ceded the state, pulling out of a presidential candidate forum on Saturday and putting his resources elsewhere. Alaska caucuses – 28 delegates Latest poll: Trump 28, Cruz 24, Carson 9, Rubio 7, Kasich 2 No one knows how Alaska's caucuses will shake out because the state is so sparsely populated that it's not cost-efficient to do much polling. The only candidate who has given Alaska any thought at all is Trump, who won the early endorsement of the state's popular former governor Sarah Palin. Arkansas primary – 40 delegates Latest poll: Cruz 27, Trump 23, Rubio 23, Carson 11, Kasich 4 Arkansas could be one of only two bright spots for Ted Cruz, who has led there for months. But Trump drew crowds of thousands there recently, and made news by hiring the daughter of former governor Mike Huckabee last week. Rubio won the endorsement of Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Georgia primary – 76 delegates Latest poll: Trump 30, Rubio 23, Cruz 23, Carson 9, Kasich 9 Like in South Carolina and Alabama, Georgia contenders much collect 20 per cent of the vote in order to claim any of the 31 'at-large' delegates. One poll released last week showed Trump running away with the race at 45 per cent, with no one else reaching the threshold. Massachusetts primary – 42 delegates Latest poll: Trump 47, Rubio 15, Kasich 11, Cruz 15, Carson 2 This should be a laugh-riot for Trump despite Kasich's hope to perform well in the liberal enclave. A groundswell of blue-collar independent voters and so-called 'Reagan Democrats' is expected to support Trump on Tuesday – something the Democratic Party will ponder as November's general election approaches. Everyone except Carson stands to win delegates here, with the threshold set at just 5 per cent of the vote. Trump drew more than 10,000 people to a January rally in the town of Lowell. Minnesota caucuses – 38 delegates Latest poll: Rubio 23, Cruz 21, Trump 18, Carson 11, Bush 7, Kasich 2 If Rubio wins anywhere on Tuesday, it will be here in the only midwestern state to participate in the March 1 carnival. The three leaders will likely run close together as they did in Iowa. Trump has only recently put people on the ground to organize in Minnesota, and Rubio attracted more than 2,000 people there last week. Oklahoma primary – 43 delegates Latest poll: Trump 35, Cruz 23, Rubio 22, Carson 7, Kasich 8 Oklahoma will be the first state to host a completely 'closed' GOP primary, meaning that voters who want to cast ballots were required to register as Republicans by February 5. Crossover Democrats and independents aren't welcome. That could make the gold medal in Oklahoma the subject of some bragging rights after Tuesday. Tennessee primary – 58 delegates Latest poll: Trump 40, Cruz 22, Rubio 19, Carson 9, Kasich 6 Tennessee is another 'threshold' state, reserving its 31 at-large delegates for candidates who poll at 20 per cent and above. Rubio made Tennessee his first stop after the South Carolina primary, but Trump has likely built a substantial lead already in early voting, which has already seen more than 250,000 ballots cast. Rubio may regret the endorsement from Gov. Bill Haslam, who generated anger from conservatives in 2014 when he tried unsuccessfully to expand Medicaid programs under the Obamacare law. Texas primary – 155 delegates Latest poll: Cruz 39, Trump 26, Rubio 16, Kasich 6, Carson 8 Cruz must win his home state in order to remain a viable presidential candidate. No ifs, ands or buts. And Texas is the single biggest prize of Super Tuesday, with more than a quarter of the delegates that will be awarded. Texas could also hurt Rubio substantially if he misses out on the 20 per cent threshold for any of the 44 at-large delegates. the other 111 are awarded at the district level, but only the first- and second-place district finishers claim any prizes at all. So the result could see Cruz winning narrowly at the state level but splitting the delegates nearly evenly with Trump. Vermont primary – 16 delegates Latest poll: Trump 32, Rubio 17, Cruz 11, Kasich 10, Carson 3 Trump is the only Republican to pay significant attention to Democrat Bernie Sanders' home state, with a January rally in Burlington. The state should be a natural home for Kasich's moderate sensibilities, but conservatives there could be searching for as strong an antidote for Sanders as possible. A 20 per cent threshold for all Vermont's delegates means Trump could walk away with the entire jackpot. Virginia primary – 49 delegates Latest poll: Trump 40, Rubio 27, Cruz 22, Kasich 6, Carson 4 The Old Dominion is a likely place for everyone to walk away with something, since there's no delegate threshold. Everyone except Carson will have made a Virginia sto pin the week before Super Tuesday, but Trump is looking impossible to beat. Wyoming convention – 29 delegates No polling Key factors: Wyoming's state Republican convention is a non-event. The state party sends its delegates to the Republican National Convention 'unbound,' meaning they can vote their conscience. If the first ballot at the RNC in July is a nail-biter, Wyoming's delegates could become kingmakers. But for now they're afterthoughts. Advertisement

COWBOY BOOTS: Ted Cruz campaigned Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia

Democrats have a choice between liberal pragmatism and liberal ambition.

Sanders is proposing free college and a breakup of big banks as part of an agenda centered on shrinking the gap between rich and poor. That would come at the cost of higher taxes and what a lot of economists say would be higher national debt.

Clinton says Sanders' goals are politically impossible and she would follow an achievable path.

Until now, voters in four states have picked the only delegates – and just a few of them – who are needed to clinch the party nominations.

That changes overnight, with each party holding contests in 11 states on Tuesday. Democrats also vote in American Samoa.

Republicans will allocate 595 delegates from the results of Super Tuesday, nearly half of the 1,237 needed for the nomination.

Democrats will allocate 865, more than one-third of the necessary 2,383.

The scoreboard shows 3-1 leads for Trump and Clinton.

Trump won New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Clinton won Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina.

Republican Ted Cruz won Iowa. Sanders won New Hampshire.

CHALLENGING IN RAZORBACK COUNTRY: Trump rallied Saturday in Arkansas in a bid to catch Ted Cruz there

SELFIES WITH A ROBOT? Marco Rubio (right) campaigned Monday in Knoxville, Tennessee

DEEP SOUTH: Rubio hit Kennesaw, Georgia on Saturday – and hit Trump with caustic one-liners

BITTERLY CLINGING: Ted Cruz simply must win the primary election in his home state of Texas in order to remain a viable candidate for the White House

In the Republican delegate race, it's 82 for Trump, 17 for Cruz, 16 for Rubio, 6 for John Kasich and 4 for Ben Carson. But that will change in a heartbeat.

In the Democratic race, factoring in the hundreds of superdelegates, or party insiders who can support a candidate of their choice, Clinton leads with 544 delegates, according to AP's count, while Sanders has 85.

As enormous as the prize is on Tuesday, no one candidate can win his or her party's nomination that day. Delegates will be divided up according to how well each contender does.

That's an oversimplification of an arcane process, but the bottom line is that a strong second place in a particular state can be worth almost as many delegates as a victory.

A series of winner-take-all Republican primaries is coming, none bigger than Florida on March 15, where 99 delegates are at stake and Rubio will be fighting for a home-state victory against Trump, a part-time resident.

Both parties are holding contests Tuesday in these states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

Republicans also vote in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado. Democrats also have a contest in American Samoa.

According to Monmouth University polling of Arkansas and Oklahoma this afternoon, Trump will win both states by double digits.

He's at 42 percent in Alabama and 35 percent in Oklahoma. If he makes it past 50 percent in either, he'll take all of the delegates in those states. Otherwise, delegates will be awarded proportionately to candidates who get above 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively.