The most important result from Super Tuesday was not whether a candidate won a state, but by how much he or she won.

Political watchers are hailing Donald Trump’s seven first-place finishes on the biggest day of the primary season so far as a clear victory for the Republican front-runner. But the winner of a state carries less significance in the race for delegates at this point in the campaign, with the GOP’s winner-take-all system not kicking in until March 15.

Each state that voted on Tuesday allocated delegates proportionally to the percentage of votes received by each candidate. Some states have minimum thresholds to win delegates, some have other formulas that apply to congressional district-level delegates, but none pledge all their delegates to the winner of the state.

On the Republican side, Trump won seven of the 11 states up for grabs Tuesday, with a margin of victory of more than 10 percentage points in four of them. The other three of his victories were much closer — he won by 2 percentage points in Arkansas, three in Vermont and three in Virginia.





In the states where Trump did not come in first — Alaska, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Texas — he lost by three, six, 15 and 17 percentage points, respectively.