Thats the biggest single day of voting during the primary cycle. People in 15 states and territories head to the polls, and 1,357 delegates are up for grabs. Delegates arewhat candidates need to win the partys nomination. Well get to that math in a moment. But lets turn for a moment to virginia. Theyre voting on super tuesday with 99 pledged delegates. The states handling of gun control measures could give us a window into what democratic voters there want in a president ial candidate. Back in november democrats won control of the Virginia House and senate for the first time in 24 years. And they campaigned heavily on gun control, in a state where the nra, the National Rifle association, is headquartered. The most controversial bill, a ban on semiautomatic weapons with a magazine capacity of 12 rounds or more, did not pass. But several more bills including universal background checks and a measure to give localities the power to ban weapons in some public spaces are expected to be signed into law. Correspondent Jessica Gomez reports. The movement to defend the Second Amendment caught on faster than what any of us expected. Jessica more than 80 miles from virginias capital, Culpeper County sheriff Scott Jenkins is keeping a close eye on whats happening there. They dont understand weapons and they dont understand the world that we really live in. Jessica jenkins, making headlines for his plan to train and deputize county residents in order to circumvent gun laws being proposed in richmond. They will be allowed to legally retain those weapons, to possess those weapons for use as Deputy Sheriff all those in favor say aye. The bill passes. Jessica this, as democrats who flipped the General Assembly last november speed through sweeping gun control reform, much of it proposed by governor ralph northam. Gov. Northam these laws are intended to keep virginians safe, period it is time to act. Jessica it comes on the heels of last years mass shooting at a government building in Virginia Beach and in 2007, at virginia tech. Thats where activist lori haas daughter was shot twice in the head, but survived. The will of the people of virginia was made very clear in november, when they elected a gun sense majority and we have come here to this body expecting them to get this job done. Jessica freshman legislator and Army Veteran Dan Helmer ran on gun control. I think we can both swear to uphold the constitution of the country and va as i have and also be in support of recent gun gun jessica but after thousands of protestors descended on the State Capitol in january and dozens of virginias cities and counties passed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions. Out of my cold dead hands will you get my weapons. A Senate Committee voted to postpone the most restrictive of the bills. It would ban the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms and the possession of high capacity magazines. This new majority really struck a nerve in the heart of every virginian that holds the Second Amendment near and dear. Jessica polls show how most in virginia support gun control, like universal background checks and red flag laws. But critics say the assault weapons ban went too far, too fast. I nearly drew my nine millimeter. Jessica brian bradley, who flips homes, was armed, when he showed up to a property that just been broken into. While he supports background checks, he worries the next time, hell be outarmed. They say they dont want to take our guns away they are just making it harder for law abiding people to keep current weapons or magazines for those current weapons. You have to lock up your guns. Jessica as the debate rages on, theres growing concern. Hundreds are gathering to form armed militias in several of virginias rural counties. I have never seen anything like this in almost 40 years of law enforcement. Jessica Chesterfield County sheriff karl leonard is bracing for what happens next. He says the letters and calls demanding his department not enforce any further gun restrictions are worrisome. My fear is that a good citizen, a lawabiding citizen that is going to be under the illusion that it being a sanctuary city, or a sanctuary county, allows them to resist that arrest, when it doesnt, so i really do worry for the safety of our law abiding citizens out there. Jessica Virginia Attorney general mark herring. These resolutions have no legal force or effect and localities do not have the authority to nullify state laws, it does not work that way. These laws are going to pass and they are going to be enforced. Jessica back in culpeper, sheriff jenkins isnt making any promises. Duly elected laws should be enforced. Unless in for some reason, we can see clearly on the face they appear unconstitutional. Jessica while jenkins waits to see what happens back in richmond, passions, ignited, on both sides the Second Amendment is a fundamental right. Jessica even in the sheriffs own county. Lets talk about the founding fathers. They were wrong about women, they were wrong about guns, they were wrong about slavery. Jessica in culpeper, virginia, for matter of fact, im Jessica Gomez. Soledad the chairman of the Senate Committee that voted to table the assault weapons ban in virginia tells us he believes with some tweaking, like adding a buyback program, it can get passed next year. Next on matter of fact, a rare indepth survey gives a different take on how African Americans feel about the election and what they want in a candidate. Their eyes are on the prize and the prize is the white house. Plus, so what makes tuesday super . And nasas next challenge gives new meaning to the term, hot wheels. 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And a new poll of African Americans in super tuesday states show while theyre obviously not a monolithic voting bloc,they do share some priorities. Take a look at this survey from the university of massachusetts amherst and our affiliate wcvb. When asked to rank the top three qualities important to their vote choice. The first quality was a candidates ability to beat trump. That was also the third choice . Tatishe natetta is a political professor at Umass Amherst and hes one of the polls conductors. Nice to have you with us. Lets begin with the goal in this poll because i feel like everyday there is a new poll. What was your agenda . Wax i mean, i think what we were thinking about doing is recognizing that africanamerican voters are an important part of the democratic electorate and theres a lot of discussion of the reasons why they support particular candidates and who they support. But there was actually a lack of real data survey data of africanamerican voters, particularly in super tuesday states. And so we thought this is a really Good Opportunity to provide real information as to how africanamerican voters are looking at the 2020 president ial election. Soledad so what was your biggest takeaway about the primary overriding an overarching goals of black voters . Yeah, i mean, i think the biggest takeaway from our poll is that African Americans seemingly overwhelmingly support Vice President biden. They see him as the most experienced. They see him as the candidate most likely to beat trump. They see him as the candidate who can best represent africanamericans, and they see him as the best candidate to trust as it pertains to things like the economy, Race Relations and criminal justice. Soledad and is that electability, which is a word i kind of hate, but is that because of, hey, they think he can beat donald trump or is that because those issues that you just ticked off are all important to them . The candidate matches up and thats why they support him. Yeah, i think, you know, i think africanamerican voters are very similar to other members of the democratic electorate and their eyes are on the prize and the prize is the white house in 2020. And so they want a candidate that has the experience to go up against the president. I would assume, not afraid of debating with the president challenging the president. And that candidate in the eyes of African American voters is Vice President biden. Soledad according to pew. Twenty eight percent of black democrats would call themselves liberal. Seventy percent identify as moderate or conservative. And i think that would actually surprise a number of people in the media. Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, i think there is an assumption that africanamericans are a monolithic electorate and that they are democratic and that means that they are progressive. But the reality is that, you know, a large percentage of the Africanamerican Community, as you know, noted there is moderate in their ideological preferences and some could say conservative on a number of issues, things like abortion, same sex marriage, that africanamericans have expressed quite conservative positions. And so to treat the Africanamerican Community as a largely Progressive Community is not reading the data correctly. Soledad does that correlate to age . I mean, young africanamericans are more likely to lean progressive. Bernie sanders, Elizabeth Warren, an older African Americans are more likely to lean conservative. Yeah, i think that is true. I think, you know, very similarly to the broader public that younger africanamericans are more progressive in their attitudes and they are more likely, as according to our poll, to support senator sanders. Now, the problem with having large percentage of young people supporting you is that we know for from decades of research that Older Americans are more likely to turn out to vote. Older americans are more engaged and Older Americans are more likely to support financially candidates. And so if you want to ensure that you can mobilize your voters to turn out on election day, its better to have a middle age to an older demographic supporting you. And well see on super tuesday whether or not senator sanders can mobilize those young people who support him. Soledad thank you so much for your insight. Appreciate it. When we come back, why is likeability a litmus test for women candidates . Women still face questions on their femininity, likeability, warmth. And from maine to massachusetts, minnesota and more, which democrat can appeal to the most voters on super soledad when it comes to president ial candidates is likeability a litmus test,thats really only applied to women . According to research from the barbara lee family foundation, a nonpartisan foundation that looks at the role gender plays in elections, people are less likely to vote for women they dont like, though theyll still back a man they dont like as long as they think hes qualified. And does the media play a role in that perception . Kelly dittmar a professor of Political Science at rutgers universitycamden and a scholar at the center for american women and politics at the Eagleton Institute of politics. Nice to have you. So 26 years ago in the anita hill era, it was declaimed. It was the year of the woman. I look back now and think, well, thats kind of laughable. What happened that all that time later were laughing about even thinking about that . I mean, we have to recognize change in politics is slow, but change, especially for women in politics, has been really slow and we werent going to disrupt the applecart completely in any one single election year. So, yes, we saw a Record Number of women running and winning in 1992, but we had a lot more progress left to make. Soledad so what are the biggest obstacles . Tick them off for me, for female candidates. We have expectations of what it means to be a woman or a man. We have expectations of what it means to be an officeholder for men. Those two sets of expectations often align right as. Soledad like a venn diagram that lays nicely on top of each other. Absolutely. Thats how i show my students. Exactly. And for women, theres incongruity. Right. So this is when we talk about the double bind or. The challenges for women having to prove theyre both woman enough to meet the expectations of their gender and man enough to meet the expectations of the job. Soledad what does that mean woman enough. Is that pretty . Is that likable . Is that soft . If thats maternal, maternal, right. Youre a good mom. Theyre not abandoning their kids to run for office. Some of those stereotypes and expectations or demands, i guess, of the candidates have changed over time. Weve seen evolution, thankfully, in some of those demands. Certainly women still face questions on their femininity, likeability, warmth. And they face questions on their competence and their ability to be tough and strong and basically have the expertise they need for elected office. Soledad whats the role of the media and reporters in all of this . And have you seen a change as more women are reporting political stories over the last 30 years . Yeah, i think the media plays an Important Role because they can either amplify some of those biases, right. Raising different questions for women candidates than they do for men or evaluating women differently than they do for men. And weve seen this historically where there has been differential coverage, where theres more coverage of style talk about women candidates as their novelty candidates write only focusing on women candidates when you want to say theyre going to be the first. Instead of focusing on their policy plans and their, it doubles down on voters doubts that that woman is qualified and competent enough to do the job. I do think that having more diversity in newsrooms, both gender and racial diversity, to be frank, changes the conversation. Soledad these conversations, often led by pundits, not the reporters. They go in and do what we used to call in the newsroom, know hits, runs and errors. Heres what happened. This was said. They wrap up their story and they kind of toss it to the pundits. And it seems to me like the pundits then run wild. You could have a story about likability. That just raises a question like, is Elizabeth Warren likable or likable enough . Right. That perpetuates the bias and concern that voter voters might have around likeability in women. But you could have somebody who reports the story and says, as you did, likability is a different issue for women than it is for men. Heres what the research shows. Now lets have a conversation about that. I think for a viewer or a reader that calls out their own potential biases and how they might have thought differently about candidates without even re or do you think that candidates can lead that conversation and kind of make the change in society . I think that both can happen. And i think we spend too little time actually thinking about how important candidates and their teams are. I think they have a role in pushing voters to think a little bit differently. And weve seen that over time. Weve seen candidates have an effect in changing the image and expectations of leadership. And i think they should think more a little bit more about that, because in the long term, that benefits them, because it expands the pool of candidates who can run and the types of ways that they can run and be successful. Soledad kelly dittmar, nice to have you. Thanks so much. Coming up next, adding up support. The formula to capture delegates can get complicated. So will some contenders walk away emptyhanded on super tuesday . Soledad so what makes tuesday super . Math. Delegate math. Delegates are actual people who are elected or chosen at the state or local level ,with the und