The Real Race is Here
Saturday night was important for Republican South Carolinians and Democratic Nevadans, as their parties held their respective primary election and caucuses. I initially did a double-take when looking at the schedule – it seemed odd to me that Democrats and Republicans would hold their races on different days in each state but apparently that’s how it works. The American presidential cycle loves to confuse us.
Let’s get down to the nitty gritty: Donald Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary with 32.5% of the vote and Hillary Clinton won the Nevada Democratic caucuses with 52.6% of the vote. After Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz came in head-to-head for the 2nd place position with Rubio pushing ahead with only .3% at 22.5%. In Nevada, Bernie Sanders earned 47.3% of the vote.
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Jeb(!) Bush ended his campaign to the White House due to poor results in South Carolina. While this may seem unimportant as he was not expected to win, it is significant while we attempt to pick the best “moderate” Republican candidate between Bush, Rubio, and Kasich. Now that only Rubio and Kasich remain, Bush voters will swing to one or the other. This will be important to look out for with tomorrow’s Republican caucuses in Nevada.
On the left, Clinton and Sanders continue their relatively respectful battle for delegates. The New York Times wrote a piece yesterday stating that while Sanders most certainly should still be considered a contender, he has a “steep climb” to reach a delegate count similar to that of Clinton – Sanders has 70 declared delegates and Clinton has 502. It is here that I can see the complaints of Sanders supporters in regard to the existence of super delegates. I too think that this system gives an unfair advantage to candidates like Clinton, but as I am a Clinton supporter I am not one to complain at the moment.
Another interesting phenomenon I have noticed among Democrats is the fact that there seems to be incredibly polarized opinions on who is the frontrunner of the party. Earlier today I saw an article shared on Facebook from the Huffington Post entitled “Bernie Will Become President. The FBI and 67 Percent of Americans Distrust Hillary”. I’ve seen many posts similar to this from my friends who support Bernie. On the other hand, news outlets like the New York Times continue to insist that Hillary will gain the nomination. This discrepancy has been there since day one and only seems to be getting more pronounced. Time will tell.
With 259 days until the election,
Phoebe Warren
