The Campaign Trail 2016: South Carolina and Nevada

The Republican presidential candidates faced off in South Carolina today and the Democratic presidential candidates had a showdown in Nevada.

In Nevada, former Senator Hillary Clinton went head-to-head with Senator Bernie Sanders. Hillary won the caucuses, but like Iowa, by a very narrow margin. While this fits in perfectly with the polls – which showed the two in an almost dead heat – it is not the large margin win that Clinton needs to invigorate her campaign. Before pledged superdelegates, as of now this puts Sanders and Clinton dead even on delegates in this race – with 50 each – making South Carolina and its 53 delegates a necessity for both candidates to take by a wide margin. If the Democratic nomination race continues like this Sanders and Clinton will be fighting each other all the way through the primaries. The next stop for the two will be South Carolina on February 27^th.

Republican front runner Donald Trump repeated his success in New Hampshire in South Carolina and proved his poll numbers to be accurate again taking the number one slot, and a massive amount of delegates, with a massive margin. Senator Marco Rubio fought with Senator Ted Cruz all night for the number two slot eventually securing it for himself. Former Governor Jeb Bush, Governor John Kasich, and Ben Carson took the final slots trailing by a wide margin. The big winners of the night are Trump for his second landslide victory and Rubio who has shown he can pick himself up from New Hampshire. The big losers? Everyone who didn't make the top three slots.

Before the official results were in Bush wisely suspended his campaign. An act that Carson would be wise to follow. Kasich did well in New Hampshire, so he isn't out yet. But to keep himself in the race he will have to place in the top three slots in Nevada three days from now, which at the current time polls show him unlikely to do. Then again, the polls in Nevada can be very different than the actual election results as history has shown us. Next up for the Republicans are the Nevada caucuses on the 23^rd, not leaving much room for campaigning.

For the next coverage of the Republican primaries return on the 22^nd and for the next coverage of the Democratic primaries return on the 26^th.