Friday, May 13, 2016

The Campaign Trail 2016: Trump vs. Trump and Clinton vs. Sanders

After the tumultuous events in Indiana, Ohio Governor John Kasich, the only remaining opponent to billionaire Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primaries, suspended his campaign leaving Trump alone in the Republican race. Tuesday night in the Nebraska Republican primaries Trump expectedly won the state but with only 61.4 percent of the vote. The Cornhusker State is a winner take all state so Trump walked away with all 36 delegates. On the same night in West Virginia Trump won the primary with 77 percent of the vote. The Mountain State is a proportional state with 34 total delegates to award. The full breakdown isn't available yet but so far Trump has collected 30 of the delegates and Kasich has collected one, meaning that Kasich is probably doing better not being a candidate than when he was a candidate. Tuesday night leaves Trump 103 delegates away from claiming the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump will go on to challenge himself in the Oregon primaries on May 17th.

Despite gaining endorsements from some notable Republicans, such as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the list of Republicans stating that they won't vote for Trump, under any circumstances, is growing to include such notable Republicans such as President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush, Arizona Senator John McCain, former New York Governor George Pataki, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan has started meeting with Trump to figure out ways to unite the fracturing Republican party, however it is clear that there are Republicans that will not be united behind Trump in 2016. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, a Republican turned Libertarian who is the likely Libertarian presidential nominee, needs to get his name out more along with his platform to bring the Republicans that will not vote for Trump over to the Libertarian party for 2016 before Former New York Senator Hillary Clinton woos them into being a Democrat for 2016.

The Democrats also had a primary in West Virginia where 29 delegates were at state. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the Mountain State with 51.4 percent of the vote. Clinton only received 35.8 percent of the vote. Sanders collected 18 delegates and Clinton collected 11 delegates. This brings Sanders' delegate total up to 1433, and he has 40 superdelegates pledged, and Clinton's total up to 1716, and she has 524 superdelegates pledged. Sanders needs to collect roughly 90 percent of all remaining delegates to win the Democratic nomination (roughly 86 percent if you count superdelegates) and Clinton needs to collect roughly 63 percent of all remaining delegates to win the Democratic nomination (roughly 14 percent if you count superdelegates).

Sanders and Clinton will face off next in Oregon and Kentucky on May 17th.

Return after the results on May 17th for the next installment of The Campaign Trail 2016.

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