Hanna Zinn | Blogger
This blog post will be all about the current presidential race, and all you need to know about who is running, who is winning, and what is really going on in this crazy election cycle. Tuesday of this week was the third Super Tuesday of this cycle where voters in Missouri, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Illinois voted in primaries for the candidate they want to be President of the United States. On the Republican side, Donald Trump won Florida, Missouri, Illinois, and North Carolina – but John Kasich was able to pull out a win in his home state of Ohio. Hillary Clinton won for the Democratic party in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Illinois, but the Missouri race seems to be too close to call with CNN reporting Clinton with 49.6% of the vote and opponent Bernie Sanders with 49.4% of the vote*.
Who is all left in this race? After last night, there are now only three Republican candidates still in the running – Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich. After last night’s disappointing loss in his home state of Florida, Senator Marco Rubio ended his campaign for President. In his speech to his supporters after his loss, he did not endorse another candidate but hopes the American people will vote for a candidate who is rooted in conservative values and who will continue to support and enhance the possibilities for Americans. The Democrats only have two candidates left in the race, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
So what is the point of these primaries and why are they so important? These primaries help narrow down the race on both sides before the Republican and Democratic Conventions. You may hear in the news about ‘delegates’, delegates are what candidates need before the conventions to receive the nomination for President. A Republican candidate needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination, and a Democratic candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the nomination for their party. Currently, delegates for each candidate vary depending on which source you use*, however Donald Trump leads the Republican race with 620-640, followed by Ted Cruz with 396-405, and John Kasich in last with 138. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads with 1,561-1,568, and Bernie Sanders comes in second with 797-800 delegates. There are still many votes and delegates up for grabs and the next states to vote are Arizona and Utah for Republicans on March 22nd, and Arizona on the 22nd and Washington on the 26th for Democrats. Stay tuned for next week’s blog post about President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination! Thanks for reading!
*the sources and statistics I used for this blog post can be found at www.cnn.com/election/ and storify.com/AP_CorpComm/super-tuesday-ii
