Presidential race continues with primaries and caucuses

by Derek Yen, Nicole Chen, and Adrian Chu

March 3, 2016

The Nevada Democratic caucus and the South Carolina Republican primary both concluded on Feb. 20 with Hillary Clinton in the lead with 52.6 percent of the votes over Bernie Sander’s 47.3 percent. In South Carolina, Donald Trump took all 50 delegates with 32.5 percent of the votes.

After the Republican primary, Jeb Bush suspended his campaign due to disappointing results in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

“I’m proud of the campaign that we’ve run to unify our country,” Bush said in the departure video posted to his official website. “But the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision.”

Primary caucuses for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates began with the Iowa caucus on Feb. 1 and the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9.

The Iowa caucus resulted in victories for Clinton and Ted Cruz with 49.9 percent of the Democratic and 27.6 percent of the Republican votes, respectively. Clinton’s victory was slim with Bernie Sanders close behind at 49.7 percent.

In New Hampshire’s primary on Feb. 9, Sanders won with 60 percent of the Democratic vote while Trump won with 35.3 percent of the Republican votes.

“[Iowa and New Hampshire] are the first two states, which means we pay more attention to them, and we give them so much coverage even though it’s not necessarily due,” Issues Discussion Club President Shannon Hong (12) said. “I still think that [they] influence the general and primary election season in that it establishes momentum; Sanders, right now, having only lost to Clinton in Iowa by 0.2 percent and and then actually winning in New Hampshire, I think that gives him a lot of momentum.”

The next Democratic primary will be held in South Carolina on Feb. 27.

I think [the elections] are pretty important because right now our country isn’t in a great situation, so I really think we need a strong leader to bring us back to a top position.” Sandip Nirmel (11) said. “The president really is the face of our country and so it’s very important to get a good president.”

On Mar. 1, dubbed “Super Tuesday,” numerous states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, will hold primary votes. Due to the scale of these simultaneous polls, Super Tuesday may potentially cause many candidates to subsequently drop out of the race.