By Renzzo Castaneda /
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n, February 1, 2016 the Iowa Caucus was held in Des Moines, Iowa, and although it is actually not the first-in-the-nation primary like New Hampshire, it is the first step in getting to know and choosing the candidates that will be in the 2016 Presidential Primary.
Back in the 2012 Presidential election, Iowa switched from the dated winner-take-all distribution to proportional distribution. The change was made to extend the race, giving lesser known candidates a chance and making it harder for a frontrunner or the favorite to secure the majority early. It was also hoped that this change in the election system would energize the base of the party.
After much debate and anticipation, the results of the Iowa caucus were finally published. The winner of the Republican candidates was Senator Ted Cruz who won with 27.6% of the votes beating out candidates like Donald Trump (24.3%) who came in 2nd place, and Senator Marco Rubio (23.1%) who came in 3rd place.
The Democratic results were not as easy to determine a winner because between both candidates United States Secretary Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders because they were deadlocked with 49% of the votes. The Iowa party chairman Andy McGuire said that the results are the closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history. After some calculations, Hillary Clinton was named the winner with 49.9% of the votes, with Bernie Sanders (49.6%) coming in a close 2nd place, and Martin O’Malley (0.6%) coming in 3rd place.
Hillary Clinton who just barely won the Iowa caucus with a 0.3% lead over Bernie Sanders ended her speech by saying, “As I stand here tonight, breathing a big sigh of relief, thank you, Iowa. I want you to know I will keep standing up for you; I will keep fighting for you, so join me! Let’s go win the nomination!”
Senator Bernie Sander ended the Iowa caucus by giving his runner up speech by stating, “As I think about what happened tonight, I think the people of Iowa have sent a very profound message to the political establishment, to the economic establishment and, by the way, to the media establishment,” he continued, thanking Iowa for starting a “political revolution.”
Now the candidates have moved on to the actual primaries like New Hampshire (Feb 9), Nevada for the Democrats (Feb 20), South Carolina for the Republicans (Feb 20), Nevada for the Republicans (Feb 23), South Carolina for the Democrats (Feb 27).
In the New Hampshire primary for the Democrats the winner was Bernie Sanders with 60.4% beating out Hillary Clinton who had 38%. Bernie Sanders gave his speech saying, “Nine months ago we began our campaign here in New Hampshire. We had no campaign organization, we had no money, and we were taking on the most powerful political organization in the United States of America. Tonight, with what appears to be a record breaking voter turnout, because of a huge voter turnout — and I say huge, we won and we will all come together to say loudly, and clearly that the government of our great nation belongs to all of us, not just a few wealthy campaign contributors. That is what this campaign is about, that is what the political revolution is about. So, New Hampshire, thank you again.”
Meanwhile on the Republican primary for New Hampshire Donald Trump won with 35.3% beating out every other Republican candidate by a very large margin which included John Kasich (15.8%), Ted Cruz (11.7%), Jeb Bush (11%), Marco Rubio (10.6%), Chris Christie (7.4%), Carly Fiorina (4.1%), Ben Carson (2.3%), and Jim Gilmore (0%).
Donald Trump gave his victory speech by saying, “I am going to be the greatest jobs president that God ever created, remember that, we are going to make our country so strong. We are going to start winning again. We don’t win anymore as a country. We don’t win on trade. We don’t win with the military. We can’t beat ISIS. We don’t win with anything. We are going to start winning again. And we’re going to win so much; you are going to be so happy. We are going to make America so great again, maybe even greater than ever before.”
In the past month, candidates from both parties have moved on to Nevada, and South Carolina, in which the winners have been the same for both states, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have both won for their respective parties.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton beat out Bernie Sanders in South Carolina with 73.5% compared to his 26%, and she also won in Nevada with 52.6% compared to his 47.3%. Lately, it seems that the lead and the momentum Sanders had on Clinton in New Hampshire is starting to die down, although he still hasn’t fallen very far behind her, with the recent polls Hillary Clinton has been shown as the heavy favorite for the Democratic party.
Not unlike the Democratic Party, Donald Trump has swept the competition in the Republican primaries by not only beating the competition by a very large margin but after some heavy losses in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina several of the Republican candidates have dropped out of the race. The list of the dropouts includes Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum.
Donald Trump beat out the remaining candidates for the Republican side by winning in South Carolina with 32.5% and in Nevada with 45.9%. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, and John Kasich are the remaining candidates for this race but the only ones that seem to be making any headway compared to Donald Trump are Marco Rubio who placed 2nd in both South Carolina (22.5%) and Nevada (23.9%), and Ted Cruz who had 22.3% in South Carolina and 21.4 in Nevada and placed 3rd in both states, while Carson and Kasich seem to making minimal headway both coming in under 8% in both Nevada and South Carolina.
But finally the big one, today, Super Tuesday March 1st in which 11 states including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and 1 territory which is American Samoa will have their primaries all at once and will be the biggest and most definite way to determine which candidate will be chosen to represent the respective parties, will it be Donald Trump who has been winning every state recently for the Republican party or will Rubio or Cruz upset him in the long run? Will it be Hillary Clinton who had a rough start but now is winning or will it be Bernie Sanders who might prove that his momentum at the beginning wasn’t just a fluke? All this and more will be determined today on Super Tuesday.