After the results in Indiana on Tuesday night, we finally have our match-up to determine who will be the next President of the United States. Even though the Democrats and Republicans both still have another candidate in, Bernie Sanders for the Dems and Ted Cruz for the Repubs, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will represent their parties come November barring anything cataclysmic.
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FOR THE REPUBLICANS
Donald Trump needed a big win in Indiana to become a runaway favorite to be the Republican Party nominee and he got just that on Tuesday night. Trump is currently ahead by almost 17 points with 88 percent of the vote in and is likely to sweep all 51 of the delegates in Indiana.
This victory put Trump in commanding position, but what occurred just an hour and a half after polls closed was still somewhat surprising.
Even though the likelihood of Ted Cruz winning was slim to none after the result in Indiana, no one thought that he would pack it up not long after the polls closed and it was announced that Trump had won. Cruz had named Carly Fiorina as his potential running mate just a week ago and it seemed that he would try to duke it out all the way through in order to get to a contested convention. Earlier in the day, Cruz had even promised that he was going to stay in the race to become the Republican nominee until June 7, but backed down in order to attempt to preserve party unity.
It’s very interesting that Cruz is backing down considering how vitriolic the campaigns to become the Republican Party nominee. Cruz and Trump have gone back and forth with nasty rhetoric, each insulting the other’s wife and hurling accusations at their opponent. The campaigns have been a microcosm of just how crazy these nominations have been.
The race to win the Republican nomination has been the most hostile on record and all centrist candidates found themselves marginalized from the outset. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio were each seen as favorites to win the nomination once upon a time, but support among the voters never materialized.
Instead, voters chose political outsiders time and time again with Trump and Cruz emerging as the main two candidates over the last two months. This shows how disillusioned many Americans feel with the current political structure and how many feel there needs to be an almost revolutionary change.
FOR THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Clinton lost Indiana by six to seven points, and even though it was a surprise defeat, it doesn’t do much to change the overall structure of the race. Clinton has the race in a hammerlock and Sanders needs to win states by insane margins to come close to catching her in the delegate count.
This does however raise some concern for the Democrats in two arenas.
It’s pretty troubling that Sanders continues to hang around and perhaps speaks to the inability of Clinton to appeal to a large swath of voters. Voters seem to be excited to vote for a non-traditional candidate like Sanders even though he has very little chance to win. This excitement could cross party lines and lead to votes for Trump as he is seen as an outsider, while voting for Clinton is a vote for the boring status quo.
The other thing that’s concerning is that while the Republican nomination now is wrapped up with the departure of Cruz, Sanders’ insistence on staying in the race means that Clinton needs to dedicate more time and resources to the primaries than Trump does. Trump will start gearing up for the national election now with only Kasich left and that means he can start to campaign in swing states.
Of course the good news for Clinton is that she is still a large favorite in a head-to-head race against Trump and the polling seems to favor her on the average of seven to eight points. Assuming Clinton gets a strong endorsement from Sanders when this is all said and done, she should solidify the base and be in prime position to be the next POTUS.
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