Election Update: Unexpected Frontrunners

Courtesy of NPR.org

By Eva Lynch

Following the early primary results of Iowa and New Hampshire, constituents are left with a dwindling roster battling for the Democratic primary nomination. Republican voters are already showing their support for President Trump, who is beginning his campaign for re-election.

Former Vice President Joe Biden was predicted early to be at least a consistent front-runner in the Democratic race. However, these predictions did not manifest come caucus and voting time, and Biden suffered losses in both states. In a recent interview, Biden hinted that winning the upcoming South Carolina primary will be instrumental in continuing his besieged campaign.

Senator Amy Klobuchar’s early results are also inconsistent with her predictions: her unexpectedly good showing in the New Hampshire primary propelled her to third place in the polls, but she seems to have hit the minority wall. In anticipation of the South Carolina and Nevada primaries this week and their indications about the final nominee, Klobuchar will spend the next two weeks promoting her candidacy among African American, Latino, and Asian voters, among whom she has polled very low, sometimes at even zero percent. 

Former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg has encountered his own wall: the magnifying glass which trains on candidates’ pasts following increased polling numbers. The media and subsequently many constituents have labeled him the “Democratic Trump,” drawing many similarities between the two experienced businessmen. On Sunday during a Fox News interview, White House correspondent Kellyanne Conway addressed past sexist remarks made by Bloomberg, which have been repeatedly compared to sexist comments made by President Trump that surfaced during his 2016 campaign. According to the Washington Post article Conway was responding to, Bloomberg was handed a booklet in 1990 denoting all of the discriminatory remarks he made during his time building his business. Conway asserted that the harm caused by these remarks far surpasses that caused by President Trump’s and will continue to damage and derail Bloomberg’s presidential campaign.

President Trump himself has already begun his campaign for re-election in 2020, picking up right where he left off in 2016 with infamously massive and cacophonous rallies. While he is not running unopposed, recent polls show spreads so wide, there is not much doubt as to who the Republican nominee will be, as with any other reelection candidate. Even so, the rallies which President Trump has already put together boast massive turnout, and many Republicans say Democrats should take this as a warning sign entering the election year. Strong turnout may be credited to recent motivation among Republican voters by the Democrats’ impeachment push.