As the November presidential election approaches, the race to win the most delegates in the primaries is becoming tighter. The remaining Republican candidate is Donald Trump and the Democratic candidates are still Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Currently Clinton has 1,705 delegates and Sanders has 1,415; however Clinton has 523 unpledged delegates while Sanders only has 39.
This past month both Governor John Kasich and Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the Republican race. After the primary in Indiana on May 3, Cruz recognized that it would be difficult to garner the money and the votes needed to beat out Trump. Kasich followed Cruz’s decision and dropped out the next day.
Many people are disappointed that both Republican candidates dropped out in the wake of Trump’s victories because it was predicted that Cruz or Kasich would still try to get the nomination during the Republican Convention. Junior Noah Mayers says, “I think that it says a lot that his own party doesn’t even count him as one of their own. Mitt Romney himself denounced him.”
The California primary election is to take place June 7. In California, the Democratic party has 546 delegates that are allocated proportionally. According to polls conducted by Fox News, CBS, Gravis Marketing, Field, and SurveyUSA, Clinton is predicted to win but by only a few percentage points.
The Republican party has a winner-take-all primary with 172 available delegates. However, given that Trump is the only remaining candidate, this process is mainly a formality.
Senior Briana Reynolds says, “I thought someone would beat Trump out in the first round, and to see that he is the actual nominee, it’s crazy. He says some comments that I don’t necessarily agree with, which worries me if indeed he actually became president.”
Senior Pearl Walker adds, “I feel like he misrepresents the whole Republican Party and I feel like it’s really unfair to the people who support that party and wanted to vote for that party because now they one have no choice.”
Mayers, one of the few juniors who will be able to vote, has very strong opinions on the election this year. He says, “This year, I just find them annoying. All the candidates have been bickering like little children and it’s ridiculous, there is no respect at all. In debates years ago, when there was disagreement they always kept it tasteful. But now it’s just nasty and degrading and it’s kind of concerning that these are the people who are up for running this country.”
Senior Keoni Burns predicts, “Hillary is gonna win the primary because I guess Bernie is too much of a socialist and rich people don’t like that.” In regards to Donald Trump becoming the sole Republican candidate, Burns adds, “Donald Trump is crazy radical but I think people like him because the fear of terrorism and immigrants is so extreme in this country.”
In California, although in the past the number of voters actually going to the polls has been fairly low, officials expect that this year, there will be a surge on June 7. Over 600,000 citizens in California have registered or have updated their registration. They are expecting the because of the growing demand, there must be more ballots printed and additional staff.
In addition to California, the remaining primaries include the Nebraska Republican Primary, West Virginia, Kentucky Democratic Primary, Oregon, Washington Republican Primary, Virgin Islands Democratic Caucus, Puerto Rico Democratic Caucus, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota Democratic Caucus, South Dakota, and the District of Columbia Democratic Primary.
If Sanders is going to win the Democratic nomination, he must increase his vote share to about 70 precent on average. However, if Clinton continues to keep her current level of support for the remaining states, she will have a majority of pledged delegates by June 7.
