Indiana Primary 5/03/16

                     At 7:50 PM East coast time, Donald Trump was named the winner in the Indiana primary. He won with 53.2 precent, Cruz came in second with 36.7%, and Kasich in third with 7.6%. The results caused candidate Ted Cruz to drop out of the race leaving Trump as the perspective nominee of the Republican party. The delegate distribution with Cruz out of the race gave Trump 51 with 6 other delegates not awarded to anybody yet.
         In the Democratic primary race Sanders came out the victor. Although he won by a slim margin he still won the majority with 52.5%. That left Clinton with a second place loss and 47.5 percentile in the vote count. Sanders won a big 43 delegates, and Clinton won 37 delegates. Even with this win though, Clinton has almost clinched the Democratic nomination and needs only a couple hundred delegates to clinch the nomination to move to the general election.
           This relates to my AP Government class because it will decide the future of our nation. Like most presidents, as we have learned in class, they make big footprints in the bureaucracy in the United States, and also in the history of the world. The next President has a lot of problems to face and it will be interesting to see which candidate America decides best to handle the job.

Super Tuesday 4/26/16

SUPER TUESDAY 4/26/16

                   As the polls closed last Tuesday it was apparent on who won. Trump pulled away with all five states winning the majority of delegates and causing Cruz to no longer be able to reach the magic republican number of 1,237. With only five hundred and seventy one delegates left trump only needs about 250 delegates to clinch the republican ticket to go to the general election to face to democratic nominee. Trump currently has 996 delegates, Cruz has 565 delegates, and Kasich has 153 delegates.

                  Clinton also clinched a big win claiming four out of the five states and also basically clinched the democratic nomination to the general election. Sanders only won one state, which was Rhode Island, and will not be enough to gain any substantial foothold in the race against Clinton. Clinton has also hinted and basically said that Sanders should go ahead and leave the race, but Sanders is still holding out for some luck in the next super Tuesday election process. Clinton currently has 2,165 delegates, and Sanders has 1,357 delegates.

                 The reason this relates to my AP Government class is because this year is obviously an election year. We have also followed the race closely and watched every move the candidates have made to gain the support they have and the movement they caused. This election year is a great year to take classes like AP Gov because it causes extra controversy and excitement for our political system. It also shows interest in politics from kids and then with this election year, and with the death of justice Scalia, it has been an amazing class to learn and to have real life events to help demonstrate how our political system works.

                

Super Tuesday 4/19

With Trump and Clinton taking a huge lead Tuesday is New York, it sets Sanders and cruz behind. New york is a winner take all state as well.
    That leaves other candidates with a large gap to fill over Clinton and Trump. Trump has 845 delegates while Clinton has 1428 delegates. Both are in the lead to head to the general election.
     Other candidates following the coattails of Trump and Clinton are Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and John kasick. But as of right now it looks like Trump and Clinton are going to the parties candidates to go to the general election.
       The reason this relates to AP government is because we constantly. With a lame duck president and lame duck supreme Court. Everything we learn if to help prepare us for to stay not only informed but active in politics.

Brussels terrorist attack

Brussels, Belguim terrorist attack                                                               

Wisconsin Super Tuesday

Wisconsin Super Tuesday Primary

             On Tuesday, April 5th Wisconsin held its primary to see who would win the 48 Republican delegates, and the 86 democratic delegates. At the end of the night both polls were surprising to me, but to someone who knows a little more then I its probably wasn't as surprising. Both races were somewhat close to one another on who would win the state.

             In the Republican primary the person to walk away with the win was Senator Ted Cruz with 48% of the votes, and 42 delegates. Coming in second was Donald Trump with 35%, and only gaining 6 delegates. Which isn't a set back for Trump as many people believe he will definitely be the next presidential candidate for the republican general election. Coming in third place was the only other john Kasich with 14% gaining no delegates. 

            In the democratic Primary Sanders gained the majority of the votes in Wisconsin pulling a really important win out from under Hillary Clinton. Sanders won with 56.6% gaining majority of 48 delegates. Clinton came almost exactly 13 points behind Sanders and won 38 delegates. This was an important win for the Sanders campaign and keeps him going on to the next couple of states. Lets see who wins the democratic side, because to many others contrary belief he has still stayed in the race thus far with Clinton. Maybe he could go to the presidential general race and square up, one-on-one, with the republican candidate.

Presidential Race As of March 31st

                     Many things have happened since that last blog I added. People have dropped out and new alliances have been formed. One of which being Chris Christie the Governor of New Jersey. He announced his support for Trump earlier in the race not long after he had dropped out.
                     Other candidates from the Republican Presidential race have also dropped out. Both Ben Carson and Marco Rubio left the face. Rubio left after losing his state of Florida to Donald Trump. Ben Carson dropped out because of his lack of support. But it didn't take long for Carson to give support to the Trump campaign as well. A for Marco Rubio and other establishment Republicans, they have refused to completely give their support to the candidate in the lead, whom as of right now is Donald Trump.
                     The candidates remaining for the Republican side are Donald Trump with 736 delegates has the most and is the lead for the republican primary. That lead almost doubles the person who comes in second place as of right now. The second person in the standings is Ted Cruz who is also not a favorite in the republican establishment with 463 delegates. The third person who is way behind the other two candidates is John Kasich who was 143 delegates. also Kasich has less candidates then Rubio when he dropped out.
                     Both of the remaining candidates on the democratic side are still running. Even though Clinton had a substantial lead on Sanders, he still has a chance if he were to sweep multiple states coming up. But in my prediction the next candidates to advance to the general election are going to be Clinton, and Trump as they are sweeping the nation by storm.

Super Tuesday

                 Super Tuesday took place on the Tuesday, March 1st. The results show over all that Both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton were the winners of this Super Tuesday. These results show a massive over all favor to these candidates. Many of these states have over forty delegates which pushes both candidates closer to obtaining the nomination for their party.

                 Donald Trump pulled away with a win with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Tennessee, and Virginia. That puts his number of delegates to 319 just for this Super Tuesday and doesn't count the other five states that have already had their polling. As far as other candidates, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were the only other ones to win any states during this election. Ted Cruz won Alaska, Oklahoma, and and Texas which is a huge win for the Cruz campaign winning 155 delegates alone from there and an overall 266 delegates from the race. Rubio only won one state which was Minnesota leaving him with a less but still big win of 110 delegates.

                 Clinton pulled away with more states and more delegates than Sanders did. Clinton captured Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and left the elections with 1,052 delegates from this race alone. Sanders captured four states tough which gave him a good hold winning Colorado, Minnesota, Vermont, Oklahoma and gave him 427 delegates. Sanders needs to pick up his campaign because once Clinton get 1,237 she secures a spot in the actual race for the presidency. 

                 This relates to AP Gov and Politics because we are constantly learning how elections work. We also look at the polls avidly because obviously every state is important and so is every presidential election. Every day history is being made with today's society and now we access it instantly due to technology and the media.  

NEVADA CAUCUS

                 In Nevada the Caucus took place with a major victory coming from Trump, and a however slight, but still important Clinton. The Nevada Caucus took place for Republicans on the 23rd on February. But the date for the Democrats was earlier. The date for the democratic caucus to be held place was on the 20th of February with as I stated previously was won by Hillary Clinton. 

                  The Republicans had 30 delegates at stake while the democrats had more with 35 delegates at stake.  With a huge lead and a total of 45.9% Trump took Nevada by almost 25 points. His prize was the majority of the delegates being 14. Rubio coming in second with 23.9 points in Nevada obtained a solid 9 delegates. The democratic race was way closer then the Republican race. Clinton had a total of 52.6%, being followed closely by Sander with 47.3%. Both obtaining over ten delegates each, Clinton pulled through with 20 delegates. That's five more then Bernie Sanders obtained which marks a win for the Clinton campaign. 

                   On the Republican side many of the candidates have since dropped out of the race since the start just over a month ago at Iowa. Nevada showed no surprise with the Republican candidate Jeb Bush dropping out of the race shortly following the finished polling in Nevada. With Bush gone, that leaves five candidates left on the Republican side to battle it out. There next stop will be a huge test on both Sanders and Kasich as the show potential to win, but are falling behind in the polls.

                  This applies to what im learning in AP Gov and Politics because the entire semester so far we have obviously been paying very close attention to the Presidential race. We hava also been learning about how political parties during campaigning works. Also how the media helps or hurts each or certain candidates in the race.

THE DEATH OF ANTONIN SCALIA 

                     The sudden unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is very big issue in this election. Not only has there never been a death of  Justice during an election year, but not a replacement either. With only 8 out of 9 Justices there is now a possibility that the Court could end in a lame duck tie. 

                     There was no sign of foul play in the 79 year old death. He was the longest standing judge in the Supreme Court being elected when President Reagan was in office. He was elected because of his extreme Republican beliefs, but his qualifications were impeccable going to Harvard University for law, University of Friouberg, and Georgetown University.

                     One of the big problems this causes is now the Court is split down the middle with 4 republican justices and 4 democratic justices. so close to the Presidential election, republicans are worried of him pushing an extreme liberal to be appointed Justice. But Republicans hold the majority in the Senate and House so they will have to meet on common ground or put it off til the next president is in office.
                      This is a very big topic in AP Government and Politics because of the upcoming election this leaves a big seat open in the Supreme Court. Also raises questions on how the senate moves about this appointment. With an empty seat conclusions to many bills won't be fully decided upon and if they hold the appointment off for another year that means many things will have a hold put on it.

New Hampshire Primary

NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY

        

                On February Ninth, the New Hampshire Primary took place. All though Sen. Cruz came out on top in Iowa, and Clinton came out barely in the lead also in Iowa, the story was quite different here. Both the front runners who won in Iowa didn't in New Hampshire.
                The winner on the Republican side was Donald Trump by a margin of almost twenty points over John Kasich. This state blew Sen. Cruz out of the water and with everybody trying to recover the delegates were split up the following ways: Trump 10, Kasich 4, Cruz 3, Bush 3, Rubio 3. Candidates Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, Chris Christie, and Rand Paul dropped out the race immediately following the results or the following day.
                 With only two candidates on the Democratic side Bernie Sanders beat Hilary Clinton by 22.4 points with a huge 60.4 percentile in New Hampshire. Obviously Sanders won the state and the most delegates: Sanders 15, Clinton 9. A six delegate lead might not seem like a lot, but in a neck to neck race for the Democratic general election coming up quickly, only a couple of delegates could make a big difference.
                 This relates to AP Government and Politics because the Presidential race is a very hot topic in class for obvious reasons. Also the curriculum we are learning has to do a lot with how the political parties operates in and during election years. 

Iowa Caucus Presidential Race

              In Iowa, the Quinnipac poll shows that Trump is leading Texas Sen. Cruz 31-24. And that Sen. Sanders is following close behind Hillary Clinton 49-46. Even though these numbers are close together the poll also has favor in both Trump and Sen. Sanders. Because of both candidates being first time Caucus attenders they seem to be winning the majority of the votes from people who themselves have never been to Caucus before. The poll for the new comers show Trump beating Cruz 40-22, and Sanders beating Clinton 62-35, but will the new comers vote be enough?
              A good indicator on the new comers turn up can be seen in the record breaking Caucus for 2012 with 121,000 republicans. The biggest its been since 1968. And in 2008, the last competitive Democratic Caucus with 240,000 turn outs. This will also be a big battle for Clinton, because Sen. Sanders is already leading in New Hampshire, which is the next stop for the presidential candidates.
              After watching the Iowa Caucus all night the outcome stands as 28% Cruz, 24% Trump, and 23% Rubio for the Republican political party. The democratic vote stands 49.9% Clinton, 49.6% Sanders, and .5% O'Malley. The following results caused for democratic party member O'Malley, and Republican party member Huckabee to drop of out the race that night a couple hours after the polls opened. With Trump losing by 4% to Sen. Cruz, and holding a narrow lead over Sen. Rubio of only 1%, he looks toward New Hampshire where already is very popular among the Evangelicals. Even though Cruz won the Evangelical vote in Iowa the polls turn to Trump in New Hampshire.
              Following Sen. Rubio in the polls Dr. Ben Carson follows with 9%, Rand Paul 4.5%, Jeb Bush 2.8, Carly Fiorina 1.9%, John Kasich 1.9%, Mike Huckabee 1.8, Chris Christie 1.8, Rick Santorum 1%, Jim Gilmore 0%. On Wednesday, February 3rd Rick Santorum also dropped out of the race and almost immediately announced he was going to endorse Sen. Rubio. With this new surge for Sen. Rubio he looks like more of a force in this 2016 election.
              This blog reflects what we are learning in AP Gov and Politics, because our main focus in the class right now is on the Presidential election. We are also learning how the political parties, both Republican and Democrat, work, an which side we fall on either being Republican or Democrat.


My Citations for this blog is:
www.foxnews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2016/presidential-election-headquarters?intcmp=subnav
and CNN Live television, because I got some of my information throughout watching the Iowa Caucus