With the South Carolina primary in the books, it seems as if the Republican candidate pool is trickling down quite a bit after news that Jeb Bush, a former candidate, has dropped out of the race. Thus changing the playing field a decent amount in just a matter of hours. With such a tumultuous group of potential candidates, the Republican race is bringing new meaning to the term "anyone's game." At least, that's the way I see it.
Although Donald Trump declared victory in the palmetto state over the weekend, there a plenty of other driving forces going on behind the scenes that could cancel out this apparent momentum. Many speculate that now that Jeb Bush has dropped out of the race, many establishment republicans are ready for Rubio, thus unifying a previously split demographic of conservative voters. And then there's Ted Cruz. After recently placing himself in the hot seat with a string of campaign ads just outrageous enough to get Trump's legal team involved, Cruz has been burning up the polls in states like Iowa, as well as the press nationwide. Despite his success, however, he’s been making a less than favorable splash with recent campaign ads and other forms of communication. He falsely claimed that Dr. Ben Carson had left the race, in what some are calling a ploy to entice Carson’s voters to “Trust Ted.” More recently, he went after Donald Trump with clips from an interview Trump gave years ago that stand starkly against his now conservative stances.
And with these three in the spotlight, it’s easy to forget the other two remaining candidates: Ben Carson and John Kasich. Yes, they are still in this too. And this pair is not to be underestimated either. Kasich has been polling better than expected as of late, and Carson still has his anti-establishment following, so, again I propose to you: the race for this candidacy is truly anyone’s game. And this is merely just the republican primaries. This election year is shaping up to be one of the most influential this country has seen in decades. So, I must implore all who can to vote. Using this democratic power of our’s is the single most important this a citizen can do in the United States. And while it’s all well and good live-tweeting debates or making catchphrases into gifs and memes, at the end of the day all that really matters are votes cast.
