Donald Trump’s political juggernaut continues at full pace after claiming two emphatic victories in the winner-takes-all South Carolina primary, claiming 32.5 percent of the vote, and then in his business home of Nevada, he left the rest of the republican candidates floundering behind him, winning by over 22 percent. In both the South Carolina and Nevada primaries, Florida senator Marco Rubio secured second place and Texas senator Ted Cruz came in a very close third, although both were some way off the number one spot.
Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two former presidents, who was once favourite to win the republican nomination, suspended his campaign after receiving just 7.8 percent of the vote. Such a departure is yet another reminder of how unpredictable the republican race has been so far, with energetic yet incoherent populist Trump successful thus far, as the Bush family name is served a huge blow from a dissatisfied voter base.
Although it is not entirely surprising that Trump won in Nevada, due to it being home to Las Vegas, which forms a large part of his real-estate empire, it does leave his anti-establishment campaign seemingly unstoppable, having won three of the four states contested so far. With ‘Super Tuesday’ looming on March 1, where twelve states will go to the polls to choose their nominee, the remaining candidates will be desperately looking to appeal to the fallen Jeb Bush’s supporters now he is out of the race. For some candidates, it will form a last-ditch attempt to stall the real estate mogul and keep their hopes of being the republican nominee alive. However, the percentage of the vote formerly claimed by Bush is expected to be snapped up by Marco Rubio, who is now the establishment frontrunner. A lot of donations will also follow the popular votes, as the establishment frantically searches for a candidate to both reflect their interests and strike a blow to Trump’s campaign. Super Tuesday is now more pivotal than ever.
On the same day Trump surged to victory in South Carolina, the democratic candidates fought over Nevada. Hillary Clinton defeated Bernie Sanders by a closer than expected 52.6 to 47.3 percent, leaving Clinton opening up a gap on Sanders, and gathering momentum going into ‘Super Tuesday’, a day that could more-or-less decide the democratic nomination. Sanders, although he has ploughed money into advertising in Nevada at a rate of almost 2:1 in comparison to Clinton, will be pleased he pushed Clinton so close. Despite this though, Clinton has regained momentum in her formerly stalling campaign with the result, and becomes even more of a favourite in the two-horse democratic race.
Although Sanders has remained dignified and quiet on the subject of Clinton’s email controversy, she does remain in murky waters. The controversy stems from her use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State in Obama’s Administration, using the server for both work-related and personal communications, which the New York Times claimed was “alarming” and “may have violated federal requirements.” During her campaign so far, emails have been drip-fed into the public sphere, and have have created doubts about how appropriate it would be for her to be elected president in light of the revelations. An FBI investigation is on going, and now District Court Judge for the District of Columbia, Emmet G. Sullivan, has ruled that Clinton, along with state department officials should be questioned under oath about her use of the server. Additionally, Sullivan also did not rule out a subpoena for Clinton and her top aide, Huma Abedin.