The results of the republican race for South Carolina primary were announced today. They did raise some eyebrows, however, most of them were as expected. On the other hand, Nevada results didnot cause too much excitement amongst the Democrats, as Hillary emerged as a clear winner.
In the Republican race, Donald Trump secured 32.5% votes and won the South Carolina primary. Some eyebrows were raised when Marco Rubio was seen coming second with 22.5% votes overtaking Ted Cruz by a wafer-thin margin of 0.2%. Cruz secured 22.3% votes whilst Jeb Bush got a meagre 7.8% and so did John Kasich (7.6%) and Ben Carson ( 7.1%). Jeb Bush announced that he was withdrawing his name from the Republican race because of a very lukewarm response in the last 3 primary results ( Iowa, New Hampshire and now South Carolina ).
With the deduction of Jeb Bush, this now leaves only 5 candidates eyeing for the republican nomination. Pandits say that shortly there will remain only three of them viz Trump,Rubio and Cruz. Lets see how it goes.
The surprise element today however was the emergence of Marco Rubio as one amongst the front-runners. In the first two primaries, he came 3rd and 4th respectively. Now he has come in second, after Trump. This momentum has picked up in his campaign due to the strong support that he got from Nikki Haley, the South Carolina Governor. Ted Cruz, on the other hand, was supposed to gain significant ground here in SC,where the number of evangelical voters is comparatively large. Instead,after winning in the Iowa primary and coming second at New Hampshire, here he has slipped to the third spot. He needs to look upon the deficiencies that may be creeping around his campaign immediately and remove them.
Jeb Bush, who was a front-runner ( second after Trump ) in the months of June, July last year, when 16 republican candidates were wishing for a nomination, gradually lost ground, after his poor shows in the debates, aired through various TV channels. His double-standards got clearly exposed, a thing which can prove to be lethal to a political career, and it did.
John Kasich,rightnow spotted at no.5, showed resilience in the last primary at New Hampshire by jumping 6 spots from 8th to 2nd. However, this time in SC, he has slipped down again to no.5. His supporters however, forecast a huge swing in his favor, once the voting starts for the Midwest region, including Ohio, of which he is a governor.
Many political Pundits are predicting the exit of Ben Carson soon. He has fallen from 2nd in the race during October to 6th now. Unless something miraculous happens in his favor, he is heading southwards in the rankings.
In the Democratic fight at the Nevada primary, Hillary managed to beat Bernie this time around. She secured 52.5% against Bernie's 47.5%. However, this was predicted earlier. After her shocking defeat to Bernie at New Hampshire, she was seen clearly upset for a few days. Almost all of her statements made publicly, contained a word " anyhow ", which showed that now she is utterly desperate, " not to lose " this time in the primaries, as what happened in 2008. It seems that she will win over Bernie in the primaries, but what happens against the Republican candidate in the final race for being the President, is a matter of time, to decide upon.
Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, seems confident rightnow, but I really doubt his honesty. He has lied on several occassions and has changed his statements quite often upon his stand on vital issues like terrorism, homosexuality, tax cuts, etc.
As of now, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton seem to be the ones who will be fighting for the Presidential race.
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