HILLARY CLINTON and DONALD TRUMP—they are the front-runners in the Democratic and Republican races, respectively. But the voters in Wisconsin delivered a divergent verdict in their primary elections last Tuesday, April 5, favoring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Let us discuss how crucial the Wisconsin primary may be as each party chooses its nominee for president.
Republican Party
Leading up to the Wisconsin primary, Donald Trump experienced perhaps the most challenging weeks of his campaign. The Republican Party establishment has been openly trying to stop his momentum, and some GOP elites have given full support to Ted Cruz.
Trump has been criticized after he said in an interview that women who have had an abortion — when it is illegal — will have to be punished. This statement is incongruous to the GOP’s position that women are victims in this situation, and that the medical practitioners shall be the ones who will have to be punished for performing the abortion. Trump changed his position three times in a span of three hours, raising doubts about his policies.
Trump was also hit hard for his foreign policy position when he said countries like Japan or South Korea should be allowed to build nukes to protect their own security, a policy that negates the goal of the international community to make the world safer by aiming to make it nuke-free.
Cruz’s victory in Wisconsin, makes it harder for Trump to get the magical 1,237 delegate number he needs before the Republican National Convention in July.
If Trump does not reach 1,237, he may have to hurdle a contested convention, where the party will implement rules that may nominate another candidate, despite him winning the most number of states.
Democratic Party
Bernie Sanders’s victory in Wisconsin is his seventh win in the past eight primary contests over front-runner Hillary Clinton. This victory may continue to give Sanders the momentum to win in the delegate-rich state of New York on April 19, which may snowball to California and other states.
Sanders was born in Brooklyn, New York, but Hillary Clinton has made New York her adoptive state. She owns a home there and has served as senator before she was appointed Secretary of State by President Barack Obama.
Through Clinton has kept the lead over Sanders in New York, such lead has been diminishing, and may turn the table toward a Sanders victory.
Political analysts say if Sanders continues to win in the remaining states with at least 60 percent, he may have the chance to overtake Clinton’s delegate lead and reach the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
If Sanders falls short of the majority vote, he may still potentially prevent Clinton from getting the magic number 2,383, which means they both go to a contested convention.
Part of Clinton’s lead in the delegate math is the heavy support she has been getting from superdelegates (party-elected officials, not ordinary voters). Bernie Sanders’s strategy is to convince these superdelegates to shift their votes to him if the voters of states they represent choose Sanders as their nominee.
ABANGAN!
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
