It is very cold in DC, but the race to the White House is heating up. This month witnessed the first caucus and the primary elections being held in Iowa and New Hampshire. The Quint will be tracking the Presidential race from Washington DC.
Before I get into who won these and by what margin, let me explain to you what a caucus and primary means.
First Caucus and Primary
The US presidential campaign goes through a series of caucuses and primaries to help each party – the Republicans and the Democrats – nominate their presidential candidates. In a caucus, voters gather locally in support of the nomination of their candidate, and in a primary, voters cast their vote through a secret ballot. While the former is an open vote, the latter is similar to any other election voting process.
Since Iowa and New Hampshire are the first in the race for the presidential elections, a win there is considered significant, setting the mood for the fight ahead.
The Iowa caucus saw Ted Cruz, who is perceived as a strong social conservative take the lead in the Republicans 27.6 percent votes, and Donald Trump a close second with 24.3 percent votes.
Elections Blame Game
And just like our own netas at home, the candidates here resort to every possible strategy for one-upmanship, at times even cursing.
So Donald Trump who at the start of the campaign was very civil to Cruz, accused him of rigging at the Iowa caucus. Almost a week later at the New Hampshire Primary, Donald Trump trumped Cruz with a massive lead.
On the Democrat front, the close fight between Bernie Sanders, who is a self-proclaimed socialist democrat, and Hilary Clinton is getting intense.
Clinton, who was leading against Sanders at the polls in December with a huge margin, got only a 0.3 percent lead at the Iowa caucus.
Sanders defeated her in New Hampshire by a whopping 22 percent lead. What could be worrying for the Clinton team is that Sanders got 55 percent of the women votes as well.
It’s the millennials who are backing the 74-year Jewish-American Bernie Sanders, and his promise of bringing about income and wealth equality is resonating with them.
Also read: US Pres Elections: Trump and Sanders Win New Hampshire Caucus
The battle now shifts to South Carolina and Nevada where the African American and the Evangelical vote will matter.
You can follow all the updates of the US Presidential race to the White House with me on The Quint.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)