Presidential race down to three

Louis LaVenture,
Editor-in-Chief

With just three candidates left in the presidential race, things are starting to heat up.

After Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out of Republican contention for president last week, the country is left with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as potential successors for President of the United States Barack Obama.

Clinton holds a commanding lead for the Democrats, with 2,205 delegate votes to Sanders’ 1,401. There are still 1,159 delegate votes up for grabs over the next ten primaries before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 7, according to the primary schedule on the official Democrat website.

Each state has an allotment of delegate votes that are determined by the popular vote. With 2,383 votes needed to secure the Democratic nomination, Clinton is just 178 votes shy of the goal and has 522 superdelegate votes to Sanders’ miniscule 39.

Superdelegates are unique to the Democrats and comprised of elected officials, party leaders and all House and Senate members. Superdelegates can vote for any candidate they want and can create a swing in the nomination since their decisions have the potential to go against the popular vote.

At a May 1 press conference, Sanders said even if he doesn’t receive the 2,383 votes necessary to be nominated, he will contest the convention. While it is still unclear what a “contested convention” means, it is likely that Sanders will not accept nor support his party’s nomination of Clinton and attend the convention opposed to it.

For Trump, things will be much easier as he is the only candidate left in his party and doesn’t have to deal with superdelegates. Trump has 1,068 delegate votes and needs 1,237 to secure his nomination, according to the Associated Press.

With 505 votes still available and no other candidates, it is likely Trump will hit that mark well before the start of the Republican National Convention on July 18 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

The Oregon primaries for both parties are scheduled for May 17 and for Democrats, it is also the same day as the Kentucky primary, according to their website. Voting day for California residents will be on June 7. There are some exceptions, but most voters must register at least 15 days prior to an election in order to be eligible. For more information on how to register and where to vote visit rockthevote.com.