Republican Nominee Will Most Likely Be Trump

The Republican field for its party’s nomination started off with seventeen candidates, and now, after almost a year of debates, primaries, and caucuses, it appears as though they have chosen a nominee. Although he has yet to reach the 1,270 delegates that are necessary to clinch the nomination, businessman Donald Trump is the only candidate left standing, and he is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party.

Heading into the Indiana Primaries on Tuesday, 3 May, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich were still active on the campaign trail and seeking their party’s nomination. Both of them faced the fact that it was mathematically impossible for them to head into June’s Republican Nation Convention with the nomination secured, but they still sought to become the party’s nominee through a contested convention.

Later that night, after the results from Indiana were announced and Trump earned yet another victory, Cruz announced that he would be suspending his campaign.

“From the beginning I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight, I’m sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed. Together, we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we’ve got. But the voters chose another path,” Cruz said as he announced his concession.

His announcement officially narrowed the field down to two.

The next day, 4 May, Kasich became the sixteenth and final Republican candidate to announce he would no longer be seeking a bid for the presidency.

“The people of this country changed me,” he said.

After he took time to reflect on his run as a presidential candidate, Trump officially became the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party.

“It is a beautiful thing to watch, and a beautiful thing to behold. We are going to make America great again,” Trump said.

Trump will face a difficult battle heading into the general election. A recent Boston Globe poll shows that Trump trails likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by twenty-four percent.

Additionally, Republican leaders, including Speaker Paul Ryan and former President George W. Bush, have announced that they will not support Trump, at least for the time being.

Both Trump and the eventual Democratic nominee will have six months to try and persuade voters to support them in November’s general election.