As the Election 2016 Democratic primary rolled around, America knew Hilary Clinton would most likely be the front-runner. However, as of recently Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has started to catch up with Mrs. Clinton. With these two power houses taking the lead in the party and polls, the other primary candidates have started to realize that running against these two might prove to be difficult. Even Vice President Joe Biden has chosen to abstain from the presidential race for a fear of not winning against Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
Even through her Benghazi scandal, Clinton came into the primary leading the party with tons of supporters. Everyone else running in the race lightly trailed behind hoping to get a chance to capture the hearts and minds of Americans at the same rate as Clinton.
Turns out someone was able to catch up with her and that person is Bernie Sanders, a past Congressman, now senator of Vermont. Following the debate Sanders was able to jump up in the polls and give Clinton a little run for her money. Even though Clinton still dominates the party, Sanders is slowly catching up to her ranks.
With all of this being said, the other candidates running on the Democratic side have started dropping like flies. Particularly after the debate, two running candidates (Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb) and Democratic Vice President Joe Biden have declined to continue in the race. When talking about the much anticipated decision about running for President, Joe Biden said via NBC News, “Hillary and I get along together. The only reason to run is because I still think I could do a better job than anybody else could do. That's the reason to run. I wouldn't run against Hillary." Clinton must be a real powerhouse if our own Vice President doesn’t feel confident running against her.
These decisions to leave the race also came after the debate where Bernie Sanders was said to be the winner of the first Democratic debate on October 13, 2015. Immediately following the debate, Sanders jumped up in the polls by 24%. His leap definitely has a lot do with the fact that he gained a lot of young support the night of the debate when he discussed the concept of free college tuition.
Very shortly after the poll release, down went Jim Webb. I find it highly un-coincidental that all three of these men decided to not run for President anymore within the same week, the week that followed the debate.
So what happens when you have two very well liked and knowledgably candidates fighting head to head? Well, not only do you get all the other candidates to leave the race, you get some amazing debates. I think we can all expect the next Democratic debate to be a really competitive and heated event. Currently, Hillary is winning the polls with 55.2%, Bernie following with 27.9%.
