TRANSCRIPT:
VICROBECK: Delegates from 11 states — that’s what’s at stake this Super Tuesday. Here’s Ted Cruz reminding his supporters at a recent rally.
CRUZ: … and the the great state of Texas. The most delegates that will be awarded on a single day will be awarded next Tuesday.
VICROBECK: This Super Tuesday the stakes will be higher for one party than the other. That’s what Don Green, a political sciences professor at Columbia University says.
GREEN: It’s important this year, but much more on the Republican side than on the Democratic side
VICROBECK: Green says this period in the campaign is particularly important because this is when candidates who aren’t doing well usually drop out.
GREEN: It’s the turning point for a variety of reasons. It’s the point when candidates usually run out of money. If they don’t do well on Super Tuesday, usually, their campaign staff abandons them and encourages them to suspend their campaign.
VICROBECK: But Kasich, Rubio and Cruz’s campaigns have all hinted that they will stay in the race until at least mid-march. This time around, even candidates who aren’t in the lead are going to stay put.
PROBOLSKY: The ones that are there now are kind of digging in their heels.
VICROBECK: Adam Probolsky is the CEO of Probolsky Research, an opinion research and strategy firm. He says that despite Donald Trump’s lead in the polls, the race isn’t over for the other candidates. They still have a shot at becoming the nominee.
PROBOLSKY: The presumptive nominee is Trump but there’s still some sense that that could change.
VICROBECK: Super Tuesday could offer up a candidate to stand up to Trump. David Lublin is a professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He says it’s likely it’ll either be Rubio or Cruz.
LUBLIN: The real question for Rubio and Cruz is can one of them become the clear alternative to Trump.
VICROBECK: Or it could be neither…
LUBLIN: What does remain a possibility is that none of these people will get a majority of delegates.
VICROBECK: If that happens, Lublin says a candidate who is perceived as unlikely like Kasich could find himself in a position of leverage at the Convention. And if he plays his cards right, he could even get the nomination. It would be an uphill battle, but not impossible. That’s why so much is at stake this Super Tuesday. Eli Nachmany is the New York City regional chairman for the New York Federation of College Republicans. He knows this Super Tuesday is different from previous elections.
NACHMANY: No candidate has truly captured and galvanized the electorate. It was by this time last election cycle that Mitt Romney was starting to get the credence in most of the party.
VICROBECK: That’s why organizations like his continue to give their support to Republican candidates.
NACHMANY: What we do is a lot of grassroots activism and making the candidate someone the millennials will go out and vote for.
VICROBECK: This Super Tuesday, every vote will count. Alison Vicrobeck, Columbia Radio News.
Comments