By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Tuesday, May 3, voters in Indiana go to the polls to decide who they want their party to run for President of the United States.
New York City businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump has received over ten million votes. He has 81 percent of the delegates necessary to win the Republican nomination. Trump has called himself the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.
US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) remains the prime contender to unseat Trump, but to do that he needs to win most of the remaining states. Trump trounced Cruz in five states last Tuesday. Many observers think that Cruz must win Indiana to build the necessary momentum to prevent Trump from reaching the 1237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
National political commentator from South Alabama Quin Hillyer wrote in a column on Sunday, “Indiana’s primary Tuesday is shaping up as a do-or-die stand by Ted Cruz if he is to keep Donald Trump from hijacking a Republican Party whose positions he abandons on matters ranging from spending to entitlements to health care to abortion to Russia to religious liberty to constitutionalism to privacy rights and to the primacy of freedom as a core American concern. (Trump is well to the Left of most Republicans on all these issues.) I have made no secret of my disdain for this vulgar, pathologically lying, liberal (in the modern American political sense), proto-fascist, vicious, unstable, lawsuit-abusing, mob-connected, ignorant, little-guy-trampling, serial-business-failing, serial-adulterous reality-TV star and personal branding expert.”
Popular Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R) has endorsed Sen. Cruz. Pence said, “In making my decision to support Ted, I am guided by the principles best espoused by former President Ronald Reagan. I am a Reagan Republican; drawn to his vision of less taxes, less government, traditional values and a strong military. Ted articulates that same agenda with an unwavering devotion to our Constitution, the sanctity of life, and the freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights.” “Indiana needs a partner as president who will reform the burgeoning regulatory state that has cost good-paying jobs while increasing the cost of living for hardworking Americans.”
Gov. Pence wrote, “The eyes of the nation are looking to Indiana to make a choice. I encourage every Hoosier to evaluate each of the candidates and exercise your right to vote in the May 3 Primary. My vote goes to Ted Cruz because he is a principled conservative who will work to protect our constitutional liberties, bring back better-paying jobs, and serve all Americans with the character and judgment needed to revive our national strength.”
A win in Indiana by Trump would make his path to the nomination very difficult for Cruz to stop.
The situation is even more precarious for US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) has amassed over 90 percent of the delegates needed for the Democratic nomination. A win in Indiana would all but seal the nomination for Mrs. Clinton.
Sen. Sanders remained confident. In an email to supporters he wrote, “Every vote we win and every delegate we send to the convention not only moves us closer to the nomination, but also moves our party and our country closer to the agenda we’re fighting for. The pundits and the political establishment are all hoping our political revolution will dissolve, and that we’ll just go away. But that’s just not going to happen. Instead, we’re going to keep fighting to raise the minimum wage, make public college tuition-free, expand Social Security, address climate change, and create good-paying jobs by investing in our public infrastructure. We just need the courage to reject the status quo and keep fighting for our values. Will you join us?”
On March one Alabama voters overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the State’s party primaries.
Whether or not the two frontrunners can coast to the convention or if the battles for the nominations will drag on to bitter floor fights at the convention will be much clearer after Indiana tonight.
