It’s 2024, and you know what that means: another Presidential Election is upon us. With the Republican Party waiting to find its candidate, the vie for delegates is underway.
You may be asking yourself, “Who are the candidates for the Republican Party?” The favorite to win is former President Donald Trump, with other contenders such as Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy, and even former Vice President Mike Pence. Although most contenders have dropped out, the winner of the Republican Presidential Candidacy is based on the Caucus’.
On January 15th, 2024, the Iowa Caucus began the vie for delegates. Although voter turnout was low due to a storm, Trump set a new record by gaining almost 20 votes, breaking the previous record Bob Dole set in 1988. Ron DeSantis, however, wasn’t too far behind with nine votes himself. The somewhat promising candidate against the former President had a range of potential outcomes for the rest of the vie for delegates. Before Trump had dominated in the first Caucus, DeSantis’ advisors told him to bow out, endorse Trump, and focus on finishing his term as the governor of Florida. They also wanted to use this to build his reputation with the country and work towards the next election. At first, DeSantis refused and continued with Iowa, but once the results came out, DeSantis, on January 21st, 2024, dropped out of the presidential race. With that, the vie for the 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate is between former President Donald Trump and the former United States Ambassador for the United Nations Nikki Haley.
With Ron DeSantis dropping out of the Republican Presidential Campaign, Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are the two remaining contenders. However, it seems the candidate, Nikki Haley, doesn’t fight well against the former President. Even DeSantis has stated, “It’s clear to me that a majority of the Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” and even took a jab at Haley. DeSantis called Haley a “repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism” as he warned Republicans to vote for Trump and not Haley. Maybe the message from DeSantis worked, as Trump continues to gain more delegates from New Hampshire. Trump gained 12 more delegates in the New Hampshire Caucus, three more than Haley’s nine delegates. Forty-eight states have still yet to vote, with the next one being held in Nevada on February 8th, 2024.
Since Trump is the most likely candidate to be elected, it would be like the 2020 presidential election all over again: Trump vs Biden. However, there will be a few differences, including Trump’s criminal charges. Trump has a total of 91 criminal charges, with four felony counts being in Washington D.C. for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, 13 felony counts in the state of Georgia for election interference, 34 felony counts in the state of New York for hush money payments to a porn star, and 40 felony counts in the state of Florida for hiding classified documents after leaving the office and keeping the government from retrieving them. The Federal Election Interference Case was brought forth by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia after Trump and his advisors had spread false news about voter fraud. 2 of the four counts relate to the January 6th insurrection, another one is for scheming to defraud the U.S. during the 2020 election, and the last charge is accusing Trump of conspiring to deprive the citizens of the right to vote and have one’s vote being counted for.
The Georgia Election Interference Case was brought forth by the Georgia state court after Trump and other officials spread lies about voter fraud in an attempt to reverse Biden’s win. The 13 felony counts are all against Trump, with the most prominent charge being one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The RICO Act allows for enhancements to the already present criminal punishments, which could punish Trump severely if he is found guilty. The Hush Money Case was brought forth by the New York state court to charge Trump for paying off a porn star who claimed to have a sexual counter with him. Trump’s attorney paid the porn star $130,000 and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company. All 34 felony counts against Trump are for falsifying business records in the first degree. The last case, the U.S. District Court brought forward the Classified Documents Case for the Southern District of Florida, which charged Trump for taking sensitive information about national security after his term. 32 of the 40 charges are felony counts of willful retention of national defense information, 6 40 are obstruction-related crimes, and 2 out of the 40 are false statements. Although these charges against Trump could land him in federal prison for many years, there are no laws against the President running the country from prison. If Trump wins the election, he may be able to pardon himself, except this has never been attempted by a president before.
Donald Trump has the best chance against the incumbent, Joe Biden, as many Republicans don’t support Nikki Haley. It’s almost impossible for Nikki Haley to receive the Republican Party nomination. Haley has lost to Trump in multiple caucuses, such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Even predicting polls show that Haley would lose to Trump in states like Michigan, Alabama, California, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Even if Haley can pull off the impossible, many Republicans in the Presidential Election would either vote differently or not vote for all since they don’t support and want her to drop out instead so that Trump would be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
The vie for delegates continues with a former president facing criminal charges and an unsupported candidate whose numbers don’t compare to the former. Who will become the Republican Pary’s presidential candidate? Let’s wait to find out.
