Students react to Trump and Clinton edging closer to party nominations

On Tuesday night, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) suspended his presidential campaign, 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump edged closer to the Republican nomination despite a loss in Ohio and Hillary Clinton beat back challenger Bernie Sanders.

In other words, another crazy day in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Daily Pennsylvanian caught up with campus political groups to recap the events of the day and forecast the rest of the primary season.

Kasich and Rubio supporters rejoice at Penn:

By 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Trump won three out of the five states and one territory in what many political pundits have called the second most important night of the primary season after Super Tuesday.

The New York real estate mogul took home the majority of delegates in the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Illinois and North Carolina, placing him closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. Across the country, 358 delegates were at stake on the Republican side.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had not won any states by press time, but was nearly tied with Trump in Missouri and in second place in Illinois and North Carolina.

While Rubio’s final attempt to maintain his bid for the nomination was unsuccessful, Ohio Gov. John Kasich — the GOP’s now last remaining establishment candidate — managed to sneak a win past Trump in the competitive Ohio primary.

Kasich’s victory gave the governor his first state in the primaries thus far and its 66 delegates.

“At one level [Rubio dropping out] is good because the non-Trump vote will be more concentrated now, which gives Kasich and Cruz more of a chance to win states,” Penn College Republicans President and Wharton and College junior Jennifer Knesbach said. “Kasich’s win is obviously huge to keeping him in the race and I think that at the current rate it is going to be at least a brokered convention.”

The Ohio moderate — who won the Penn Caucuses held by the Government and Politics Association on Feb. 2 and was officially endorsed by The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Opinion Board on Monday — had his Penn supporters ecstatic yesterday.

“Now that Rubio has suspended his campaign and Kasich has won a major state, people are starting to realign and to look at Kasich as a candidate that has a platform,” Chair of Penn for Kasich and College junior Joe Kiernan said.

“He is willing to work across the aisle, he can do well among Republicans, Democrats and Independents after the primaries, and he also ended up winning by 13 points. I think people are starting to realize that Kasich is a great option,” Kiernan added.

Kasich and Trump both will campaign in Pennsylvania tomorrow. Trump will be in Lower Bucks County in the evening and Kasich will appear at a town hall at Villanova University.

It is unclear whether Rubio dropping out will affect the status of College sophomore Nathaniel Rome’s petition to remove Kasich from the Pennsylvania ballot. Rome, the Chair of Pennsylvania Students for Rubio, filed a challenge on Feb. 23 that accused Kasich of failing to meet the required 2,000 signatures threshold. Numerous signatures were invalid, Rome claimed.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Kasich’s attorney Lawrence Otter said when contacted on Wednesday night about the status of the lawsuit. Rome’s attorney John G. Bravacos, who did not respond to a phone call on Tuesday, must submit his response brief on Wednesday.

While the Rubio camp at Penn was disappointed to see the Florida senator suspend his campaign, Penn for Rubio expressed its support for Kasich and didn’t rule out the possibility of seeing Rubio again in a brokered Republican convention.

“I think that it’s good, politically, for Rubio to drop out,” Penn for Rubio member and College sophomore Makayla Reynolds said. “It’s definitely a little sad to see coming from where he began and where it is ending. I think that as a member of the Republican party I am hoping for Kasich to step up and take some lead and get more delegates.”

Hillary Clinton Soars on Democratic Side:

In one of the most decisive primary days of this election, Hillary Clinton came out on top in the Democratic primaries, winning at least four states to Bernie Sanders’ zero at press time.

Clinton won Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and had a lead in Missouri at press time.

“I do think she’ll be the nominee [but] I don’t think it’s any kind of inevitable,” Penn Democrats President and College junior Max Levy said. “I think it’s going to be a long fight regardless of what happens tonight, but I think that when we hit the convention in July we’re going to be nominating Hillary Clinton as our candidate.”

Clinton was recently endorsed by Penn Dems and, along with Kasich, was given the nod by the DP’s Opinion Board on Monday.

March 15 was originally seen as the final push forward for Clinton, but after Sanders’ surprising upset in Michigan where she was highly favored, he received a jolt of momentum. That made the results from the Midwestern states even more pressing.

Clinton’s win in the Midwestern states could show crossover support from the younger, white voters who tend to be Sanders’ strongest supporters. Clinton tends to gain support mainly from older voters.

That doesn’t mean that Bernie Sanders is down for the count. “He absolutely has funding to stand this race and that he is passionate enough that he’s not about to get out of this race just as he gets behind in the delegate count,” Levy said.

With a seemingly inevitable Trump nomination, the looming question is which candidate can beat him on the national level. Levy was confident the Democrats can pull out a win.

“I think both candidates honestly would be able to just pummel Trump with the offensive things he’s said over the course of this campaign and that at this point Trump has just said such horrendous things that Democrats should be in a pretty good place come November,” he said.

City News Editor Dan Spinelli contributed reporting.

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