Donald Trump has been leading in the Republican Party’s race for candidacy against Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Kasich, yet it seems that his great successes are becoming stagnant. Though he remains the frontrunner for the nomination, the poll numbers for the Republican Party are beginning to change after the Wisconsin primary, seeing as Trump has lost three points in the last week alone.
Trump began last week with 48 percent support between himself, Cruz and Kasich, yet after the Wisconsin primary, he now only holds 45 percent support. Ted Cruz trails with 28 percent, up 1 percent from last week, with Kasich coming in third with a consistent 18 percent support.
In addition to this, Cruz picked up 33 delegates from Wisconsin compared to Trump’s three delegates, closing the gap between Cruz and Trump’s delegate count, which currently stands with Cruz having 503 delegates, Trump with 740 delegates and Kasich with a distant 143 delegates.
Though Trump still leads by a large margin, this is the closest Trump and Cruz have come in their point-margins since February.
Trump has battled a series of campaign setbacks, which may have caused this drop in his points. This includes retweeting unflattering pictures of Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, as well as making comments about punishing women for having abortions. He offered apologies to CBS, saying that he would have “rather answered it in a different matter,” yet he still says he thinks he is “doing okay.”
In response, Ted Cruz attacked Trump, saying that he is a liberal “trying to say what he thinks conservatives want to hear.”
According to a recent Washington Post poll from last week, Trump looks to be torn to bits in the general election if he is nominated and must compete against Hillary Clinton. According to the poll, Trump is losing to Clinton by double digits due to factors such as a lack of support from women and those who are not college-educated.
In addition to the upset of Cruz beating Trump, Sanders beat Clinton in the Wisconsin primary, showing that both party’s underdogs still have fire in them. Sanders beat Clinton by 14 points on Tuesday with 57 percent support.
Looking forward, the New York primary will be held on Tuesday, April 19, which is sure to be yet another important primary for the candidates. Both Clinton and Trump will be fighting for the support of their home states in New York, and if one of them were to lose, they would suffer a great loss not only in the state, but to their campaigns as a whole. New York has 291 delegates up for grabs.
