For Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to win the Oval Office, it is necessary for the entire party to back him. As previous presidential runs have indicated, when a secondary, or “third party” candidate runs, fracturing the votes, it can often spell failure for that particular party.
This essentially took place when Ross Perot ran in the 1992 election year, taking away valuable votes from George H.W. Bush, giving the presidency to Bill Clinton.
In order to avoid another Clinton in office, Donald Trump needs the support of major leaders within the Republican community, which is why the latest news of Paul Ryan endorsing Donald Trump is so vital.
Often times, after the conclusion of a long primary season, it can take people within a party time to back the new candidate. As the number of Republicans who tossed their hat into the primary ring pushed over double digits, those who did not run for office had to select someone to support.
Eventually, as it became more and more apparent Donald Trump would take the nomination, those who backed previous candidates started to come around and support Mr. Trump. Now, Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan endorsed Trump openly, stating he would vote for the real estate businessman.
Paul Ryan is the chairman for the Republican national Convention, and having his support is vital for the Trump campaign moving forward. Until recently, the two had never sat down face to face to have a direct conversation.
As Donald is not a lifetime politician, he does not have the same kind of relationship with many higher-up Republicans as some of those who did run in the primaries.
However, this is what attracted so many voters to Donald Trump in the first place. Making these connections and receiving the backing of the current Republican establishment is important. It likely will not change the way Donald runs his campaign, but it does bring on substantial support.
Party unity going into conventions is necessary, not only for the party itself but to showcase a strong push into the main election season. November is fast approaching, so having a strong, unified party can often make the difference between victory and four more years of a Democrat in office.
However, as more and more senators and the top-tier Republicans come out and endorse Trump, the Republican party is looking to be the strong, unified party of the two.
The Democratic party, which more or less gave Clinton the nomination thanks to planted Super Delegates, many individuals feel slighted and off put by how the party treated their votes and their candidate, Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders, much like Trump, has been seen as a political outsider (although unlike Trump, Sanders has actually been a lifelong politician). Due to this major fracture, it appears now the Democratic party is more likely to be the one going into convention season with a major problem on their hands.
How major of a problem is this, though? If the two go into the convention fractured, even though Clinton has won the nomination thanks to her overwhelming Super Delegate support, what may potentially happen?
It is possible the two come together and iron everything out, but that likely is not the case. Sanders and his supporters are upset at the apparent rigging of the Democrat primary, exposing a major fault in their electoral method (while the Republican primary does include a handful of super delegate like votes, it doesn’t play any kind of role in determining who actually wins the election).
In fact, beyond Speaker of the House Paul Ryan stating his support, there is a staggering number of Sanders supporters who say they not only will not vote for Hillary Clinton, but jump party alliances and vote for Trump.
According to a Washington Post poll conducted in May, 20 percent of Sanders supporters state due to the Democratic Party turning its back on their vote, and also due to some similarities between Trump and Sanders, they will actually vote for Trump over Clinton.
Now, around 2/3 of Sanders supporters are Democrat, while 1/3 are independents. It is possible most of these are independent voters. Never the less, it is a rather sizeable percentage who will flip party sides to vote for Trump.
Additionally, another 11 percent polled said they simply would not vote at all. As Sanders has received nearly 50 percent of the popular vote during the Democratic primary, and 31% say they either will vote for Trump or not vote at all, it basically means Hillary’s numbers will drop overall by nearly 16%, which very well might hand Trump the November victory.
