{"id":18908,"date":"2016-01-04T12:48:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T11:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=18908"},"modified":"2016-01-04T21:02:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T20:02:51","slug":"u-s-presidential-election-16-and-theyre-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=18908","title":{"rendered":"U.S. presidential election (16): and they’re off …"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote my first posting<\/a> on the American presidential election of this year just over a year ago and this is now the 16th posting in the series (there will be more!). So far, it’s been all town hall meetings, television debates, and media storms – with no voter actually voting for anyone. Over the next few weeks, the race gets real with caucuses and primaries.<\/p>\n

The Democrats still have three runners in the race: Hillary Clinton, who is still odds-on to win her party’s nomination and the actual election to the White House, Bernie Sanders, who has done remarkably well and may win some of the earliest primaries, and Martin O’Malley.<\/p>\n

The Republicans have had as many as 16 runners in the race and the field still has a dozen riders. Donald Trump has headed the polls for many months but he hasn’t actually won a caucus or primary yet because, of course, there haven’t been any. His strongest challengers are likely to be Ted Cruz, a senator from Texas, and Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida.<\/p>\n

Some of the key dates are as follows:<\/p>\n

1 February – Iowa caucuses<\/p>\n

9 February – New Hampshire primary<\/p>\n

20 February – South Carolina Republican primary and Nevada Democratic caucus<\/p>\n

1 March – so-called Super Tuesday when there are primaries in southern states plus Massachusetts and Minnesota<\/p>\n

15 March – Florida and Ohio primaries<\/p>\n

7 June- the last five primaries including California and New Jersey<\/p>\n

18-21 July – Republican Party convention in Cleveland Ohio<\/p>\n

25-28 July – Democratic Party convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia<\/p>\n

8 November – presidential election (plus all the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate)<\/p>\n

If you want to know more about how the American political system works, check out my short guide here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"