This is probably an exercise in futility but this entire article is going to be dedicated to the 2016 presidential race, specifically the Republican candidates. You might be wondering, “There is a whole midterm election in 2014, isn’t that important?” Well, yes, but not really. I’m sure many Democrats were sad to see that Republicans held the House and were hoping to gain that back in 2014 off possibly stronger economic numbers. On this subject, Nate Silver has spoken and if we have learned one thing since the election, it is that Nate Silver is god (also, I have no desire to analyze House races two years in advance). As for the Senate, Republicans are looking at picking up six core states where Democrats are vulnerable (Louisiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, South Dakota, Alaska, and West Virginia). So much can change in these elections that they are impossible to call at this point but it does look like the Senate will be very much up for grabs in 2014.
You might also be wondering, “What about the Democratic candidates?” Another reasonable thought, but Democratic candidates won’t emerge until later in the cycle due to the fact that Obama is still relevant unlike Romney. Also, don’t we all kinda know in the back of our minds that it will be Hillary? Also, Republican are picking up the pieces from a disappointing election and following their shift in position by examining their presidential hopefuls is somewhat interesting. There are three candidates that I want to mention:
Bobby Jindal
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has by far been the most vocal Republican presidential hopeful since the election. After Romney blamed his defeat on Obama’s “big gifts” for minorities, Jindal took offense in a very public way. He called Mitt’s remarks “absolutely wrong,” “completely unhelpful,” and “insulting.”
His offense could be seen as genuine concern over the direction of his party or it could be seen as his declaration of his candidacy for president in 2016. I’ll let you decide but I might be hearing the latter. The Republican Party was looking for a scapegoat after the elections and it probably would have been Mitt Romney anyway, but Jindal made sure it was.
Marco Rubio
11 days after Mitt Romney decisive defeat, Marco Rubio was giving a speech in Iowa to a group of forward-looking Republicans at a birthday fundraiser with Iowa’s Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. The speech seemingly went well as many Iowa Republicans were excited to see the Florida Senator and showed their excitement with their wallets. Branstad said the event made over $600,000, the most he had ever raised in a single event. The significance of this numbers becomes ever greater when you consider that this event was less than two weeks after a brutal and grinding election season.
Chris Christie
Unlike the other two Republicans I’ve spoken on, Chris Christie makes this list by doing completely nothing (He actually did voice opposition to Romney’s “gift’s” comments but he didn’t make a meal of it like Jindal did.). If somewhere can be a frontrunner in a race this far in advance, Christie would be it. He is incredibly popular in his relatively-blue state, but that is not why I put him in this article. I put him in the article because of how angry Republicans got after he invited Obama to New Jersey and how much approval he got from everyone else.
With one post-Sandy poll with him at 67% approval and another at 77% approval in New Jersey, Christie’s Sandy response seems to have won him so favor in his own state. It doesn’t stop there though, a Quinnipiac poll give Christie higher Sandy-approval scores than President Obama, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (a Democratic presidential hopeful ironically), and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg among New York City voters. A PPP poll also put him as the early favorite in New Hampshire in 2016. Let the four-year long race for the White House begin!
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