With 216 days until the U.S presidential elections, the primary elections are still a hot topic. Two Democrats and three Republicans are still in the running for their party’s 2016 presidential nomination. For the Democrats party Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and for the Republicans Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich.
The Republican Party will nominate a 2016 presidential candidate at its convention in Cleveland the week July 18, 2016. The Democrat party will pick their nominate at its convention in Philadelphia the week of July 25, 2016. All primary events will go through until June. 
So far Trump has earned roughly 737 delegates and Cruz has roughly earned 505 delegates. The republican candidates need 1,237 delegates to win. For the Democrat party, candidates need 2,383 delegates to win their party’s nomination. As of now, Clinton has 1,271 delegates and Sanders has 1,024, this is not including super delegates. With super delegates, Clinton has 1,740 and Sanders has 1,055. The next Presidential primary election day is April 19 in New York.
“These upcoming elections are very important, it is important that we look at how all the issues being debated will affect us both short term and long term. We need to make sure we elect a president that has a strong foreign policy stance as well as a social inequality reform plan. Progressive doesn’t always mean in the right direction. Make sure you do your individual research on all candidates before you take a stance, your values may not be the same as your colleagues,” said Corey Carrol, a political science major a Grambling State University.
This past Tuesday, April 5, 2016, primary elections took place in Wisconsin. Ted Cruz was the republican winner and Bernie Sanders won the most Democratic delegates. Cruz left Wisconsin with 33 delegates, Trump 3 delegate, and Kasich none. Donald Trump and his supporters’ reactions to Cruz’ victory was anything but favorable. “Lyin’ Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump. We have total confidence that Mr. Trump will go on to win in New York, where he holds a substantial lead in all the polls, and beyond. Mr. Trump is the only candidate who can secure the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination and ultimately defeat Hilary Clinton, or whomever is the democratic nominee, in order to Make American Great Again,” stated Trump’s spokeswoman via email. For the democrats Sanders towers over Clinton with 45 delegates to her 31 delegates.