[ot-caption title=”The race to the White House is heating up. (via Yancey Roy, Newsday reporter)”]

Democrats [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

In an exciting year of presidential news, the Democratic race has finally cooled off.  Hillary Clinton has solidified her spot as the Democratic nominee after her triumphant win in the New York primary.  She won her home state by 16 percent and secured 33 more delegates than Sanders.  In a race where Clinton had already been inching closer to the nomination, this could very well be the nail in the coffin for the Sanders campaign.  Mathematically, it is still possible for Sanders to win, but that would require nearly sweeping the rest of the states, as well as finding a way to win over super-delegates, both of which are very unlikely.  The real question of the Democratic primary is whether Bernie Sanders will stay in the race.  He has the money, but with it slowly becoming more of an uphill battle, it is hard to imagine he will stay in for much longer. An intriguing part of this race is how Clinton will start to shift her focus to the general election.  It will also be interesting to see how she will still appeal to her more moderate base while trying to gain many of Sanders’ liberal voters.  There is also talk about Clinton’s Vice President choice, as she needs to choose someone who can attract a different base of voters to her campaign.  So far, she has given very little indication of who she is considering to fill this position, but Cory Booker, Al Franken, Julian Castro, and Elizabeth Warren are all potential options.  Whatever happens, it should be a relatively exciting finish on the Democratic side.[spacer height=”20px”]

Republicans [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

On the Republican side, things are a bit more interesting. Donald Trump continues his march towards 1,237 delegates, but it is still unknown if he will be able to reach this number and gain a majority.  Without 1,237 delegates, there will be a contested convention, where voting will continue until one person gains a majority.  This means that at the convention, a new candidate, who is not currently in the running, could emerge and win the nomination. Another option is that Ted Cruz or John Kasich wins the nomination.  A similar event happened at the last brokered convention in 1952, where the candidate in second place after the primaries became the nominee.  These possibilities are not out of the question, considering the Republican establishment does not want to see a Trump ticket.  Despite this, Trump had a big win in the New York primary, getting 60% of the vote and winning 89 of 93 delegates.  This should bring his campaign one step closer to avoiding a contested convention.  However, anything is possible at the convention, which is why you should stay tuned come July 18th to 21st in Cleveland, Ohio.[spacer height=”20px”]

Sources: The Atlantic, CNN, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, NPR, Time Magazine, New York Times

Photo Source: Yancey Roy