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The last debate before Tuesday’s Presidential primary in New Hampshire took place between the top seven Republicans in the field on Saturday February 6th. It was Carson, Christie, Trump, Bush, Kasich, Cruz and Rubio on the stage. Noticeably absent was the only female Republican candidate, Carly Fiorina, who did not poll well enough to earn a place in the debate. She unsuccessfully petitioned to be included in the race. Also left out was for- mer Governor of Virginia Jim Gilmore who is polling at less than 1 percent.
After a Cruz victory and a strong Rubio showing sand- wiching Donald Trump’s sur- prising second place finish, all eyes were on Senator Rubio as the establishment saw infight- ing continue to hurt their top tier candidate. Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie all went hard after Rubio, caus- ing what The Huffington Post called the “MarcoBot”, where the Senator from Florida an- swered multiple questioned with the same exact response. After such a close third place finish in Iowa, pundits said this killed any potential mo- mentum that Rubio had going into Tuesday’s primary.
Ted Cruz mostly stayed above the fray, happy to let Rubio take the majority of the bruises. His most interesting point was blaming CNN for faulty news coverage during the primary. He accused the cable network of reporting that Ben Carson was suspend- ing his presidential campaign, which led to Cruz telling Caucus goers that Carson would be out and therefore they should vote for Cruz. This was a turn around from just a few days before, when Cruz was actually praising the liberal- leaning network.
Jeb Bush, who was polling low in New Hampshire and desperately needs some sort of spark to save his well funded but failing campaign, picked the most substantial fight of the night with businessman Donald Trump. Bush went after Mr. Trump on the issue of eminent domain, the concept of seizing private land for public use if it aids the common good. Trump supports this both for public and pri- vate use, unlike many of the other Republican candidates. Bush hit Trump hard on this point, drawing support from the crowd. Trump, always the feisty Republican bully, tried to silence Bush, which drew a chorus of boos from the New Hampshire crowd.
In a rare moment of turning against the voting base he panders to so frequently, Trump went after the audience in attendance, saying they were donors who were against his campaign. Trump also caused controversy for saying that he would return to waterboarding suspected terrorists, as well as tactics “a hell of a lot worse” per The Guardian.
Other candidates gave a range of responses to the question of controversial interrogation tactics, with Ted Cruz saying it was only enhanced interrogation and not torture. Marco Rubio deflected the question, saying it was “inap- propriate to discuss interroga- tion techniques,” according to The Guardian as well.
With Tuesday’s always unpredictable primary, this debate certainly did not help clear up the picture. Gover- nors Kasich, Bush and Christie all have lower polling numbers but had strong debate show- ings. The two big anti-establishment candidates Trump and Cruz had okay showings, but the big letdown was Marco Rubio’s perplexing vagueness and struggle with fighting back attacks from the governor trio.
Tuesday night the primary took place, proving that the debate had a heavy influence on undecided voters. Trump dominated as expected with over 30 percent of the vote. John Kasich scored a major victory with a second place finish. As expected after the poor debate showing, Rubio took a bad tumble and wound up fifth, below Trump, Kasich, Cruz and Bush.
His fifth place finish is a ma- jor blow to the establishment wing of the party, as he is seen as the only established candi- date with a chance to win the nomination. The candidates now move on to South Caroli- na, a state with vastly different demographics, where Trump has “led in every poll…since July,” according to The New York Times.
The democratic primary saw a decisive Bernie Sanders victory with 60 percent of the vote. He did very well among female voters, taking the vote 55 percent to 44 percent. A few months ago, this would have seemed impossible for Sanders, who now shifts his focus to Nevada and South Carolina, where The New York Times says his democratic socialist ideals will face a “sharp test.”