With Trump As Most Likely GOP Nominee, Where Do The Democrats Stand?
By Alexandria Hoff
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Early Wednesday evening Ohio Governor John Kasich officially ended his campaign for President. With Senator Ted Cruz' Post-Indiana withdraw, that leaves 69-year-old business man Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican Nominee.
So, what could that mean for our region and more specifically, in Philadelphia, which typically votes Democrat?
"Donald Trump carried the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He got 57% of the vote statewide and 57% in Philadelphia County so he is the presumptive nominee now and Pennsylvania voted for him," said Alison Young, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.
She says that this unorthodox election year has so far produced one bipartisan positive.
"Pennsylvania has a historically low voter turnout somewhere around 28% and in this election we are turning up more and more people at the polls," Young said of the Commonwealths April 26th Primary.
Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell agrees that voters have felt no choice but become better educated on the election process and says that's a good thing but adds that he feels that Republican voters didn't give Governor Kasich the chance he deserved.
'He was a very good Governor, very smart, very bright, and he never got a hard look from any voters except in his home state," said Rendell.
The former Governor also does not hold back in describing the now presumptive Republican nominee, who he describes as, "at best, an erratic blowhard showman."
His take on securing Philadelphia in a general election?
"If you look at the groups that Trump has offended, African American voters, Hispanic voters and women, particularly single women. That's probably 65% maybe 70% of the voter base in the city of Philadelphia," said Rendell.
He says that he can see a few working-class Democrats in the city lured across party lines to support Trumps strongly-worded stances.
"But I think for every one of those, I think he will lose one or two suburban Republicans,"
Trumps move now? Neutralizing some of the potentially off-putting sentiments of his campaign in effort to appeal to a wider audience, and as he noted at a rally on Monday, "We need to bring unity to the Republican Party,"
"I think a lot of people were interested in what happens at a contested convention and now without that happening it is going to be more like the traditional coronation of the presumptive nominee," said Young.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton still holds a strong lead over Senator Bernie Sanders.
Sanders has said he plans to stick with the race right through to the Democratic National Convention – which will be held in Philadelphia in July.
