Republican Party Presidential Primaries, 2016 (The More Things Changed)

The 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries and caucuses were a series of electoral contests taking place within all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories, occurring between February 1 and June 7. Sanctioned by the Republican Party, these elections are designed to select the 2,472 delegates to send to the Republican National Convention, who selected the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, Donald Trump. The delegates also approved the party platform and vice-presidential nominee.

Background
A total of 17 major candidates entered the race starting March 5, 2015, when former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson of Mississippi was the first to formally announce his candidacy: he was followed by former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson of Maryland, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, businesswoman Carly Fiorina of California, former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, outgoing Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Governor John Kasich of Ohio, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan, former Governor George Pataki of New York, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, former Governor Rick Perry of Texas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, businessman Donald Trump of New York, and Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. This was the largest presidential primary field for any political party in American history.

Synopsis
Prior to the Iowa caucuses on February 1, Perry, Walker, Everson, Graham and Pataki withdrew due to low polling numbers. Despite leading many polls in Iowa, Trump came in second to Cruz; Huckabee, Snyder, Paul and Santorum performed poorly at the ballot box and bowed out. Following a sizable victory for Trump in the New Hampshire primary, Christie and Gilmore abandoned the race. Bush and Fiorina capitulated after scoring fourth place and fifth place, respectively, to Trump, Rubio and Cruz in South Carolina. On Super Tuesday, March 1, 2016, Rubio won his first contest in Minnesota, Jindal won Alaska, Oklahoma and Arkansas, while Trump won seven states. Failing to gain traction, Carson suspended his campaign a few days later. On March 15, 2016, nicknamed "Super Tuesday II", Kasich won his first contest in Ohio and Trump won five primaries including Florida. Rubio suspended his campaign after losing his home state, but he retained a large share of his delegates for the national convention.

From March 16, 2016 to May 3, 2016, only three candidates remained in the race: Trump, Jindal and Kasich. Jindal won most delegates in four Western contests and in Wisconsin, keeping a credible path to denying Trump the nomination on first ballot with 1,237 delegates. However, Trump scored landslide victories in New York and five North-Eastern states in April, before taking every delegate in the Indiana primary of May 3. Without any further chances of forcing a contested convention, Jindal suspended his campaign and Trump was declared the presumptive Republican nominee by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on the evening of May 3. Kasich dropped out the next day. After winning the Washington primary and gaining support from unbound North Dakota delegates on May 26, Trump passed the threshold of 1,237 delegates required to guarantee his nomination.