And then there were six: Chris Christie joined the list of candidates who presented petitions for the Virginia Republican Primary in March of 2016. Last time around, there were just two (Mitt Romney and Rand Paul).
One of the constant questions I get from folks outside the Republican Party is, “How is Trump doing so well?” The usual answer I give is, “he’s not.” In fact, the only poll I’ve seen that even has Trump over 30% in the polls also has him falling 12 points in less than a month.
The reason Trump is actuallly leading the field is the breadth and depth of said field, and Virginia is one of the best examples of this. Despite cutting the ballot requirement in half from 2012, Virginia is still one of the most onerous states for primary qualification. On top of that, most of the candidates who have submitted amassed enough signatures to clear the old requirement of 10,000 signatures.
With 10 days to go, it remains to be seen how many more candidates will make the cut (I assume Macro Rubio will, but then again, he is my choice, so…). What can’t be denied is this: so long as the field remains this wide and deep, the anti-Trump vote will continue to be scattered. I still suspect the field will winnow to four or five candidates after New Hampshire (Carson, Cruz, Rubio, and Trump, with perhaps one of the Governors), but everyone is hoping for an early-state surge to keep them in the field. Unlike four years ago, a number of them are preparing for it, too.
