Expat Elector Weekly Roundup #6

weekly-roundupHere is the weekly roundup of the top five most important stories of the week in the US election as well as any upcoming local events here in Montreal or the surrounding area if you want to get involved with the election right here in Canada

1. With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire coming up quickly, the rivalries between Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump vs. Ted Cruz are getting uglier by the day. Sanders and Clinton went head-to-head in this past week’s debate while Trump and Cruz continue to use Twitter as a means of criticizing one another’s policies. Head over to Real Clear Politics for various polling results.

2. Billionaire and former mayor of New York City Micheal Bloomberg is seriously considering entering the race. According to the New York Times, he is willing to spend up to $1 billion of his personal fortune to make this dream come true. Were he to enter the campaign field, Bloomberg would do so as an independent candidate. I am extremely interested to see what happens with this story.

3. Former governor of Alaska and former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for President of the US, resulting in linguistic disaster. Watch her speech in full here or better yet, check out Tina Fey’s impression of Palin on SNL here.

4. Days before the Iowa caucuses, the Des Moines Register endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and Marco Rubio for the Republicans. While newspaper endorsements no longer hold the same power that they once did, both Clinton and Rubio should see some benefit. You can read the endorsement for Hillary Clinton here and for Marco Rubio here.

5. On Saturday, Donald Trump showed the strength of his campaign with a controversial statement. “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”, said the billionaire. Alright Trump. Alright.

Upcoming events:

  • Iowa Primary 2016 at Gert’s Bar, February 1st at 9pm, Facebook event here
  • McGill Students for Hillary Clinton meeting, February 3rd at 6pm, Facebook event here
  • New Hampshire Primary Results Party, February 9th at 7pm, Facebook event here

And finally, I leave you with a laugh in the form of Stephen Colbert:

With 288 days until the election,

Phoebe Warren