A Sneak Peek at the General Election

Date: April 29, 2016 Last Edit: October 13, 2016

Huge April 26 victories propel Trump and Clinton even closer to the nomination.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump probably couldn’t have dreamed up a better April 26. 

Clinton notched four out of five primary victories for the Democrats and now leads Sen. Bernie Sanders by more than 300 pledged delegates, according to the Associated Press. And Trump won just about everything there was to win, picking up more than 100 delegates in the process.   

CLINTON VS. TRUMP: Find out which candidate has the best plan for small business.

Sanders, in perhaps another big indicator that his campaign is winding down, laid off hundreds of his campaign staff to focus his efforts on California. 

“It’s a blunt acknowledgement that Sanders is not preparing for the long haul,” according to CNN. 

Clinton spent much of her victory speech trying to unify the Democratic Party and woo Sanders’ supporters to her side for the general election. “There is much more that unites us than divides us,” Clinton said. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s rivals are desperately trying to stop him from securing the nomination outright.

“I consider myself the presumptive nominee,” Trump said during his victory speech on April 26, after sweeping all five Republican contests. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are mathematically eliminated from winning the nomination on the first ballot, but they are staying in the race. Trump leads Cruz by more than 400 delegates after the latest delegate tally.

Still, Cruz and Kasich are continuing to campaign in the hopes of forcing a contested convention. A few days before these primaries, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns announced a cooperative strategy to stop Trump. 

Kasich will suspend his campaign in Indiana while Cruz will withdraw his efforts in Oregon and New Mexico to consolidate the anti-Trump vote toward one candidate. This way, the candidates believe they can deny Trump the greatest number of delegates. 

Who Will Be Friendly to Small Business? 

The two front-runners have much different plans for small business. Trump emphasizes his business savvy and his ability to broker excellent deals as a strategy for job creation. He has criticized trade deals such as NAFTA—which then-Pres. Bill Clinton enacted in 1994—and he has also touted his intention to repeal Obamacare, which kills jobs, he said.

Clinton’s trade stance has been more “nuanced,” as Reuters reported. She also supports and hopes to expand Obamacare, is a proponent of paid family leave, and advocates for a $12 minimum wage at the federal level, while encouraging cities to go higher, according to her website. 

*Note: This news coverage does not equate to an endorsement of any candidate by NFIB.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

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