Did You Have A Super Tuesday?

 

Well, it’s late at night and almost all of Super Tuesday presidential primaries have called their results. Participating on March 1 were the states of Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. Was anyone besides me watching the results come in?

Super Tuesdays are primary elections held early in the presidential election year to help candidates gauge their popularity (read: electability) in various states. It’s an extremely important time for candidates because it is their single best opportunity to gather large numbers of delegates from each state who will help them secure the presidential nomination for their political party.

Of the states mentioned above, Hillary Clinton dominated over Bernie Sanders, who won only Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Vermont, and she took the majority of Democratic delegates while Donald Trump was the clear leader in the races over Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and John Kasich. If you live in one of the Super Tuesday states, did you vote? Please take a moment to share who you voted for and why. There’s no right or wrong here. The purpose is to get a healthy discussion going on which candidates will offer our industry the best advantages when it comes to taxes, healthcare, trade and global competitiveness.

The field of candidates has narrowed on the Republican side since my last blog about the race, but the top three (Trump, Cruz and Rubio) have maintained their respective ranks and the gloves have come off between them. Interestingly, I’ve only heard substantial commentary about trade, manufacturing and jobs from one of these candidates, and that candidate is Trump.

In fact, he spoke about these issues during his Super Tuesday victory speech and reiterated his opinion that the USA can be great again – that it will be great again – if we can only get the right politicians in place who have the courage and vision it takes to rebuild our manufacturing industry. He even said he would work to get Apple to bring its manufacturing back to the US. Millions of jobs have been lost due to bad trade policies, bad tax policies on American companies and weak efforts toward China’s manipulation of its currency. I believe he’s right about that. What do you think? More importantly, do you think he has what it takes to make America great again?

Even if Trump hasn’t won your vote (and I’m not sure whether he has mine yet), it’s important to listen to him and to the other presidential candidates to see who is really focused on the issues important to our industry. If we don’t have a healthy economy, with citizens gainfully employed so that they can put food on their tables and take care of their families, nothing else much matters. Let me hear from you.