By William Lewis
The New York Conservative Party was first formed in 1962 and since that time has played an important role in our state election process.
State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long has guided the party for over 25 years. Most of that time, candidates received the endorsements of the Conservative Party and it increased their chances of being elected.
In a recent interview with Long, he gave his views on various aspects of the 2016 presidential race. He indicated that he, as chairman of the Conservative Party, as well as the Conservative Party itself, will not endorse a candidate for president at this time, but may do so in the future.
If Donald Trump is the Republican candidate, Long wants to see who his vice presidential candidate will be. He noted that there seems to be more enthusiasm this year among the Republican electorate than there has been in previous presidential elections. He said that on the Democratic side, he believes that Bernie Sanders has a lot of enthusiasm due to opposition to Hillary Clinton. Long believes this year’s presidential race is different from the standpoint that the policies of President Obama have resulted in the country having less national prestige that it had before, which has affected the electorate.
Long sees a Republican-Conservative alliance in the fall election. He mentions that the two most important issues in this election are national leadership and the economy, especially jobs. The amount of anger that has affected the electorate has been directed towards our present government.
However, Long thinks that anger should not be the reason for political decisions. He is hopeful that conservative values will strongly influence the 2016 presidential election. The Conservative Party has helped many Republicans and some Democrats in various elections, both federal and state.
As indicated, Michael Long intends for the Conservative Party to play an important role in this year’s elections. As we look back at Super Tuesday, Donald Trump won seven primaries. Some political observers believe that this probably gives the nomination to Trump. However, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz say that they will continue battling for the nomination. So the Republican campaign can go all the way to the convention and we could have a brokered convention. It is interesting that we started out with 17 candidates in the Republican primaries, and now we are down to four. This is certainly unusual, to say the least.
Looking at the overall situation. Trump seems to have a strong following but he does not yet have a full majority. It is beginning to look more and more like the presidential race will be between two New York candidates, Trump and Clinton. In terms of the two candidates, we will see one of the biggest political fights in American presidential history.
Many young people are getting involved in politics this year. That is especially true in the case of Trump and Sanders.
Thus, 2016 promises to be a critical year in American history as it progresses towards Election Day. When the results are in, it will be interesting to see who is finally victorious.
