The GOP contenders

The Globe and Mail ^ | April 23, 2015 | Paul Koring in Washington

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While the Democratic nomination is so far very much about one person – Hillary Clinton – the GOP contest is anything but. As Paul Koring reports, nearly all of the likely Republican candidates are political heavyweights with a real shot at the Oval Office.

The Republican field vying for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination is as crowded and wide open as the Democratic lineup is scant and predictable.

With three already declared candidates, three more probables poised to enter and a pack of hopefuls, long shots and returning also-rans, the Republican race will be hard-fought, chaotic and compelling. This field includes unquestionable political heavyweights with potentially the broadest appeal of any GOP primary race since 2000. Several have compelling Hispanic links; there are experienced state governors and several senators.

The race will be crucial, not least because U.S. political history and the realities of a two-party political system make it more likely than not that the country’s next commander-in-chief will be a Republican after eight Democratic years with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House.

Only once since the Second World War has either party managed to hold the White House for three consecutive four-year terms, when George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988 after Ronald Reagan had been president for eight years.

The Republican 2016 nomination contest is truly a race unlike that of the Democrats, where the front-runner – and, so far, the only candidate – Hillary Clinton has a commanding and perhaps insurmountable lead in the polls...