Mainstream media already have a few favorites among the Republican Party’s rapidly growing list of long-shot 2016 presidential candidates.
With the recent entries of Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, and Mike Huckabee into the race, the Republicans now have multiple declared candidates who score single-digit percentages in RealClearPolitics’ average of polls. Other one-digit players expected to enter the race include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and others.
But being an unlikely 2016 choice doesn’t necessarily mean the press won’t be interested in your campaign. A few unlikely GOP hopefuls boast of an impressive amount of media attention.
Carson is a regular in headlines for his many “politically incorrect” statements; Fiorina for her impressive handling of reporters’ questions.
Christie got plenty of ink for his plain-spoken style and combative personality during the 2012 election cycle, before the brief fad for New Jersey culture had faded out. He still gets media attention, but it’s mostly for his ongoing woes over a traffic closure on the George Washington Bridge that led to the indictment of two of his close political associates and a guilty plea by a third.
Unfortunately for former IRS commissioner Mark Everson, who announced his candidacy in March, he doesn’t even chart. Nor does Jack Fellure, who threw his hat into the 2016 ring right after the polls closed in 2012.
For the candidates who seem most likely to win the nomination, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, there is more than enough press attention to go around. Although Texas Sen. Ted Cruz scores only 8.8 percent in the average of polls and Hucakabee only racks up 7.5 percent, both are generally considered viable mainstream candidates and get a steady supply of media attention.
Paul regularly makes headlines for his various libertarian-leaning positions; Cruz for his many incendiary remarks regarding the Affordable Care Act and the Obama administration’s approach to foreign policy; and Bush for the mere fact that polling shows he appears most likely to clinch the party’s nomination for 2016. He currently scores 15.5 percent, the highest support among probable GOP candidates.
Of the likely 2016 GOP candidates, only Rubio, Paul, Cruz and Huckabee have formally announced their candidacies.
However, just as poor polling for a candidate doesn’t necessarily mean the press won’t pay attention, polling well doesn’t necessarily bring headlines. When Walker took a trip to Europe last month, the news was almost entirely ignored by national news organizations that were at the time publishing thousands of stories about Hillary Clinton’s uneventful stop at an Ohio Chipotle.
Polling well in the very crowded GOP field also doesn’t necessarily translate into electoral victory in 2016.
In general election match-ups against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, every GOP candidate with a shot of winning the party’s nomination loses, according to RealClearPolitics. And they lose badly.
What’s more, on top of besting the GOP’s likely candidate in the polls, Clinton also garners an enormous amount of attention from the press.
However, as reported by the Washington Examiner‘s media desk, much of the coverage for Team Clinton has been unflattering, with many reports focusing recently on the former first family’s extremely lucrative Clinton Foundation and the millions of dollars it received from foreign donors as Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.
