These past few weeks, both the Republican and Democratic parties have shortened their ballot length. At the beginning of the primaries, it seemed as though every registered Republican announced his or her candidacy for the presidency. The Democratic party had their fair share of candidates making a run for the White House as well. After 22 GOP candidates and 12 Democratic candidates declared themselves 2016 presidential hopefuls, only 6 Republicans (Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich) and 2 Democrats (Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders) remain.

In the month of February alone, the GOP saw 6 candidates suspend their campaigns. The most notable of those 6 are CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, and New Jersey governor, Chris Christie who dropped out shortly after the ABC Republican Debate on February 6th. While neither of these former candidates have endorsed any current candidates, South Carolina’s Senator, Lindsey Graham, has been actively campaigning for Jeb Bush. However, Jeb, a frontrunner in the polls at the beginning of the primaries, is in last place among GOP candidates. Despite his family’s history in the White House, Jeb is considered the weakest candidate left in the GOP. The media is predicting the suspension of his campaign any time now, but other GOP candidates are trying to speed up the process. Senator Marco Rubio has called on Bush to drop out of the race, claiming that if he doesn’t, Donald Trump will get the Republican nomination. However, Bush is not the only Republican candidate with struggling numbers in the polls. Ben Carson, another early frontrunner, is severely down. Many speculate that a loss in South Carolina this coming week could result in these two dropping out of the race.

The Democratic party is not without their fair share of drama, either. After merely shadowing Bernie and Hillary in debates and in the polls, Martin O’Malley took his name off the ballot. After third-wheeling several Democratic debates with Bernie and Hillary he decided to call it quits. While at the beginning of the race it seemed as though Hillary would easily clench the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders is quickly gaining ground in the polls. After narrowly losing to Clinton in the Iowa caucus, Bernie swept her in New Hampshire. He has won over the support of young people, which has definitely added fuel to his fire. It does not appear that either of these candidates will be dropping out of the race anytime soon, so a Sanders/Clinton showdown will decide the Democratic nomination..