In a little more than a month, Republicans will finally begin voting in the primary over whom their nominee for president will be. But the race has been underway for months, and a lot has happened since then. Thankfully, the people at Civis Analytics made this great map that can help you catch up with what's happened so far in the GOP primary:
Above all, the map shows just how dominant billionaire Donald Trump has been throughout the process. Sure, Ben Carson rose, and Trump's numbers took a small hit, for a bit. But since then, he has regained plurality support across the country, and his national poll numbers have grown.
The map also shows Ted Cruz gaining momentum as Carson fades away in the past month or so.
One group that won't be happy about this map: the Republican establishment. Trump, Carson, and Cruz are not the Republican establishment's first choices — they would rather see Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, or even John Kasich or Chris Christie win. There's also a convincing case, as Vox's Matt Yglesias explained, that a Trump or Cruz victory in the primaries would tank Republicans' chances of winning the general election and, as a result, ruin their chances of dominating practically every level of American politics.
So it's a very captivating map, and very good news for Trump, but probably not one the Republican establishment will be happy with.
