A look back on a year of irregular campaigning

While the election night that defied all predictions may be on most voters’ minds for the coming days, it’s important to remember the night only came after more than a year of irregularities.

To begin with there was the entire Republican field of 18 candidates, featuring junior senators, veteran governors and political outsiders. The high number of political hopefuls actually necessitated the creation of two stages for each debate night.

The veteran governors were some of the first to face defeat, from rising star Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who didn’t make it past summer 2015, to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, shoved aside early on as “low-energy.”

Bush had a habit of living up to his name in odd ways — from passing out toy turtles to children at his rallies to let them know slow and steady wins the race, to making statements that were too easy to ridicule in the press.

“Please clap,” Bush once told a crowd after they did not laugh at one of his campaign zingers.

The Democratic field started at six but was whittled down to two after the Iowa caucuses — and while most voters know Sen. Bernie Sanders, I.-V.T., and former Secretary Hillary Clinton, who would go on to win the nomination, there was also former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.

Webb had a unique answer to a question at the debate over what enemy he was most proud of making.

“I’d have to say the enemy soldier that threw the grenade that wounded me,” Webb said. “But he’s not around right now to talk to.”

Very few expected the Democratic primary to last long, but Bernie Sanders, aided by an army of impassioned voters, small donations and one small bird, managed to challenge Clinton until the Democratic National Convention.

Sanders’ political campaign was marked by its candidate’s decision to avoid politics and focus on policy.

“Let me say something that may not be great politics, but I think the Secretary is right,” he said. “And that is the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

But by August there were two candidates left for the highest office of the land — the aforementioned Hillary Clinton and, of course, business mogul Donald Trump.

If the 2016 election was controlled by irregularities, the Trump campaign made everyone else’s irregularities look regular.

The campaign kicked off by alienating the Latino vote — a vote the Republican National Committee had deemed essential in its 2012 election autopsy — and only delved deeper into madness from there.

From discussions of the phallus on national TV to insulting a Gold Star family and an aversion to sticking to the teleprompter, the Trump campaign deftly navigated political snafus that would have sunk a lesser politician.

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” Trump said.

And it would be hard to forget the third-party candidates, like the Green Party’s Jill Stein and Libertarian former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. While some may ask who Johnson is in the wake of the race, Johnson always had other questions on mind.

“What is Aleppo?”

state@dailytarheel.com