Why Did Jindal, Huckabee, Perry, Santorum, and Graham Go Absolutely Nowhere?

[Free Bird]

They were all well known by the Republican electorate (something Gilmore was in no position to say), but their polling was in the absolute gutters, though I suppose to Huck's credit he held on for a while, enough to not be instantly sentenced to the Kiddie Table, at least. Frothy especially surprises me considering the GOP's next-in-line habit. I'd include Walker too, but you can actually see why his bubble burst like nothing else.

I'm not saying I even expected them to win any primaries or even more than a handful of delegates between themselves, but they all went absolutely nowhere, which surprises me.

Why was this with all of them?

[Free Bird]

None of them had a niche.

Graham - How many Republican primary voters do you think base their vote on being a hawk, and of those, how many do you think would be okay with "Grahamnesty?"
Huckabee - Old news, his pandering style was very dated
Santorum - Old news, only got traction in 2012 because he was at the right place at the right time to be flavor of the month against Romney, someone who many Republican primary voters disliked
Perry - Old news, literally a joke candidate best known for forgetting which agency of government he'd abolish
Jindal - Brought nothing to the table, and his name is literally "Piyush Jindal." Need I say more?

Jindal was also so unpopular that his successor in LOUISIANA was a Democrat. Also, he, Huckabee, Santorum, and Perry were competing for basically the same shrinking slice of the Republican Electorate, hardcore SoCons, and Carson and Cruz cornered that market, with a large number also going for Trump. 

Jindal definitely played a part there but you also gotta remember that Diaper Boy totally crashed and burned. Louisiana wasn't too unfriendly to Democrats then, either, to boot.

[Free Bird]

None of them had a niche.

Graham - How many Republican primary voters do you think base their vote on being a hawk, and of those, how many do you think would be okay with "Grahamnesty?"
Huckabee - Old news, his pandering style was very dated
Santorum - Old news, only got traction in 2012 because he was at the right place at the right time to be flavor of the month against Romney, someone who many Republican primary voters disliked
Perry - Old news, literally a joke candidate best known for forgetting which agency of government he'd abolish
Jindal - Brought nothing to the table, and his name is literally "Piyush Jindal." Need I say more?

The first part was good, LOL.

Seriously, though, you win a nomination by uniting factions.  Though it's hard to remember in the hyper-polarized age of Trump, the GOP still has factions, just like the Democratic Party.  Of those, Jindal, Huckabee and Santorum solely appealed to the Religious Right.  They had almost no appeal to the far right crowd, moderates, donors, etc.  Graham only appealed to the foreign policy hawk crowd, which is much bigger among elected officials and donors (and donors usually bet on who they think could actually win, among equally preferable candidates).  Perry could have gone somewhere, but he had the gaffe.  After that, why not just find another, better Perry?

McCain, Romney and Trump all united different GOP factions that probably would not have preferred "that type of candidate" on paper but came to be won over through the primary process.  Despite how we talk, the 2008 Republican primary electorate that elected John McCain is hardly any different from the one that elected Romney, which is hardly any different than the one who elected Trump.

In a strange way there is a connection :


McCain : the left was dominated by anti war activists then , and McCain represented the Pro War wing of the party better than anyone in the race


Romney : The left was dominated by Occupy Wall Street  and Romney literally represented the total opposite of that (And he was almost the kind of guy the occupiers would hate the most )


Trump : Cultural Left dominated politics for previous 4 years and trump was a reaction to that

This always happens. Elections are defined by the incumbent and the air they bring to the national mood and conversation.