With the 2012 election impending, the race for president is on. Many Republican candidates have stepped up and are currently fighting for a spot in the election, hopeful to  pit up against current president Barack Obama. Numerous issues will make a huge impact on the stances they take, and through debates, these candidates can either make or break themselves.

“The debates can both help and hurt candidates. It’s good for them to get their word out and their opinion on different issues,” Connor Henley, junior, said.

Henley, a devout Republican, has been following the debates and though he supports the Republican party as a whole, he especially likes what he sees from Newt Gingrich.

“At the debates he’s just had a really good stance on issues and had really good stuff about the troops,” Henley said.

According to Henley, a high IQ and strong sensibility is also an advantage that Gingrich has over the other candidates, including Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain. On the other hand, Tanner Clow, senior, has his reasons for supporting Ron Paul.

“He wants to legalize drugs in order to gain tax funds. This would help lower the debts in the U.S.,” Clow said.

Clow finds himself to be strongly conservative, along with Henley.

With many conservatives hoping for a Republican president in 2012, Spencer Jones, senior, finds them all to be crazy.

“The least crazy one would have to be [Jon] Huntsman. He is the only one not spouting crazy ideas and he actually has foreign affairs experience,” Jones said.

Jones was raised a liberal and considers himself more liberal than anyone else in his family.

Numerous issues will also draw dividing lines for voters. With so many issues at hand, there’s one thing that most of them involve: the economy. According to Jones, the U.S. is just starting to dig themselves out of a hole they were in since 2007.

“Republicans are going to want to reign in spending because they see it as hurting things like investor and consumer confidence. Democrats are going to generally want more spending,” Jones said.

Many other issues will also affect the outcome of the Republican race. Mitt Romney, senator, has huge plans for health care, what he calls Romneycare. His goal is to replace Obamacare with market-based reforms that empower states and individuals and reduce health care costs.

“I think that we should focus less on making minor changes to the current [health care] system but instead just go ahead and completely reform it to a nationwide healthcare plan like practically every European country has. It works for them, it can work for us,” Jones said.

On the other hand, Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” Plan aims to help low-income Americans, but will raise taxes on a lot of middle and upperclass households. Jones finds this plan to be ridiculous.

“There was economic analysis done that said if the 9-9-9 Plan was actually used, then the lower class taxes would go way up and the upper class taxes would plummet. That’s something that I disagree with on a fundamental level,” Jones said. “At least have people pay equal percentages of their income instead of having a regressive tax. I think the rich should have to pay more of their money and I would gladly do it if I was super-rich as well.”

Even with these issues defining the values of the current Republican candidates, many other qualities besides a strong hold on the issues also make a huge impact on votes.

“Paul’s been in the Senate forever; he’s got experience,” Clow said.

With the 2012 election less than a year away, the next few months will be very important in determining the Republican candidate of the election, and several candidates are planning change and reform (i.e. Cain’s “999 Plan”), in addition to in-depth health care and debt-solving solutions. But the only problem is finding a strong Republican candidate.

“I’m forecasting a third party in this election. The conservative spectrum is just too wide. On one hand, you have someone like Romney who is really moderate and then on the other hand you have someone like Perry who is very, very conservative,” Jones said.

Republican Candidates

• Michele Bachmann
• Herman Cain
• Newt Gingrich
• Jon Huntsman
• Gary Johnson
• Ron Paul
• Rick Perry
• Mitt Romney
• Rick Santorum