With the primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina over, the Grand Old Party candidates are looking forward to the Florida primary on Jan. 31. With three different candidates pulling through in the first three primaries, the Republican Party appears very divided.

"There has been a real split between the party," said Jim Franke, associate professor in political science. "The divide lies with the tea party candidates and the traditional candidate — Romney being the traditional candidate, Gingrich, Paul and Santorum leaning more towards the tea party."

Roxanne Robinnett, graduate student in public administration, said the Republican Party will have a hard time winning if they cannot unite.

Franke said the primaries used to be winner-takes-all events. Usually, the winner of a primary would receive all of the delegate votes from that state. Currently, the United States uses a proportional delegate voting system for each primary.

"This is not an impressive group of candidates," Franke said. "Romney has a lot of commonalities and can appeal to many different types of Republicans. Gingrich has more baggage than Southwest Air. I mean, where do you even begin with him? And Paul, well, he's just out there. Santorum is just a social conservative."

This election season for the Republican candidates has been a race to the right, Franke said. He said this was also exhibited when John McCain ran for presidency in 2008 and when Jerry Moran was struggling to beat current Kansas governor Sam Brownback.

"This election season is going to go on for a while," Franke said. "One can't see the base of the Republican party acting in a reasonable fashion. The likelihood of the base uniting behind Romney is unrealistic."

Currently, in the aftermath of the South Carolina primary, the base of the Republican Party is focused behind Gingrich. The party wants a candidate who has a strong dislike for President Barack Obama and will address that in a public sphere, such as a debate. For the Republican Party, the only candidate who is willing to do that is Gingrich.

"Gingrich doesn't seem like a strong candidate," said Megan Walsh, sophomore in open option. "He always seems to be attacking other candidates, and that makes him look insecure with himself and what he represents."

Since 1980, the winner of the South Carolina primary has gone on to take the presidential bid for the GOP. Gingrich beat Romney there by a long shot, and polls show he is also ahead in Florida, according to a Jan. 23 Reuters article by Patricia Zengerle and Sam Youngman.

Franke said the heart of the GOP is in the South, but if a Republican candidate hopes to win the White House, he will have to have the support of the entire nation.

"Currently, the Florida primary should be in favor of Romney, but the polls show otherwise," Franke said. "If Gingrich wins Florida, the question then becomes, ‘Does his momentum have the ability to apply to a broad group of Republicans?'"

It is safe to say, looking at the Republican candidates, that the voters' indecision will last until Super Tuesday, which is March 6. There is a lot of uncertainty with the conservatives in this nation, and it is impossible to pick a clear frontrunner at this point in time.

"There is currently a large proportion of Republicans who are not satisfied with the current candidates and want to see someone else run," Franke said.