Fresh off his multi-state win Tuesday night, GOP front-runner Donald Trump today said a contested convention “would be very bad for the [Republican] party”.
Advertisement
Some flatly reject the notion of ever funding his campaign.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has pursued this strategy of targeting Republicans in overwhelmingly Democratic districts, most recently in Missouri.
Republican donors are a testing ground for Trump, who is under pressure to soften his tone to win independent voters. Crowds at rallies and winning primary elections, especially with only a plurality of the vote, is not evidence that a candidate can win in a general election.
Most of Trump’s primary victories were with less than 50 percent, and even with less than 40 percent.
The Wisconsin Republican, thrust into the speakership after predecessor John Boehner of OH was squeezed out, said Thursday that he is not interested in being the savior of a GOP establishment appalled by Trump. The people who determine elections are people who care enough to show up and vote. The debate was then canceled, a Fox News affiliate in Salt Lake City reported.
“I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400 cause we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically”, Trump said on CNN on Wednesday. “If he’s the nominee, we will support him in spirit but not in cash”. I think the people would quite rightly revolt. “We’re appalled. He’s anathema to the free society and civil society in which we believe”.
But those who are working to thwart Trump through a contested convention might want to heed Chris Christie’s argument against doing so. He has pledged to do away with the pay-to-play, transactional politics that have long dominated Washington.
Jindal added that he plans to support Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee, but is unenthusiastic about that scenario.
Trump will likely face a barrage of attack ads and negative mailings funded by Super PACs, labor unions and the campaign of his Democratic opponent. (Rubio and Cruz lead Clinton in far more of those polls.) In the last month, Clinton’s advantage has been just over six percentage points. “We’ve had enough debates”, he said on the network Wednesday.
Trump, true to form, has done the opposite.
He has run a threadbare campaign from his plane and employs a tiny staff with no strategists, consultants or pollsters.
The Republican race has witnessed the recent departure of two candidates favored by a sizable number of evangelicals, famous surgeon Ben Carson and Rubio.
Trump could always try to keep up his unconventional low-budget tactics.
In the 2012 presidential race, Romney and Obama each spent $1 billion.
Don Genhart, a Republican activist in Palm Desert, planned a year ago to open a Trump campaign committee in the Coachella Valley.
“America needs a strong leader to restore our hope and our strength and there’s only one man to do it, and that’s Donald Trump”, Christie said.
“We don’t have any alternative”. Another shouted: “This is supposed to be a press conference, are you going to speak to us?”
Trump could also use his large social media presence to solicit small donations via his website.
The three best-financed efforts to stop Trump abruptly ceased advertising after Tuesday’s elections.
If “it’s between Hillary Clinton, however ethically challenged, and liberal she may be on the one hand, or Donald Trump who is a fascist, xenophobe, racist, nationalist who appeals to violence, yeah, I’ll take President Clinton over President Trump any day”, Stipanovich said.
But before Trump can take on Democrats, he will have to confront the internal battle within his own party. Cruz has 396 and Kasich 138.
Advertisement
Josh Putnam, a political scientist at the University of Georgia who specializes in election math, says that at least 117 of the 2,472 Republican delegates will arrive at the convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July uncommitted, meaning they can vote for anyone.
