Politico reported yesterday on two separate gatherings – one in D.C., another in Florida – of prominent Republican activists who still hope to deny Trump the party’s nomination.
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Mr Kasich’s win in OH, his first in the nominating fight, makes him the candidate of choice for party leaders anxious Mr Trump’s rowdy campaign will lead Republicans to defeat not only in the presidential race, but in state and USA congressional races. The delegates that are elected by Republican voters will go to Cleveland.
In case he can not, and no other GOP candidate does, either, Cruz Campaign Manager Jeff Roe told reporters Tuesday night that the Cruz campaign is prepared to take the battle all the way to the convention floor.
We’re just over halfway finished with delegate allocation, and Trump’s lead over Cruz has expanded to a bit under 300.
Watch a live stream of the Donald Trump Super Tuesday victory press conference in the video below.
John Kasich scored his first win of the presidential nomination contest, grabbing all 66 delegates in the OH primary, in what could ultimately stall Donald Trump’s decisive dash to the nomination.
Trump also picked up wins in North Carolina and IL, and was locked in a close race with Cruz in Missouri.
The main casualty on the night was Senator Marco Rubio whose poor showing in his home state of Florida has forced him to quit. From the start of this race, we’ve seen that every candidate saddled with the “establishment” tag has sunk like a stone under its weight, a fate that befell Mr. Rubio this week, and Mr. Bush before him. Judging by his past results, Mr. Kasich’s lone victory on his home turf in OH could well be his high-water mark.
Cruz and Kasich are now fighting to keep Trump from reaching 1,237 delegates.
Kasich remains in last place among the GOP contenders.
In such a situation, neither the Trump camp nor the anti-Trump camp can get to 1,237 delegates without the support of Mr. Cruz, who has been nowhere almost as condemnatory of Mr. Trump as his aforementioned competitors.
The former NY senator, who has known Trump for years, said the Republican front-runner espouses policies that offend, discriminate and isolate the country from the global community. In fact, he said, they have made “preparations” for that.
According to political insiders, Trump has opted for the “press conference” approach rather that for the usual victory party in an attempt to appear “presidential”. At this point, the Stop Trump crowd would have to decide, as Sen. “Only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination: Ours and Donald Trump’s”.
In Missouri, Cruz was supported by late deciders, most regular church attendees and those who say they’re very conservative. He would cut that deal in a NY minute.
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One likely reason Rubio lost in Florida is because most voters there want to halt Muslim immigration, according to The New York Times.
