Conservatives at a meeting in Washington Thursday had “absolute consensus” on trying to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump from getting enough delegates to clinch the party’s presidential nomination, according to a source familiar with the discussion.
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“We encourage all former Republican candidates not now supporting Trump to unite against him and encourage all candidates to hold their delegates on the first ballot”.
In a year when Republicans might not settle on a presidential nominee until they convene in OH in July, those three Texans – and their counterparts from other states – could be wined and dined and threatened and cajoled as the remaining candidates claw for the votes needed to win the party’s nomination.
Donald Trump would need to win a little more than 50 percent of the remaining delegates to reach that mark.
Although Trump continues to dominate the race with an overwhelming lead in the number of delegates, he still has to win the required threshold of 1,237 delegates to be the party’s presumptive nominee. “I think you’d have riots”, he said Wednesday on CNN. How many times can the same people ask the same question? But all cycle, Democrats have daydreamed about Republicans nominating an extremely polarizing presidential candidate, and suddenly it’s nearly certain they will get their wish.
‘First of all, I assume he is speaking figuratively, ‘ Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told CNN. To Trump, all reporters and protesters are scum.
Katie Packer, a Republican strategist who founded Our Principles PAC to hinder Trump’s success, said she is evaluating the path forward. Speaker of the House, Rep. Paul Ryan, warned against talk of riots, and said he believes that a contested convention is now more likely to happen. “This race shows that”, Jindal told MSNBC’s “Meet the Press”. ‘I know what I’m doing…. Ted Cruz, yet some party leaders are exploring “other avenues” instead of rallying behind the fiery conservative, an ominous sign that Republican leaders’ deep dislike of Cruz complicates their overwhelming concern about Trump.
ISSENBERG: Yeah. I mean, it would reaffirm everything that Trump has said about why they distrust the party establishment. “As a conservative, I can’t trust Donald Trump to do the right thing”.
The nomination process is then wide open. After Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he wouldn’t debate without Trump on stage, host Fox News scrapped the event.
In interviews by TIME with 10 delegates who have already been named, Trump appears to be doing well so far. Some people think his continued presence hurts Trump: That is, he’ll help Cruz prevent Trump from wrapping up the 1,237 delegates he needs for a majority at the convention. It is not an insurmountable challenge.
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Kasich, who has no chance to get anywhere near a majority of the delegates going into Cleveland, is counting on a strong showing in all the big states outside the South. He also hopes to pick up some delegates even in unfriendly states by winning in friendly congressional districts. And based on the state party rules for a given delegation, a lot of those become freed up.
