Ted Cruz among Republican voters ahead of California’s June primary.
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The move comes after a serious loss in Wisconsin, where Trump was badly beaten by rival Ted Cruz, helping to galvanize anti-Trump forces and increasing the likelihood that Trump will be unable to amass the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination before the summer’s national convention. Meanwhile, the Trump team is also working to ensure their preferred delegates are selected at Michigan’s state convention this weekend, as well as trying to select a trio of friendly delegates at a district-level convention in Virginia.
Polls have Trump up huge in his native state, which votes April 19, but Cruz isn’t punting NY, instead hoping to take advantage of the state’s rules to pick up scattered delegates across the state.
But Trump did appear uncharacteristically subdued during the Long Island rally. Most state parties haven’t picked their delegates yet, but in general, they’re looking for people who have demonstrated loyalty by investing time and money helping to elect Republican candidates.
“I think they’ve been so focused on the primary, they haven’t looked at the damage they’re doing”, he said. Ted Cruz’s growing success with voters isn’t rubbing off on his fellow GOP senators, who remain decidedly cool to his presidential candidacy.
Trump won 36.5 percent of the 1.3 million votes cast in Michigan’s March 8 Republican presidential primary, capturing 25 of the state’s 59 delegates.
Of Cruz’s delegates, only 17 were formally pledged to him, and in theory the other four could change their vote in Cleveland. “Which is an indication to me that they believe that they are either in trouble in NY or they want to make certain that he wins his home state”, said MSNBC Republican Analyst, Rick Tyler.
The New York real estate developer drew support from 35 percent, according to the Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll. His campaign announced last week the hiring of Paul Manafort to run his convention effort, including delegate strategy. “It’s an opinion shared by majorities of men and women; young and old; conservatives, moderates and liberals; and whites, Hispanics and blacks – a devastatingly broad indictment of the billionaire businessman”.
His team has cleared his schedule, cancelling planned trips to California and Colorado. “If they do, I haven’t seen it”.
He said he teased some of the first ones who publicly endorsed Trump, but they would have done the same to him.
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“The irony for Trump is no one wanted to work for him who knew how to do anything”, the operative said. It was then, even before the resounding defeat in Wisconsin, when Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign aide and longtime adviser, put Trump in touch with Manafort, a veteran of numerous conventions.
