“This just identifies Cruz as what he is, the establishment candidate”.
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The state’s 28 delegates, bound through two ballots, are allocated proportionately, so Currier is expecting that Kasich may get 3 delegates and that Trump and Cruz would split the remainder.
“To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November”, Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said, “our campaign will focus its time and resources in IN and in turn clear a path for Gov. Kasich to compete in OR and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead”.
Eliminated from reaching that total in the primaries, Cruz and Kasich can only hope to block Trump from reaching a majority – and a first-round convention victory – and thus force a contested convention where delegates could select a different nominee.
The Cruz-Kasich pact comes at the 13th hour.
“Our campaign will focus its time and resources in IN and in turn clear the path for Governor Kasich to compete in OR and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead”, said Jeff Roe, Cruz’s campaign manager. Both know they mathematically can’t win on a first ballot.
Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist and senior adviser to the #NeverTrump movement, begs to differ.
Mr Trump’s response to the move indicated his forthcoming campaign pitch. “People who buy into the idea [that the plan would backfire] are already firmly in a camp that’s not going to be persuadable”. “Mr. Cruz’s campaign privately advised supporters on Sunday not to endorse tactical voting, whereby his supporters might switch their allegiance to Mr. Kasich in states where the OH governor is running stronger against Mr. Trump”, the New York Times reported shortly after the “deal” was announced.
“The question of whether this is all too little, too late remains an open question”. “Politicians always say voters want to hear what a candidate is for, not what he’s against”. “A weak Trump supporter could become a stronger Trump supporter”. Polls show a relatively close race in the 57-delegate state, with Trump holding single-digit leads over Cruz and Kasich.
The deal perhaps says more about the importance of IN to efforts to stop Trump than it says anything about New Mexico or Oregon.
Henry and Bobbi Shawfner, John Kasich supporters in Philadelphia, say they support the collaboration between Kasich and Ted Cruz to try to keep Donald Trump from winning.
Cruz, meanwhile, described the agreement as “big news”.
Whether voters will understand what’s being asked of them is another matter. Hasn’t Trump been telling us he’s great at making deals? Cruz’s heritage, as well as the state’s long border with Texas, would seem to be a plus for him, said Lonna Atkeson, director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections and Democracy. “They ought to vote for me”, Kasich said in a Philadelphia diner.
That kind of statement, Bennion believes, only muddies the message. Cruz is counting on outside groups that plan to spend heavily on his behalf, courting conservative Gov. Mike Pence for an endorsement, and spending nearly all his time in IN before the vote. Trent Duffy of the Kasich campaign and former Rep. Jack…
Ted Cruz and John Kasich have spent the last few months pretending like they had a chance to win a plurality of delegates. Some would-be Cruz supporters in IN agreed with Trump’s criticism.
“Suddenly, they’ve sacrificed their claims about their unique viability in this race by partnering with someone else”, Issenberg said.
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In typical fashion, Trump pounced on the apparent confusion, tweeting, “Kasich just announced that he wants the people of IN to vote for him”.
