Indeed Donald Trump’s primary clean sweep Tuesday in five northeastern states merely exposed an alliance that had started to show cracks shortly after it was announced.
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Stressing that choosing a running mate is one of most solemn choices a candidate can make, Cruz said he based his decision to name Fiorina as his VP on several factors, including her experience and character.
But Cruz pledged to keep the campaign alive, even with an IN loss.
Taking her own shot at Mr Trump, Ms Fiorina on Wednesday said: ‘He doesn’t represent me and does not represent my party’.
After his latest round of losses, Cruz bid to regain some footing by making an early announcement of his running mate, tapping Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard executive who dropped out of the GOP race earlier this year.
But the agreement quickly fell apart: Cruz denied there was a deal, Kasich wouldn’t tell his Hoosier supporters to vote for Cruz and Trump undermined them both by declaring the arrangement was proof the GOP primary system is rigged.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has given Cruz a lukewarm endorsement, so perhaps the Texas senator will get a boost from that.
However, he stressed, Pence’s endorsement is much less about Christie than it is the candidates themselves.
Trump was leading Cruz in two in polls last week, but Pence has publicly criticized Trump after he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States and after he suggested women should be punished for seeking illegal abortions. “This is a desperate move from a desperate and dying campaign”, the DNC’s Amy Dacey wrote in a press release after the news broke.
This comes not long after Kasich announced that he would not be campaigning in IN in an agreement with Cruz to help block Trump from winning the contest there, which would add to the seeming invincibility of a Trump nomination at the GOP convention in July. “We’re going to have to beat Donald Trump at the ballot box”.
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IN holds its primary on Tuesday. On the Republican side, three delegates come from each of the nine congressional districts and go to the candidate who gets the most votes. The billionaire businessman needs to win 48 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries.
