Republican White House rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced a deal on Sunday to stay out of each other’s way in some upcoming state primaries in hopes of blocking front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party’s presidential nomination. “In business, you go to jail for that”.
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“It shows how pathetic they are”, he said of his Republican rivals.
Five states are at stake on Tuesday: Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, and CT.
One of the topics being discussed right now is the allegiance between John Kasich and Ted Cruz to make sure Donald Trump doesn’t get the delegates he needs to get the nomination. The Ted Cruz campaign said the Texas senator will stand down in OR to clear a path for Ohio Governor John Kasich.
IN holds its primary May 3, while New Mexico votes on June 7 and OR on May 17.
The arrangement does not address the five Northeastern states set to vote on Tuesday, where Trump is expected to add to his already overwhelming delegate lead. Trump is only 392 delegates away from outright clinching the Republican nomination meaning he only has to win approximately 58 percent of the remaining delegates to be the nominee.
Cruz, now in the midst of a bus tour through in, called the Hoosier state “pivotal” and a “battleground”.
For example, in a recent Fox News poll, 22% of Kasich supporters said Trump was their second choice in the Hoosier State, while 53% said Cruz would get their vote if Kasich was out of the equation. “That is good for the men and women of Indiana“.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly denounced the GOP’s presidential nominating system as “rigged”. Some would-be Cruz supporters in IN agreed with Trump’s criticism. Kasich, campaigning in Philadelphia, said on Monday the strategy was a way for him to save money by not campaigning in certain areas.
Cruz repeated the message from his campaign that it is focusing its resources strategically and investing heavily in IN, citing a desire to stop Clinton from winning the White House. Additionally, I am far ahead of both candidates with delegates and would be receiving in excess of 60% of the vote except for the fact that there were so many candidates running against me.
Kasich says of IN voters, “I’ve never told them not to vote for me. And we’ve made the decision to go all in in in”, he said. He said he simply agreed not to spend “resources” in Indiana. They risk the appearance of open collusion, which would fuel anger among the Trump supporters who believe the party is plotting against the billionaire businessman. Yet his path is narrow. The idea is that after the first ballot (or perhaps even during) Kasich could announce that he is releasing his delegates and urging them to vote for Cruz.
“It is abundantly clear that nobody is getting to 1,237”.
Kasich, speaking with reporters in Pennsylvania, said “we haven’t spent a lot of resources” in a lot of states anyway. In the popular vote, Trump scored 60 percent plus, while Cruz had 14 percent.
US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has ridiculed her Republican counterpart Donald Trump for his lavish lifestyle, campaigning from a “big jet” and being out of touch from the ground realities.
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The Trump campaign reacted with characteristic verve.
