The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee.
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Most of these delegates are selected at state and congressional district conventions, where Cruz and his supporters have done a good job rounding up supporters. He is also poised to make gains in several other western Republican contests, including a possible sweep of Colorado’s remaining assemblies, due to conclude Saturday.
In a poll that shows the trouble that could lie ahead for the GOP leadership, 34 percent of Republicans who support Donald Trump’s candidacy say they won’t vote for another party candidate if he is denied the nomination at a contested convention.
The last time a Republican convention opened without a clear nominee was 1976, when Gerald Ford led in delegates but lacked a majority coming into the convention.
In the run-up to the California primary, Cruz has been recruiting volunteers in the state for months, while the Kasich campaign began organizing more recently.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is strengthening his team and refocusing on NY after tactical failures have raised doubts about his campaign operation.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, far behind Trump and Cruz in delegates, also was campaigning in NY.
“This is an example of Donald Trump managing, and the type of leadership he will bring to the presidency in November”, Manafort said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
“You have only one choice”.
“That ain’t gonna happen”, Cruz said.
“It’s hard. We’ve got to win and we’ve got to win consistently”, Cruz said. Eight percent said they wouldn’t vote at all, 18 percent said they would seek a third-party candidate, and 10 percent said they would vote for Clinton over Trump.
During the week, Cruz had won all 21 delegates up for grabs at assemblies in Colorado’s seven congressional districts, and he added 13 more delegates Saturday.
Ted Cruz has hundreds of influential Republican donors and Jewish leaders all to himself this weekend in Las Vegas as he addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition. A slate is a group of candidates that run in multi-seat elections on a common platform. “There’s no prizes for subtlety in politics”, Cruz joked. But despite the caucuses on March 1 and the lack of a straw poll afterward, he said Cruz’s lead in the state is no surprise.
“The people out there are going insane, in the Denver area and Colorado itself”, Trump said on Fox News. “We’re probably only a $500 investment”. First, Cruz will have the most delegates.
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Cruz has not had a heavy paid-staff presence in Colorado. “But you can’t beat the shoe leather aspect of it”, said Gessler, a Cruz delegate from Denver. “I don’t know what they’re trying to do”, Anuzis said. The party requires would-be delegates to register with their county parties three days prior to their county conventions, but those conventions are not held on a uniform date across the state, so technically there is no single deadline. His ground game trumps Trump’s, a fact confirmed by Cruz’s pickups last week in North Dakota and Tennessee. He campaigned through swing regions of Wisconsin long before Trump set foot there. Pennsylvania’s emissaries, one male and one female, will be chosen from the ranks of delegates elected in the April 26 primary. Trump would need to win 63 percent of those delegates in primary votes to outright secure the nomination while Ted Cruz needs an nearly 97 percent to win.
