One of his primary donors, Toby Neugebauer, is now engaged in an open fight with the top strategist for Cruz’s super PACs over how his $10 million will be spent. That’s good for a net-favorable rating of negative-6 percent, Cruz’s worst rating ever in the Gallup tracking poll.
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“He was going to go up with ads in October or November”. I’m just looking at where you are and if you lose, how you come back from that? The Ohio governor is focused on later primaries, including OR in mid-May, and hopes to remain relevant if the July convention truly turns into a contest. “We know your wife works there”. “Trust me, all the other big donors wish their PACs were set up the same way”.
Framing Indiana as an “absolutely pivotal” last stand, Cruz has won the support of Governor Mike Pence and even named Carly Fiorina as running mate.
“They’re like hanging by their fingertips”, he said, mimicking Cruz and Kasich: “Don’t let me fall!”
The Washington Post takes a look at the GOP’s larger electoral map problem, one that doesn’t have a lot to do with Donald Trump.
Coming off six straight primary wins, and leading many polls in Indiana, Trump is predicting a win that he says will effectively end the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
For his part, Cruz told reporters during an IN campaign stop Monday, “I trust the good people of IN to differentiate”. The news will hurt the Cruz campaign, given how much he has bet on securing delegates through state party conventions in addition to the popular vote.
He’s already claiming victory, whether or not Republicans unite behind him.
Kasich doesn’t have enough primary votes to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination outright and is pinning his White House hopes on a contested convention in July.
“Indiana really is a must-win for Cruz in order to prevent Trump from winning on the first ballot”, said Kyle Kondik of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a website run by University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
Constantin Querard, Cruz’s Arizona campaign chair, countered: “They lost because of math, not because of malfeasance”.
While anti-Trump groups have spent nearly $3 million in IN and Cruz’s campaign has spent $3.4 million on television, Trump has countered with just over $1 million of his own ads something he didn’t do until very late in Wisconsin.
The strategy seemed to unravel even as it was announced.
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The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll said that Trump has the support of 49 per cent likely voters and Cruz 34 per cent, followed by Ohio Governor John Kasich at 13 per cent. Trump and Cruz are blitzing the crucial state. “It’s where he says that it’s make-or-break for him”, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said.
