While the focus from here on out will be on Trump, there’s also an element of schadenfreude in Cruz’s in loss: Cruz’s team (and Cruz himself) repeatedly ripped Kasich as a “spoiler” with no business in the race, who is only around for vanity reasons or someone who is angling to be Trump’s running mate.
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“I don’t like to change”, Trump said, noting that he already feels like he is “a presidential person”.
Meanwhile, some local conservative leaders have been waiting for Kasich to make his departure announcement since before the IN primary results rolled IN Tuesday night.
“The answer is simple: No”, Tweeted Nebraska Sen.
While Trump predicted that he will put traditionally blue states like NY and MI into contention and “easily” defeat Clinton for the presidency, Trump conceded that Clinton will be a formidable debate opponent.
Hours before clinching victory in Indiana, Trump was floating an unsubstantiated claim that Cruz’s father appeared in a 1963 photograph with John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald – citing a report first published by the National Enquirer. “I thought that I’d be going longer and she’d be going shorter”. Cruz’s dismal showing compelled him to abort his campaign earlier Wednesday.
“Obviously the governor’s campaign was dubious at best from the beginning”, said Portage County Tea Party president Tom Zawistowski, annoyed by the $700,000 check the Kasich campaign accepted from liberal megadonor George Soros.
Weaver called out Trump’s “disrespectful ramblings” as a reason why Kasich presents a stark contrast to the Manhattan billionaire. Gov. Kasich looks forward to continuing to compete with Donald Trump in the upcoming primaries through California on June 7th.
The real-estate mogul called Cruz “one hell of a competitor” with a great future, and cited “Heidi (Cruz’s wife), his whole lovely family”. “I look forward to continuing to be his partner in the U.S. Senate in creating more and better jobs for OH”.
John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, said he would support Trump. “He did the unselfish thing to drop out”.
In an emotional speech in Columbus, Kasich said voters had “changed me with the stories of their lives”, and he recounted some of the most poignant moments of his campaign.
Clinton has yet to shake Vermont Sen.
“I know that the Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over”.
The general election, Trump said, has “essentially” begun. While Clinton heads into the general election with significant advantages with minority voters and women, Democrats have vowed to not underestimate Trump as his Republican rivals did for too long.
The real-estate mogul’s gravity-defying rise continues unabated, surviving gaffes, scares and missteps that would have ended other campaigns, in regular election cycles. His campaign never became more than a spoiler run, created to keep Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination before a contested convention.
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Technically, Kasich finished 2016 in fourth, even though he was the last losing contender to drop out.
