Ted Cruz and John Kasich issued startling statements Sunday night about their paths ahead, the first sign the two campaigns are seriously working to deny Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
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Kasich will pull campaign resources out of IN to give Cruz “a clear path” IN the state’s winner-take-all primary May 3, while the Cruz campaign will “clear the path” for Kasich IN OR, which votes May 17, and New Mexico, which votes June 7, the campaigns said IN separate releases.
In statements released minutes apart late Sunday, Cruz’s campaign said it would cede New Mexico and OR to Kasich and focus instead on IN, all IN a last-ditch effort to deny Trump the 1,237 delegates he needs to lock down the GOP nomination. Ted Cruz announced late Sunday they’re teaming up to block front-runner Donald Trump from winning the nomination.
In statements released moments apart, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns made clear their agreement only extends to the three states.
While some groups opposing Trump welcomed the Cruz-Kasich pact, which some Republicans have urged for weeks, other political strategists questioned whether the deal comes too late. The state does not distribute all of its 71 delegates based on the primary vote.
“I think that is a decision, an allocation of resources that makes a lot of sense and it’s devoted to the principle of beating Hillary Clinton”, Cruz said.
The real estate mogul is poised to dominate in the five northeast states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island on Tuesday night U.S. time.
“What’s at the heart of this plan is the simple fact that Trump’s got a narrow path to those 1,237 delegates”. “The Indiana primary is going to have greater impact on the direction of country”. The only hope for either candidate would be to force an open convention and, hopefully, sweep up enough uncommitted delegates to win.
Even before the plan was announced, Cruz all but abandoned the Northeastern states in favour of in, which holds its primary on May 3.
Trump is correct that both Cruz and Kasich are mathematically eliminated from winning the Republican presidential nomination before a possible contested convention.
“We’re not telling voters who to vote for in IN, only where we are going to spend resources to ultimately defeat Hillary”.
Trump says his two rivals are colluding in a way that would be illegal in many industries. A contested convention has become their only possible path to stop Trump from being the nominee.
Trump and the other candidates have recruited supporters to run as delegates.
It is sad that two grown politicians have to collude against one person who has only been a politician for ten months in order to try and stop that person from getting the Republican nomination. Governor Kasich, who has only won 1 state out of 41, in other words, he is 1 for 41 and he is not even doing as well as other candidates who could have stubbornly stayed in the race like him but chose not to do so.
“By all accounts we are in the strongest position, with a majority of the Republican Party behind us”, said Nehring. But a lot of Kasich supporters are nauseous at the thought of Cruz.
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According to the latest CBS News poll, Trump leads Cruz in IN by five points.
