But Cruz has a long climb if he’s to catch Trump in the delegate count, and it’s even harder with Ohio Gov. John Kasich still in the hunt.
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More than half of American voters said they definitely wouldn’t vote for Trump this year, while 43 percent said the same for Clinton and a third held that belief about Cruz.
But when respondents were asked for their second choices, Kasich’s supporters do appear to flow more to Cruz – but not by almost enough. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, stands with 465.
Still, Cruz has been mostly despised by Republican apparatchiks, and the above chart should give you a sense of the lengths some Republican Party “elites” are willing to go to stop Trump.
“Turning our back on our alliances or turning our alliance into a protection racket would reverse decades of bipartisan American leadership and would send a risky signal to friend and foe alike”, the Democratic frontrunner said.
For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton grabbed 57.8% of the vote and gained 44 of Arizona’s delegates compared to Bernie Sanders who had 39.9% of the vote and received 30 delegates.
The poll of 252 Republican registered voters was conducted between March 17-20 and has a margin of error of +/- 6.2 points.
Cruz attempted to entice Kasich into dropping out with a position in his own administration in a CNN interview Wednesday, saying “I think (Kasich would) be a tremendous addition to an administration”.
On Wednesday, Cruz won the backing of former rival Jeb Bush as prominent Republicans overcome their aversion to the conservative senator.
Breaking down the results by demographic, Fox News found Cruz is most popular among voters who describe themselves as “very” conservative.
The day-after delegate maths laid bare the challenge: Mr Cruz needs to win 83% of the remaining delegates to overtake the front-runner. This follows the other polls showing that John Kasich is the GOP candidate most wanted by voters. If no one gets that amount before the GOP convention in July, the nominee for the party would be decided through a contested convention.
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After Tuesday, the former reality TV star had 738 of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination, according to The New York Times. Utah’s 40 delegates could have been allocated proportionally, but the state allows a candidate to sweep all 40 delegates if he or she receives a minimum 50 percent of the vote.
