In addition, Cruz, a Canadian-born Texan, was criticized for mocking New York City during a January debate.
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Critical voters, newspapers and New York’s most prominent Republican candidate – Donald Trump – continue to hammer the Texas senator over the phrase in the run-up to the Empire State’s April 19 primary.
Overall Michigan’s 59 delegates will be allocated with 25 going to Donald Trump and 17 each going to Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
“The people that I was talking about are the liberal New York Democrats who have hammered this state”, he said in an interview with “Good Morning America”.
Cruz argued that the Hispanic and African-American pastors with whom was meeting agreed with his statements about NY values.
But as recently as a month ago, when Senator Marco Rubio was also still a candidate, Cruz trailed Trump in the Reuters/Ipsos polling by about 20 points.
Both Cruz and Kasich are hoping to keep Trump below 50% and to peel away some of the convention delegates available in the Empire State.
Sanders won the delegate count based on Tuesday’s results, 48-38, making gains for his statewide win and strong results in Madison, the Milwaukee suburbs, and western Wisconsin.
“It’s always helpful to show that you care about the party and its work if you want the party to make you a delegate”, said Ben Ginsberg, a longtime Republican lawyer and an expert on the nominating process. Even if a candidate can round up commitments from unbound delegates, there’s really no way to know for sure how those delegates will vote.
The Wisconsin exit polls tell the story. “Either before Cleveland or at Cleveland, we will win a majority of the delegates”.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, running third in the Republican race, chimed in with an ad called “Values”, part of a seven-figure ad buy in NY and Pennsylvania, which votes on April 26. “Trump’s got to win more than 55 percent of the remaining delegates on the way to the convention to hit the magic number and I don’t think that’s very likely for him”. Trump alienated many female Republican voters by saying that women who have an abortion if the procedure were banned should be punished, a position he later backtracked on.
The three candidates are vying for the Republican presidential nomination in Cleveland this summer and Trump leads with 743 delegates to 517 for Cruz.
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But Trump state co-chairman Carl Paladino said Cruz is a “fool” who “should go back to Texas before he embarrasses himself”. He used the opportunity to slam the mayor and other Democratic leaders across the state, but he was also joined by a Democratic official at a campaign stop.
