Cruz is framing a potential fall election match-up between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the choice between two “big government, NY liberals”.
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Ted Cruz in Missouri’s presidential primary on March 15, earning 37 of the state’s 52 delegates to the Republican National Convention in July. Ted Cruz in the primary and carried five of the eight congressional districts in the process. Only delegates who had pledged support for either GOP front-runner Donald Trump or U.S. Sen. Three are superdelegates to the Republican National Committee.
The GOP front-runner spoke in the closing days of the in primary in an effort to cement his hold on the Republican presidential nomination.
Donald Trump’s resounding victory in Saturday’s MA caucuses provides some insurance in case of a contested Republican convention.
An egg is thrown at a cardboard cutout of republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a protest outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel where republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was speaking in Burlingame, California on April 29, 2016.
Cruz has been disparaging of Trump throughout the campaign, once calling him a “sniveling coward” after Trump insulted Cruz’s wife.
Polls show Cruz has more of a challenge in delegate-rich California, where he lags Trump 28.3 percent to 45.7 percent.
Trump, the GOP front-runner, is closing in on the 1,237 delegates he needs to sew up the nomination before the Republican National Convention in July.
A Trump campaign official with knowledge of the situation called it “shameful” and said the state party was “playing games”. But Cruz’s interview on Sunday makes clear that, despite his campaign trail remarks about Trump and his worries about the country’s direction under a Trump nomination, he still won’t completely rule out supporting Trump if he does secure the nomination.
Pence said on an Indianapolis talk-radio show that he would vote for Cruz because he is “a principled conservative who has dedicated his career to advocating the Reagan agenda”. Virginia delegates will only be free to support whomever they choose after the first round of voting at the national convention. This was seen as an attempt for Cruz and Kasich to form an “alliance” to stop Trump from winning these states, though Cruz has downplayed that idea. Cruz in particular played nice with Trump in hopes he would win over his voters later.
But in a brief meeting with reporters, Kasich said Trump stirs up anger and resentment and would get “crushed” in November.
The campaigns for Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich offered almost identical slates of candidates and the combined votes helped lead to wins for the Texas senator. After a string of recent primary wins she is now 90 percent of the way to the delegate number needed to claim nomination.
Earlier in the day, the Trump operation – boosted by a very loud majority of supporters in Mesa – seemed to be on track to mirror their dominance in the March primary.
Except, as GOP wise man Rob Stutzman noted afterward, Hillary Clinton won more votes than Trump in all three states.
Before he addressed the audience, Cruz picked up the endorsement of former California Gov. Pete Wilson, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, and Cruz’s supporters were out in force at the convention ahead of his speech.
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The tally was met with sobs from one outraged Trump delegate, who stuck around to wait for the final results.
