Cruz has 559 and Kasich has 148.
Advertisement
Donald Trump needs another big night Tuesday to stay on track to clinch the Republican presidential nomination by the end of the primaries.
“Obviously we want him to win, but I guess one of the challenges of these primaries, it seems about 30 percent of Republican primary voters are participating, and of that, in the case of Donald Trump, he’s been getting a third of that 30 percent and I think we need to start focusing this election campaign on electability. Not only would Trump get blown out by (Hillary) Clinton or (Bernie) Sanders, but having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation”, Cruz’s campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement. “I’m not going to spend resources in Indiana”, Kasich added.
The Kasich and Cruz campaigns are hoping their efforts will block Trump from winning the 1,237 delegates needed to win the GOP presidential nomination outright. “If Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he shouldn’t be using the girls’ restroom”.
‘This is entirely about the will of the people, ‘ Cruz said. He keeps whining about the primary.
“Let me ask you, have we gone stark raving nuts?” the candidate asked a crowd later the same day at a campaign rally in Maryland.
Trump complained, “Our Republican system is absolutely rigged”.
Trump continued to blast the Kasich and Cruz partnership Monday.
The rhetoric picked up during a stretch where Cruz outmaneuvered Trump in statewide delegate conventions in Colorado and other states.
Trump, speaking at Pennsylvania’s West Chester University, near Philadelphia, dismissed the deal as a sign of desperation and predicted he still would win the nomination on the convention’s first ballot. A contested convention is the only potential path to victory left for both Cruz and Kasich.
If the announced plan with Cruz works and the convention is contested, Kasich can hope that he was right and that many, if not most, of the IN delegates would support him on later ballots.
However, it’s also somewhat controversial, in that millions of voters in late-primary states – including California, the largest state, which holds its primary in June – often do not get the opportunity to directly impact the outcome of their party’s nomination.
Ignoring the Northeast on Monday, Cruz insisted, “We are at a fundamental fork in the road”, as he campaigned in Indiana. Polls show a relatively close race in the 57-delegate state, with Trump holding single-digit leads over Cruz and Kasich. Meanwhile, Cruz, in states that have voted already in 2016 has received an impressive 6,452,032 votes. In most states, delegates are allocated proportionately based on the results of the primary or caucus (although in a handful of states, like Florida, the Republican primary is a winner-take-all contest). But California is a large and diverse state, with 53 congressional districts.
To understand why, look at Indiana.
“Yes, I get that the Trump campaign is scared”.
Advertisement
Still, it’s not clear how much influence the Cruz and Kasich pronouncements will carry. “It’s not a big deal”, Kasich said. Kasich sent mixed messages, however, as he addressed the pact for the first time while campaigning in Philadelphia. Holden’s self-analysis applies well to Trump I think: “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life”. He really only has two significant accomplishments as far as I’m concerned as a senator, and I don’t know that I’d brag about them.
