Hundreds of protesters have jostled with police in riot gear outside a California hotel where Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was to give a speech, forcing the candidate to duck into a back entrance.
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John Ben, of Mission Viejo, said he views Cruz as a pure and honest conservative in the tradition of former President Ronald Reagan. Trump has begun campaigning in California for the 07 June primary.
“That was not the easiest entrance I’ve ever made”, he said. “We went over a fence and through a fence….”
“The strongest support was for Cruz”, said Randy Blair, chairman of the Republican Party in Webb County along the Texas-Mexico border, which narrowly supported Trump during the primary. The Tea Party California Caucus was distributing pamphlets, and displayed a life-size cut-out of Donald Trump.
State party Chairman Robert Graham said the election was run fairly, and the Kasich-Cruz slates just combined to get the win. “And this transcends that”, said Tim Clark, Trump’s state director and a seasoned GOP strategist here.
Trump was criticized for provoking protesters earlier this year, and he has beefed up his security after his podium was rushed at an event in Ohio. The country was turned upside down with candidates attacking his illegal immigration stance, the media, even twitter was ablaze with remarks.
Outside the hotel, Mexican American Rosa Penate was one of many who disagreed. Live video footage streamed online and on cable news networks showed Trump’s arrival and departure, in which he and his entourage walked over a small grassy patch along the side of the road to get to and from his vehicle.
Some state Republican leaders, meanwhile, seem to gravitate to centrist Kasich, the governor of OH, seeing him as the most viable of the three. Police then formed a line to hold them back which appeared to work for the time being. Authorities say at least five were arrested. Inside, the delegates were focused on choices and strategy. California and the Valley will play an instrumental role in the Republican race.
One troupe performed for Republicans at the weekend party convention in a hotel near the San Francisco International Airport, as a sideshow of left-wing demonstrators chanted, threw eggs, taunted a protective ring of state and local cops and otherwise tried to disrupt the main show inside. “It’s 53 separate elections and not a single election”. Cruz might also be effectively helped by big-tent Republicans trying to stop Trump. If there’s a second, Rubio’s delegates can support another candidate since he won’t be among the top-two delegate recipients on the convention’s first ballot. “She was a good Republican candidate here”. Ted Cruz and his running mate, Carly Fiorina, up Saturday.
Constantin Querard, Cruz’s Arizona campaign chair, struck back against claims from DeWitt. “We’re going to knock on their doors and we’re going to campaign face to face”.
“We’re blocking Trump from coming and speaking at this GOP Convention”, protester James Dalbora said. He told me that with a crowded field, “I’m going to have to be cold-blooded about this because there is too much at stake here”.
Cruz’s state political director, Michael Schroeder, agreed. That surprised me. I should think that a Cruz supporter would want Kasich to stay in the race into June to keep Trump from 1,237 delegates.
“There is a level of confidence that on a second ballot or thereafter, that 15 of the 16 will continue with Mr. Trump, because in the end, it is the will of the people of the state of DE that must be carried on”, Copeland said.
“He has experience. He has balanced the budget federally but he’s balanced the budget statewide in OH as well”.
However, barring a prolonged fight at the national convention, a Kasich nomination is unlikely. But Trump’s speech got an icier reception from the party veterans and donors who sat just beneath the stage, separated from the rest of the room by a rope. Would I win – can I win – without it?
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“These guys felt free to hit me in my hometown of Burlingame; I don’t stand for that”, Conway said.
