With at least three more states in his win column, Trump is now the only candidate with a path to clinching the Republican nomination before the party’s convention in July.
Advertisement
He said: “If you disenfranchise those people and you say that I’m sorry but you’re 100 votes short even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before”.
Despite the deep concerns about Trump within the Republican Party, there was little tangible action Wednesday that indicated a way to stop the real estate mogul’s march toward the general election. “I think if we go into a convention, whoever gets 1,237 delegates becomes the nominee”. Trump strengthened his hand in the Republican race with wins in Florida, North Carolina, and IL but fell in OH to that state’s governor, John Kasich. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is the closest to Trump, with 411 delegates, with Kasich far behind with 143.
“I will obviously have to bone up on all the rules and all of those things”, said House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Trump is the only candidate with a realistic shot of getting there, even if his loss to Kasich in OH on Tuesday will make it harder. If no candidate gets to the convention with a majority, Mr Cruz could try to flip delegates pledged to Mr Rubio, Mr Kasich, and other candidates on the second ballot.
“Riots aren’t necessarily a bad thing if it means it’s because it’s fighting the fact that our establishment Republican Party has gone corrupt and chose to ignore the voice of the people and ignore the process”, Hughes told CNN, Wednesday.
“I think Republicans will have a very orderly process”, Spicer told CNN.
Adding, “So if they’re going to be stupid and if they’re going to do that instead of embracing these millions of people that are coming in to vote, then they’re going to have to do that”.
“Voters are angry and frustrated and, in some part, the Republican Party deserves some of that frustration”.
“The majority of states free their delegates after the first ballot”, explains Josh Putnam, a lecturer in the department of political science at the University of Georgia and a campaign expert. “Probably Hillary, I guess it’s Hillary, looks like it if she gets to the starting gate, which she probably will frankly”, he told ABC News. “John will be able to bring different factions together where others can’t”, said one New Hampshire Republican.
The Republican front-runner also said he’d skip a debate scheduled for Monday, saying, “I think we’ve had enough debates”.
Advertisement
Cruz is in better position than Kasich but faces a daunting mathematical challenge after losing four of five contests Tuesday. “No one is going to come to Cleveland thinking they better vote for Trump or there will be riots”. “We could be where it all comes down in a hotly contested race and so the more fragmented the electorate is and the candidates are then the more important those later states become”, he said.
