Kasich’s failure may throw a wrench in a coordinated strategy announced publicly Sunday night by Kasich and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz aimed at denying front-runner Donald Trump enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination on the convention’s first ballot. Holding up Tuesday’s issue, Cruz pointed out a survey that revealed 40 percent of GOP voters “doubted” they’d vote for Trump if he’s the nominee. The Ohio governor’s chief strategist, John Weaver, said his campaign would shift its resources to states in the West and “give the Cruz campaign a clear path in IN”. Kasich has agreed not to formally compete in the Hoosier state and Cruz, in turn, will stay out of New Mexico and OR primaries, which occur later. It marks the first time Kasich and Cruz have allied to try and block Trump’s nomination.
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However, in a statement given to Bloomberg, Brainard said that he would not specifically urge Kasich supporters to back Cruz.
Cruz made an appeal to IN residents, promising he’d bring back manufacturing jobs and raise wages IN the state.
The primary is almost a month away, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s campaign will be on the airwaves in Oregon Wednesday. In return, Cruz will suspend his campaign in New Mexico and Oregon.
That’s been a sore spot for Trump, who’s railed for weeks against what he calls a “rigged” RNC system of choosing a nominee – even as his team dispatched top dogs Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley to woo delegates at the party’s Spring Meeting in Florida last week.
Polls in IN show that without Kasich in the race, Cruz can defeat Trump and win most of its delegates to the national convention.
“Wow, just announced that Lyin’ Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination”. The deal between Cruz and Kasich doesn’t apply to any other remaining state contests.
“Gov. Kasich is on the ballot in OR, and the campaign will do its part to educate voters about why they should vote for him the primary”, he wrote.
“Now the media wants to say that everything’s decided, but the question is, can the state of IN stop the media’s chosen Republican candidate?” Cruz’s White House hopes now rest largely on Tuesday’s primary in Indiana.
In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton is looking to extend her already wide delegate lead over rival Bernie Sanders.
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A spokesman for John Kasich, Chris Schrimpf, told ABC News tonight that Kasich was no longer going to hold any public events in IN on Tuesday, when he was next scheduled to be in the state.
