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Cruz Cedes OR, NM Primaries to Kasich; Focuses on Indiana (UPDATE: Trump Responds)
Jeff Roe, Cruz for President’s campaign manager released the following statement late Sunday:
Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans. Not only would Trump get blown out by Clinton or Sanders, but having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation. To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that the allies of both campaigns would follow our lead. In other states holding their elections for the remainder of the primary season, our campaign will continue to compete vigorously to win.
Soon after Cruz made his announcement, Kasich for President Campaign Manager John Weaver released this statement:
Donald Trump doesn’t have the support of a majority of Republicans – not even close, but he currently does have almost half the delegates because he’s benefited from the existing primary system. Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland, where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the Party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee. We believe that will be John Kasich, who is the only candidate who can defeat Secretary Clinton and preserve our GOP majority in the Congress.
Due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-take-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1237 bound delegates before Cleveland. We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign’s resources West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana.
In turn, we will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon, both areas that are structurally similar to the Northeast politically, where Gov. Kasich is performing well. We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.
We expect to compete with both the Trump and Cruz campaigns in the remaining primary states.
Update: Donald Trump has issued a response.
Published in GeneralIt is sad that two grown politicians have to collude against one person who has only been a politician for ten months in order to try and stop that person from getting the Republican nomination.
Senator Cruz has done very poorly and after his New York performance, which was a total disaster, he is in free fall and as everyone has seen, he does not react well under pressure. Also, approximately 80% of the Republican Party is against him. Governor Kasich, who has only won 1 state out of 41, in other words, he is 1 for 41 and he is not even doing as well as other candidates who could have stubbornly stayed in the race like him but chose not to do so. Marco Rubio, as an example, has more delegates than Kasich and yet suspended his campaign one month ago. Others, likewise, have done much better than Kasich, who would get slaughtered by Hillary Clinton once the negative ads against him begin. 85% of Republican voters are against Kasich.
Collusion is often illegal in many other industries and yet these two Washington insiders have had to revert to collusion in order to stay alive. They are mathematically dead and this act only shows, as puppets of donors and special interests, how truly weak they and their campaigns are. I have brought millions of voters into the Republican primary system and have received many millions of votes more than Cruz or Kasich. Additionally, I am far ahead of both candidates with delegates and would be receiving in excess of 60% of the vote except for the fact that there were so many candidates running against me.
Because of me, everyone now sees that the Republican primary system is totally rigged. When two candidates who have no path to victory get together to stop a candidate who is expanding the party by millions of voters, (all of whom will drop out if I am not in the race) it is yet another example of everything that is wrong in Washington and our political system. This horrible act of desperation, from two campaigns who have totally failed, makes me even more determined, for the good of the Republican Party and our country, to prevail!
Kasich takes action that hurts Trump’s chances. Excellent. Seems less likely Kasich is staying in to help Trump.
Hopefully voters get the message, and hopefully the two candidates can keep up this collusion.
Obvious downside: this is obvious collusion, and Trump will be able to credibly claim that the odds are stacked against him.
Good move Kasich. Probably the last time I will say that. With the only polling I see, the Cruz is eight points behind Trump, but Kasich is at twenty points. If only half of his supporters go to Cruz, and less than two percent over all go to Trump, Cruz could deny the baked pumpkin the win.
It’s all over but the shoutin’.
This is being done as a signal to Super PACs. This is a good sign because it shows that neither Kasich nor Cruz is willing to partner with a nationalist who hates the constitution, hates conservatives, and hates America. Real courage, a real desire to win, and make sure Trump loses, have been demonstrated here. Thank goodness. Bravo to Cruz and Kasich for teaming up for the country and for conservative principles. It’s about time.
Reps busting a move? Can hardly believe it but Pearl Girl like. Woo hoo!
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
(Ironically, I learned that sentence in 7th grade typing class and just now tapped it with one fat 55 yr old finger on tiny iPhone.)
Bother. The political geek in me wants to get into this, and the human with a job needs to go to bed.
I think this is the key point in it. Kasich isn’t playing for Trump.
But that means the alternative is true — he’s delusional.
I hope this means Kasich’s vote in Indiana goes like Rubio’s in Ohio after Rubio dropped hints to his voters: down.
I’m warming to Kasich. The question is whether he finally has seen the light, or this is one of the two times a day he’s correct.
Once again, y’all can sue me but I like kasich and I want him in this race as long as possible…one more body between us and casino Donny T.
Kasich is shooting a half court shot in 2016 and is playing to be the front runner in 2020 to take on Hillary. He doesn’t think Ted can move his negatives. I hope he’s wrong, but the realist in me tells me he’s probably right. America is not conservative, no matter how much I wish it was. Neither is Kasich, but at least Kasich is pro-life and pro-Constitution. He just plays budget games, but that’s pretty par for the course.
Btw has everyone seen this 2008 article about Roger Stone, Donny’s BFF and philosophical doppelgänger:
The Dirty Trickster
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster
(umlaut, courtesy of Apple which also just auto-capped Apple – twice!)
Of note: this story is percolating all over, waking ppl up…. but nuttin on Drudge.
What fascinated me about this was the choice of states. Cruz is already likely to come third in the upcoming states, as he did in New York, so I don’t know why he didn’t concede those. New Mexico and Oregon are some of the most Cruz friendly remaining states, with plenty of Texans and Mormons. Worse, they’re both proportional states, meaning that it would be helpful for both to compete there.
Why was the swap not DE/ MD/ CT/ RI/ NJ for Kasich, PA/ IN/ WA for Cruz?
Wonder how much of the rationale was money for campaigning?
Thirteen (well, fourteen now) posts without hearing how this is another establishment plot is pretty good.
No way Cruz should cede Oregon unless he has no cash. It sounds like all money and effort is going into Indiana as the firewall.
This is the end, my friend.
http://youtu.be/1b26BD5KjH0
Bizarre, and smacks of desperation. I could see this backfiring by making Cruz look like a weak horse.
That one takes be back a long way.
Prediction: This drives up Trump in each of these states. The average voter does not want to participate in a game. They want to vote for the candidate they like. At the margins, a few voters will cooperate with what Cruz and Kasich are doing. Many more will either stay home or vote Trump.
It’s over.
Could be. On the other hand, one half to two thirds don’t want Trump and will go to whatever alternative there is.
This embodies a major flaw in the thinking on this election cycle that has been proven wrong over and over, and yet still is stated as if its fact. And is also logically inconsistent. If one-half to two-thirds go to the other non-Trump, then one-half to one-third goes to Trump…and Trump wins an outright majority of Republican primary voters.
But more importantly, here is the major flaw in the thinking: There are a lot of voters pulling the lever for non-Trump candidates who would chose Trump as a second choice. That is why over time his “ceiling” keeps increasing. And that is why this effort by Kasich and Cruz is futile. If one leaves, Trump’s vote goes up. Ignore the opinion polls, and look at the primary election results.
That has been true each time a candidate has left the race. It is true now and will be true in the next primary.
I get frustrated at times listening to these theories about gaming the system and contested conventions and delegate stealing and such, as they seem willfully blind to what voters are actually saying.
You ready? Donald Trump IS the consensus choice. That is not a statement of preference, just an observable fact.
We shall see, my friend, we shall see. The fact remains that the only state where he went over 50% is New York.
Needless to say, I am not in agreement with several things you state here.
If he had seen the light he would’ve dropped out long ago.
Agree. This doesn’t appear particularly well thought out.
What if the strategy isn’t to gain delegates, but deny them to Trump?
My guess, based on nothing but personal opinion, is that this happened after some negotiation between the two campaigns, and that Kasich demanded those states.
What he’s looking to get out of this whole campaign remains a very deep mystery. I tend to agree that his staying in the campaign this long is a manifestation of ego nearly as inflated as Trump’s, which I find a bit frightening.
Isn’t that the same thing? Not sure I am following.
Or worse.
If after this move Kasich throws his delegates to Trump, . . . then what? There won’t be anything anyone can do, will there?