In an unexpected eleventh-hour gambit, trailing rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich have finally got together and hammered out a strategic deal that aims to block front-runner Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination.
Promptly denounced by Trump as a “horrible act of desperation”, the deal for now is confined to three of the 15 remaining Republican primaries. Under the arrangement, Kasich will pull out in favour of Cruz in Indiana, while Cruz will “clear the path” for Kasich in Oregon and New Mexico.
The tie-up, announced late on Sunday night, does not include the five States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware that hold their primaries on Tuesday. Polls suggest that Trump enjoys a wide lead and may end up winning all the five.
Top leaders of the Republican establishment, notably 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have been seeking to consolidate the anti-Trump votes in recent months, but Cruz had earlier rejected calls for strategic arrangements for different States.
But Trump’s recent huge win in New York and his projected victory in the five primaries on Tuesday apparently compelled Cruz and Kasich to come together at this late stage. The Cruz and Kasich campaigns put out statements explaining their rationale for getting together after having fought bitterly for months even as Trump consolidate his hold and kept up his winning streak.
Immediately thereafter, Trump tweeted: “Wow, just announced that lyin’ Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!”
In the race for 1,237 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination, Trump right now has 845, with Cruz at 559 and Kasich at 148.
“Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans,” the Cruz campaign said in a statement, adding: “Not only would Trump get blown out by Clinton or Sanders, but having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation.”
And the Kasich campaign for its part said: “Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland (in July), where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee.”
The Cruz campaign said that in order to ensure the nomination of a Republican who can unify the party and win the White House race in November, it will focus its time and resources in Indiana and clear the path for Governor Kasich in Oregon and New Mexico. “We would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead,” said Cruz’s campaign manager Jeff Roe.
Indiana, with 57 delegates, is regarded as crucial for Trump. Polls have Trump in the lead in Indiana as well right now, but a Kasich pullout may well help Cruz get past him.
“Due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-takes-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland,” said Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver.
“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 Governor Kasich is performing well,” Weaver said.
But the two campaigns have said nothing about working together in the biggest of the primaries that will be held in California in early June or in several other States, including New Jersey and Washington. The Indiana primary is on May 3, Oregon’s is May 17 and New Mexico’s is June 7.
The Trump campaign has been asserting that no one except the New York billionaire has a legal path to nomination. Hours before the Cruz-Kasich deal, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., took a direct shot at the Senator in a CNN interview, saying: “Cruz has no chance of winning (the nomination) without bribing the delegates. That’s his game at this point, okay. He is mathematically eliminated.”