John Kasich and Ted Cruz Team Up to Prevent GOP ‘Sure Disaster’ Trump Nomination

J.D. DurkinApr 24th, 2016, 11:07 pm
 

Screen Shot 2016-04-24 at 11.10.32 PMIn a pair of wildly unexpected statements released just moments ago, the campaigns for Ohio Governor John Kasich and Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced that each would be marshalling their resources to focus on specific states with one goal in mind:

Stopping Donald Trump.

The Cruz camp’s Jeff Roe released the following statement:

“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 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.”

The Kasich campaign took to Twitter with its statement along the lines of Cruz’s, noting that the Ohio Governor will focus on Oregon and New Mexico:

The strategy at play is an attempt to block the controversial frontrunner from reaching the necessary minimum 1,237 delegates. Currently, Trump has 845, compared to Cruz’s 559 and Kasich’s 148. The real estate mogul considerably added to his lead this past Tuesday in his home state of New York, and holds a considerable lead in all five of the upcoming states holding their primaries in two days.

The Indiana primary set for Tuesday, May 3 is a winner-take-all convention, so the Cruz and Kasich campaigns are feeling the pressure to prevent a Trump win. Kasich strategist John Weaver spoke about the importance of the Hoosier State, saying, “…keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland.”

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J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) is a columnist at Mediaite.

[images via Wikipedia Commons and Flickr]

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