In a new twist that is best described as coordinated desperation, John Kasich suspended his campaign in Indiana hoping that Ted Cruz will pick up his votes. In return, Ted Cruz suspended his campaign in Oregon and New Mexico. Donald Trump blasted the move as an act of desperation, which of course it is.
In response to the the coordinated break-up, Trump made a number of Tweets.
Cruz Statement
HOUSTON, Texas – Cruz for President Campaign Manager Jeff Roe today 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.”
Kasich Statement
Tonight, Kasich for America chief strategist John Weaver issued the following 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.”
Too Late to Matter?
Coordinated desperation may affect the delegate math, but in what ways is not necessarily certain. For example, disenfranchised Kasich supporters may just decide to stay home.
Some Indiana voters may very well support Trump as their second choice. Sill others may not like the collusion. Finally, despite the collusion, many may vote for Kasich anyway.
On average, I would expect this to help Cruz, but not necessarily, especially in regards to tipping Indiana into the Cruz camp.
However, we now need a new set of Indiana polls. The ones we have are now invalid.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
‘Donald Trump doesn’t have the support of a majority of Republicans – not even close…’ Gee, but he does have dramtically higher support than Cruz. Isn’t this statement more damning of those who are significantly BEHIND Trump?
It is believed that the majority of the people who voted for candidates that have dropped out would now support Cruz over Trump. This is based on Cruz being the 2nd choice of most voters as shown in state polls when the primary or caucus was held in said state.
.
Clinton is clearly the worst possible candidate. She is as dishonest as they come.
And with the Clinton Foundation has shown a passion for payoffs and bribes..
.
Anyone but Clinton is my opinion, I cannot believe the Democrat Party chose
Clinton over say Elizabeth Warren or anyone else.
.
.
A vote for Clinton is a vote for corruption and abuse – plain and simple. And disgusting.
.
.
. Read about the Clinton Foundation getting paid $ 500,000 for a speech and the next month Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sells more chemical weapons and other weapons to African nations then ever before.
THERE ARE MANY MANY EXAMPLES here are two:
Saudi Arabia wanted F-15 fighter jets, which they received after making a $900,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton personally approved that deal. This happened after Hillary complained about the country continuing to ignore the money that was flowing from Saudi Arabia to terrorist organizations. In short, she knew that the country was funding terrorists who were fighting American soldiers, and still was willing to sell them heavy artillery because they gave her group money.
Algeria had been singled out as allowing “arbitrary killing” in the country and for having what they called widespread corruption. But after a half million dollar donation to the Clinton Foundation, they received a 70% increase in military weapon imports that included toxicological agents, biological agents, chemical agents. During her time at the State Department, Hillary approved $2.7 billion to the country of Algeria,
http://trofire.com/2015/05/28/hillary-clinton-sold-weapons-to-hostile-nations-to-enrich-defense-funders/
.
.
. This is a non-political message, but a message against Graft and Corruption.
.
Thanks. I agree she sold her office, and we could see more of the same with her as President. I should not have to vote for someone else because our AG has failed to uphold the rule of law. Tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. I just wanted to have someone tell me their view of how Trump would benefit our economy or America. I guess not being as corrupt at Hillary may be as good as it gets.
I don’t recall such a tactic succeeding any time in past history. I had thought maybe Kasich was a level-headed guy and would probably make a good candidate and President. My wife was in his camp very early in the campaign. But with this tactic, and his continuing goal of going to Cleveland with absolutely no chance to get to a majority until several votes have been taken and the required horse-trading publicly exposed, we no longer support him.
I cannot stand to watch, much less listen to Cruz. Huey Long comes to mind. Elmer Gantry.
Trump may not win the general election, but I do want an opportunity to vote as strongly as possible against the Republican party Establishment. Then change my registration to Independent and work as hard as I can to removing entrenched politicians, from both parties and their odious stench from the American landscape.
Kasich is as Republican Establishment as they come.
So is “Canadian (until 2014)” Cruz!
if you look at the strategy long enough, it will pop out at you. There is only one party, the Insider’s Party. Trump will not serve the insiders. The insiders have 3 candidates listed in order of preference:
1. Clinton (The warmonger serves all aspects of the elite and has dirt on everybody)
2. Kasich (Can only win Ohio. He claims nobody wins the Presidency unless the win Ohio)
3. Cruz (Even though he is an obnoxious foreigner and everybody hates him).
I don’t know of any polls to show who would win in a one on one contest between Trump vs. Cruz. However, there have been several polls asking people to rank the candidates or who would be their 2nd choice if their 1st choice dropped out. Cruz tops Trumps in this category as most Republicans 2nd choice candidate. Additionally in exit polls, Cruz has consistently ranked as the first choice of younger voters under 30 among the Republican candidates.
Trump clearly benefited from the fractured field. As it has narrowed, he has not been able to raise his ceiling of 35 to 40 percent of the vote. Trump has higher percentages in the NE states only. These states will not vote Republican in the general election anyway. Hillary received more votes than all the Republican candidates combined.
If Trump is the majority leader, I hope you realize that it’s mathematically impossible for him to be the highest 2nd choice if he drops out.
The actual leader and lower runners will be reversed in ranking.
That is a trick poll question that implies Cruz has more appeal than reality.
I am quite sure Trump supporters will rally behind Kasich if he is selected in a brokered convention. Or that Cruz and Kasich would be saying the same things if situations were reversed and they had The Donald’s results.
No they wont
There is something about Trump that I don’t get. The Republican Party is designed to be the party of big business and neo-cons. Being unelectable in their own right, they of course have worked hard to bamboozle Evangelical Christians, working class whites and ideological libertarians into voting for them.
Trump blows that traditional coalition out of the water. His candidacy is essentially an attack on big business, neo-cons and to a degree libertarians. But he can’t win with just the working class whites and the portion of evangelicals that don’t want Cruz.
It’s almost like his candidacy is an effort to destroy the GOP.
I believe you are correct. Trump is a lifelong Democrat. I don’t know what the long term impact of this election will be, but I do suspect that destroying the Republican party as we know it is one of his goals. Once this election is over, regardless of who wins, the Republican party will have a lot of soul searching to do before the next set of elections, or they will cease to exist.
The GOP needs to be destroyed! It’s just another liberal party.
We are at 1850, and the “Whig” party (GOP) is about to be put to pasture for a Constitutuonal party. The “moderates” in the GOP can officially become democrats/liberals, as they truly are. Libertarians can join conservatives in the constitutional party.
Charles Koch said he thinks Hillary is probably the best of the bunch.
Koch like so many other power brokers in the Republican party are not getting their way. Of course they are like little children because they cannot control Trump. This is what it is all about control and furthering their agenda and not the voters agenda. I am laughing as the Republican party is showing its real colors and screwing their voters. You see this is not about the elections and all about the power brokers not getting their way.
I have for years now watched career politicians do nothing for their citizens and maybe Trump will actually deliver and I do not care he was a democrat, you can bet and he has stated this many time he contributed to both parties. I know what the career politicians on both sides of the isle will do, promise the moon and never deliver to the common people. The Democrat party is no longer the party for the people either.
It does sadden me that the GOP is so desperate to stop Trump they even advertise against him. He is still hanging in there but I am sure there is a reticle on him down the road if he wins.
Good post. Mish, what this is about is one thing – an attempt to subvert the will of the people.
I’d rather say that it’s a way to clear a route for the majority of people to actually express their will. The primary system, when you start with 18 people, or whatever the Republican party started with, has been shown to be a way for a minority with strong and loyal support to dominate the majority, where the majority support is constantly shifting. In the Democratic primaries, where the field quickly whittled to 2, the majority has been able to express it’s view. In the Republican primaries, one person won a majority of the votes cast in only a few states, including Trump’s recent victory in New York.
The function of government is to secure property and natural rights of the people. It is not a function of government to hand out goodies to people or groups of people. Both parties exist to give out goodies – they only differ in the people or groups they choose to favor.
I really can’t get a grasp on who Trump would favor as he keeps changing his positions on tax policy, abortion, trade, foreign policy, use of torture, immigration, etc. The one constant is his reliance on government – he seems to want to expand it. Tariffs, ethanol mandates, health care, taxing the rich, etc.
Since most of the people on here seem to be for Trump, I’m looking for a reason to vote for him should he get the nomination.
Cruz has given me several reasons to vote for him. His record as a Senator is clearly anti-establishment. He votes against debt increases, the ACA, export-import bank, ending all subsides, interventionist foreign policy, originalist philosophy in judicial appointments, a stable currency, etc.
I wish Kasich would drop out. He cannot get the nomination. I would like to see Trump and Cruz have a serious discussion on the issues the next President will face – not a media event with biased moderators.
Hillary is coughing again. Against Trump she is a weak candidate. It’s
a fine line between coughing and choking. Just saying.
Boy, these dirty GOP establishment pigs will do anything to bring Trump down. I hope it backfires on them. This latest ploy shows that Cruz and Kasich are both part of the mob. Even if Trump misses the 1237 by 100 delegates – if the GOP selects another nominee it will destroy their Party. They’ll lose the majority in both houses and Hillary will move into the White House. Make my day.
Great news, this strategy. At a minimum, concentrating the opposition will delay Trump from attempting to act more presidential. As long as he feels threatened, he’ll keep biting. As long as he keeps biting, Democrats and libertarian Republicans such as me can continue to work on persuading the persuadable that our freedom might depend on #AnybodyButTrump. Good for the Cruz and Kasich. About time.
I cast my primary vote for Trump (NC) because I think he’ll destroy the Republican Party. I hope he destroys the Republican Party. There’s no room in contemporary American politics for a fiscal conservative. I’m sick of the identity politics, the culture warring, the social justice. I survey the political landscape and struggle to decide which party is worse. When you get to that point, f— ’em. Let it burn.
Trump! Trump! Trump!
Voting for Trump now destroys the Republican Party. And voting for him in November destroys the Democratic Party. Good for both of them! They will be forced to take stock and see what they have to do in order to win back the support of their constituents. The Republican Party is no longer conservative and the Democratic Party is no longer progressive.
I’m a registered Independent. I got a robocall from Trump the other day. He told me the closed state primary is approaching and asked me to reregister as a Republican so I can vote for him. And I intend to pinch my nose and do exactly that. I suspect the state GOP will see a spike in membership prior to the primary and a commensurate withdrawal right afterwards. Turnabout is fair play.
Pingback: Links 4/26/16 | naked capitalism