By Steph Solis
As if this election weren’t interesting enough, Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced a strategic alliance against front-runner Donald Trump.
Their goal? To stop Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination.
“Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans,” Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement announcing the alliance. “Not only would Trump get blown out by [Hillary] Clinton or [Bernie] Sanders, but having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation.”
Cruz and Kasich are still competing for the GOP nomination, but perhaps more so in the spirit of divide-and-conquer the Donald. The Cruz campaign will focus on Indiana ahead of its May 3 primary while Kasich steps back to campaign in Oregon and New Mexico, whose primaries are May 17 and June 7, respectively.
“Keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland,” Kasich’s campaign said Sunday. “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.”
As of Sunday, Trump has 845 delegates, Cruz has 559 and Kasich has 148.
Kasich was scheduled to visit Indiana on Tuesday, ahead of the May 3 primary. Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, co-chair of Kasich’s Indiana campaign, told the IndyStar the candidate canceled all Indiana events.
Trump, who has called the political system “rigged,” didn’t hesitate to respond Sunday night on Twitter.
Wow, just announced that Lyin’ Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016
The partnership comes days after Trump said his opponents —namely, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — were “mathematically eliminated” from the primary race because the billionaire candidate is the only one with a shot of securing the minimum 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination. But if Trump doesn’t reach that magic number, he could face a contested convention in July. At that point, hundreds of delegates that are currently bound to Trump could get a shot to throw their support behind any of the candidates.
Being the front-runner, Trump said, he believes he deserves the nomination even if he falls slightly short of the majority.
While five states go to the polls on April 26 with some 172 Republican delegates at stake, both Cruz and Kasich’s campaigns view Indiana’s winner-take-all contest on May 3 as the critical turning point for thwarting Trump’s rise to the nomination.
Indiana is not strictly a winner-take-all state. All the 30 statewide delegates go to the winner, but the remaining 27 delegates are allotted based on the results of their corresponding congressional district.
Many of Indiana’s delegates polled by IndyStar have indicated that support Kasich over Trump.
