GOP race takes timeout, but candidates press on
As they wait for next month’s primary, Trump tries to round up party as rivals try to foil his plans
Approaching a timeout in the Republican presidential race, Donald Trump continued his efforts to rally Republicans behind his front-running candidacy, while Ted Cruz and John Kasich sought to block the New York billionaire from nailing down a majority of delegates before the convention in July.
A day after winning big in Arizona, Trump took to Twitter to call for party unity: “Hopefully the Republican Party can come together and have a big WIN in November, paving the way for many great Supreme Court Justices!”
Cruz, who easily won the Utah caucuses Tuesday, told CNN that Republicans are “uniting behind our campaign as the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump over and over again and that can beat Donald Trump.”
After Tuesday’s results, Trump leads the GOP field with 739 delegates, followed by Cruz who has 465, according to the Associated Press. The third remaining Republican candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, has 143 delegates.
The campaigns must wait nearly two weeks for the next delegate contest, a primary April 5 in Wisconsin.
In his effort to overtake Trump, Cruz picked up two prominent Republican endorsements Wednesday, former GOP primary opponent Jeb Bush and the anti-tax organization Club for Growth.
Trump, who targeted Bush early in the GOP campaign, responded to the endorsement via Twitter: “Low energy Jeb Bush just endorsed a man he truly hates, Lyin’ Ted Cruz. Honestly, I can’t blame Jeb in that I drove him into oblivion!”
Kasich, whose only win over Trump came in his home state of Ohio, predicted Trump would not have the required majority of delegates when the Republican convention opens July 18 in Cleveland.
Arguing that he is the Republican with the best chance of defeating likely Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the Ohio governor said an open, multi-ballot convention would turn to him as the nominee. “Nobody’s going to go to the convention with enough delegates,” Kasich said Wednesday in Wauwatosa, Wis.
As the candidates prepared for the Wisconsin primary, Cruz defended his call for stepped-up “patrols” of Muslim areas in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Brussels.
“What I’m talking about is focusing law enforcement and national security resources on areas in locations where there is a higher incidence of radical Islamic terrorism,” the Texas senator said on NBC’s Today show.
Critics said Cruz’s comments — which were seconded by Trump — amounted to a call for a police state against American Muslims.
“I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance,” President Obama said in Argentina after his visit to Cuba, “which, by the way, the father of Sen. Cruz escaped for America, the land of the free.”
“Nobody’s going to go to the convention with enough delegates.” Ohio Gov. John Kasich