Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/25/2016 06:53 -0400
In the bottom of the 9th, with two out and the bases loaded, Ted Cruz and John Kasich are attempting one final maneuver to stop Donald Trump from getting the GOP nomination.
As the WSJ reports, top officials from both the John Kasich and Ted Cruz campaigns have announced that the candidates have formed an alliance, and will work together during the remaining primaries in order to make sure Donald Trump doesn’t have enough delegates to win the nomination outright before the convention in July.
Top officials from the Ted Cruz and John Kasich campaigns announced the alliance in a pair of statements late Sunday night. The deal will keep Mr. Kasich, the Ohio governor, on the sidelines for Indiana’s May 3 primary, while Mr. Cruz, the Texas senator, won’t compete in contests in Oregon on May 17 and New Mexico on June 7.
“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,” Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said.
Mr. Kasich’s top strategist, John Weaver, made an explicit call for super PACs devoted to stopping Mr. Trump to follow the two campaigns’ lead.
“We will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon,” Mr. Weaver said. “We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.”
Knowing that neither one can win the election by winning the actual popular vote, the men have decided to turn to utter desperation and play the system (which is a technically a valid strategy, as it is how the GOP set it up). The goal is to position themselves for an opportunity to win in a brokered convention, whereby delegates start to become “unbound” after the initial vote, and can vote for any candidate they’d like in the next round.
As we pointed out earlier, Pennsylvania is critical and will test Trump’s ground game as he tries to win over enough unbound delegates that will vote for him at the convention. If successful, he’ll try to replicate those efforts in the remaining states in order to turn the tables on the new Cruz/Kasich strategy.
