GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz is going all out in Tuesday’s primaries in five states, including pivotal Ohio and Florida, despite trailing in all of them.
The strategy: draw votes from rivals Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in their home states to narrow the race to himself and billionaire Donald Trump.
The contests are considered so important to the GOP nomination that the March 15th elections are now being called Super Tuesday 3 for the third week in a row of critical votes.
“With John Kasich, it’s real simple: It’s mathematically impossible for him to become the nominee,” Cruz, a Texas senator, told reporters in Illinois Monday. “He cannot beat Donald Trump, so a vote for John Kasich or a vote for Marco Rubio is a vote that’s thrown away.”
Cruz has 370 delegates to Trump’s 460 delegates with 1,237 needed for the nomination. Rubio has 163 and Kasich 63.
Kasich is tied with Trump in most polls in the winner-take-all Ohio primary with 66 delegates at stake. Rubio has even asked his supporters to vote for Kasich in Ohio to defeat Trump. Kasich, however, has not asked his supporters to vote for Rubio in the Sunshine State.
In Florida, Rubio is second in most polls to Trump for the winner-take-all 99 delegates and a loss Tuesday may signal his exit from the race. But Cruz, who is closing in on Rubio for second in some polls, stands to benefit by showing his strength on the Florida senator’s home turf.
The Cruz campaign Monday announced an expanded Florida state leadership team of over 375 elected officials, community leaders, pastors, and conservatives.
“Our campaign is seeing incredible support from courageous conservatives all across the state of Florida,” said Cruz. “I’m honored to have so many of Florida’s top leaders supporting our campaign heading into the March 15th primary.”
Cruz likes to point out that he is the only remaining candidate who has beaten Trump - in nine contests, including Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
If he doesn’t beat Trump outright, he is looking to what he calls a “contested convention” as opposed to a “brokered convention” which he thinks would be a “disaster” by allowing power brokers to pick the nominee. A contested convention would free up delegates to vote their preference, not bound by their state’s winner after the first ballot.
Rubio on ABC’s This Week Sunday said of Trump, “Despite all this noise that's out there, he needs 60% of the delegates from this point forward in order to be the nominee. Ted Cruz by the way needs 75% of the remaining delegates to be the nominee. That's the real math.”
Other state primaries Tuesday: North Carolina, Illinois, Missouri. Also voting: Northern Mariana Islands caucus.
Maria Recio: 202-383-6103, @maria_e_recio
Comments