Cruz tries to slow Trump – gets help from Romney

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has a multi-pronged strategy with a single objective: stop Trump.

The Texas senator got a big boost from anti-Trump forces Friday when 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney announced on Facebook that he would vote for Cruz in Utah, which has caucuses Tuesday. Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who ran for president in 1996, issued a statement endorsing Cruz as a “fearless leader” and promised to work for his election. Gramm was named the campaign’s senior adviser on economic issues and a liaison to members of Congress.

“This week, in the Utah nominating caucus, I will vote for Senator Ted Cruz,” said Romney, who stopped short of a full endorsement, saying he also liked the remaining contender, Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

“Today, there is a contest between Trumpism and Republicanism,” said Romney, linking statements by New York billionaire Donald Trump to “racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, most recently, threats and violence.”

He said Cruz was the only candidate who could force an open Republican National Convention that could prevent Trump from securing the nomination.

That did not sit well with Kasich, who Tuesday won his first contest, the winner-take-all Ohio primary.

“Well, I don't agree with that, and by the way, I'm running for president because I have, first of all, the best resume and record, and secondly, I'm the only one of the three that can win a general election and beat Hillary Clinton, so we just put one foot in front of the other and keep moving, and I campaigned with Mitt, I like Mitt, and I just, it's a place where we disagree,” Kasich said on MSNBC.

His top strategist, John Weaver, said in a statement, "The fact is the establishment has gotten it wrong this entire primary and it is unfortunate to see that Mitt Romney is getting bad political advice.” Kasich, he said, is best positioned to stop Trump in upcoming contests in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Pacific coast states.

Trump reponded swiftly on Twitter.

Former Cruz-hater Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has endorsed Cruz, as well.

Cruz is about 230 delegates behind Trump and hopes to block him from winning the 1,237 delegates needed outright for the nomination by the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July. If Trump falls short, that would open the convention to other competitors after the first ballot, in which delegates are expected to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged.

Next up are election contests in Arizona and Utah on Tuesday with the Texas senator determined to add to his delegate count to gain on frontrunner Trump. His team also is looking at how to get delegates pledged to also-ran rivals Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Cruz said Friday on a Utah radio program, “A vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump.” If he falls below 50 percent in Utah, warned the Texan, state rules would allocate an additional 20 delegates to Trump.

“Presidential campaigns are multi-tasking ventures,” David Carney, a campaign veteran who advised former Texas Gov. Rick Perry in his 2012 presidential run but who is unaffiliated this year, said by email. “He needs to solidify his support from Rubio supporters, about 60 percent, according to the exit surveys. He needs to continue to campaign in the next round, keep Trump from getting 55 percent of the remaining delegates.”

“It’s about delegates, numbers and math,” said Carney. “Cruz is the only person in America who can stop Trump.”

Cruz and outside groups who support him have raised $101 million so far in the campaign, according to federal data compiled by opensecrets.org, a nonpartisan website of the Center for Responsive Politics, with $39 million cash on hand.

As part of a big fund-raising push, several of the pro-Cruz superPACs that operated separately have united under Trusted Leadership PAC. “We’re going for the late-breaking Ted Cruz vote,” said Kellyanne Conway, president of one of the groups, Keep the Promise I, who said in an interview that the combined superPac just received over $2 million in donations. “Trump gets his voters early.”

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics, University of Virginia, said by email, “Cruz has to try to narrow the gap with Trump in delegates, which is currently around 230. He has to score some upsets in the 19 states and territories yet to vote.”

What about Cruz’s hard-right message? “That’s not going to change,” said James Henson, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the Texas Politics Project. “While I think there might be some subtle changes in Ted Cruz’s rhetoric, he’s unlikely to make the traditional ‘move to the center,’ at least in any conventional sense,” said Henson.

Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University, said by email, “If Cruz and his allies can prevent Trump from winning 1,237 delegates between now and June 7, Cruz still has a realistic chance of winning the Republican nomination on a second or third ballot in Cleveland.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Cruz tries to slow Trump – gets help from Romney."