The increasingly desperate forces within the Republican Party trying to prevent elderly billionaire Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination may be in for some good news.
According to conservative commentator Erick Erickson, a deal has been struck between the rival campaigns of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in an effort to deny Trump the delegates he needs to win.
As some have speculated in recent weeks, the deal would involve Marco Rubio focusing all his remaining efforts on winning the March 15 primary in his home state of Florida relatively uncontested, while throwing his support behind rival candidates in other upcoming primaries. On Friday, Rubio’s campaign urged supporters to back John Kasich in his home state of Ohio.
BREAKING: @marcorubio communications director @AlexConant tells us Rubio supporters in Ohio should vote for @JohnKasich.@ThisHour
— John Berman (@JohnBerman) March 11, 2016
Both contests are “winner take all” primaries, meaning Trump’s path to securing the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright would become much harder if Kasich and Rubio can deny him a victory on their home turf. The most recent polling shows Trump with a diminishing lead in Florida, and trailing Kasich by five points in Ohio.
For his part, Cruz will reportedly focus all his efforts on beating Trump in the primary contests in Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina, all of which take place on March 15. A number of outside groups supporting Cruz have scrapped major ad buys Florida in order to focus on those states.
Cruz is the only remaining candidate with a realistic chance to surpass Trump in delegates. A recent poll shows Cruz leading Trump by 13 points in a potential head-to-head matchup. Cruz received a critical boost Friday by winning the endorsement of National Review:
.@tedcruz for President!
Our editorial: https://t.co/z2utHl7iMo pic.twitter.com/Q95ibaRdGC
— National Review (@NRO) March 11, 2016
If there is a deal, it does not appear to involve Kasich, who has declined to attack Trump as aggressively as Cruz and Rubio in recent week. The Kasich campaign responded rather dismissively to the Rubio campaign’s “endorsement” in the Ohio race.
Kasich spox Rob Nichols on Rubio news: “We were going to win in OH without his help, just as he’s going to lose in FL w/o ours”
— Kathleen Ronayne (@kronayne) March 11, 2016
Given that Trump has repeatedly defied the political odds up to this point, it would seem unwise to discount his chances moving forward. But at the very least, the emerging consensus among the #NeverTrump faction of the Republican Party means the the odds of brokered convention in Cleveland are higher than they’ve ever been.
