Donald Trump is bent on securing the Republican presidential nomination before the party's convention in July, but well-organised rival Ted Cruz has been cleverly out-manoeuvring him in the all-important delegate battle.
Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are
battling for delegates ahead of the party's convention in July. (Photo:
AFP/Joe Raedle)
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump is bent on securing the Republican
presidential nomination before the party's convention in July, but
well-organised rival Ted Cruz has been cleverly out-manoeuvring him in
the all-important delegate battle.
Trump so far has won the most state contests, providing him a
comfortable lead in delegates - representatives who ultimately will
choose the Republican flag-bearer at the party's nominating convention
in Cleveland.
But Cruz, an ultra-conservative senator from Texas, has been on a
poaching mission, reportedly winning over enough Trump delegates to
prevent the billionaire property tycoon from prevailing at the July
confab if he does not secure the 1,237 delegates needed to win outright.Trump so far has won 758 pledged delegates, compared to Cruz's 538 and Ohio Governor John Kasich's 145, according to a CNN tally, but his pathway to outright victory is narrowing.
He lost badly to Cruz in Wisconsin earlier this month, and now needs 61 per cent of remaining delegates to reach 1,237. The billionaire businessman is likely to bounce back on Tuesday when his home state of New York votes, potentially snatching all 95 delegates.
But in a clear sign he is bracing for a tumultuous delegate battle, Trump recently hired Paul Manafort, a seasoned operative who worked the GOP's contested 1976 convention.
Manafort said Trump has "several ways" of reaching the magic number, including with the 100 or so "unbound" delegates who go to Cleveland.
The frontrunner has a poor record of recruiting delegates. His campaign was throttled in Colorado this past weekend, swept by Cruz 34 delegates to zero.
Cruz has been acutely aware that the contest boils down to a delegate battle. In some states, he is seeking to pick off delegates won by Marco Rubio, who dropped out last month.
"If we go to a contested convention, where nobody has the
majority, it will be the delegates who were elected by the people who
make the final decision," Cruz said at a Buffalo, New York town hall
event Thursday, hinting at his playbook for locking down the nomination.
USING TED CRUZ?
Congressman Chris Collins, a Trump supporter, said Trump
campaign strategists plan to secure enough delegates in the initial
round, thereby avoiding the chaos and controversy associated with a
contested convention.
Outright victory is vital, he said after meeting Thursday
with Trump aides, because he said Republican party leaders appear
determined to block the former reality TV star's path to the nomination.
"All of us are fearful if it came down to that, that the
establishment, with Ted Cruz, would work overtime to steal that
nomination," Collins told MSNBC. "So the best way we do it, we get to
1,237. Game over."Several political experts suggest however that Republican elders do not plan to elevate, but rather use Cruz to thwart Trump, so that they can eventually install someone else as the party's nominee.
"What they've been desperate to figure out is some mechanism
by which they can change the rules in such a way that in a multi-ballot
convention it could possibly result in the nomination of somebody other
than Cruz or Trump," Morton Blackwell, the Republican National
Committeeman from Virginia, told AFP.
The influential delegate and conservative activist, who backs Cruz,
warned of a "ferocious" battle ahead that could split the party if the
Republican establishment tries to steer the nomination to Kasich - or
anyone other than the two present frontrunners, for that matter.Current rules allow only those who have won at least eight states to be eligible, a threshold met only by Trump and Cruz.
The more moderate Kasich has argued that his favorability
rating is far higher than his rivals, and that - despite having only won
his home state of Ohio so far - he is best-positioned to defeat likely
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Trump has blasted the convoluted delegate system, which he
said runs the risk of leaving millions of voters, especially his
supporters, disenfranchised. "It's a rigged, disgusting, dirty system,"
he said earlier this week.
- AFP/ec
Daggers drawn as Trump, Cruz wage delegate warfare
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