UPDATE: 7:17 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump said the pressures of the campaign are turning Ted Cruz “wacko.”
Trump tweeted: “Wow, Lyin' Ted Cruz really went wacko today. Made all
sorts of crazy charges. Can't function under pressure - not very
presidential. Sad!”
Shortly after, Trump was named the projected
winner in Indiana. He cited his victory as he urged Cruz to exit the
race. “Lyin' Ted Cruz consistently said that he will, and must, win
Indiana. If he doesn't he should drop out of the race-stop wasting time
& money,” Trump tweeted.
UPDATE: 7:01 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump is the projected winner in Indiana's GOP primary in a major loss
for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that signals the New York business mogul is on
his way to winning the Republican nomination, CNN reported.
With about 5 percent of the vote in, Hillary
Clinton leads Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race, 55.7 percent
to 44.3 percent, but the contest is too close to call. Trump was ahead
of Cruz 53.6 percent to 33 percent in the GOP contest, the Associated
Press reported.
UPDATE: 6:56 p.m. EDT — Early
exit polls show Democrats in Indiana are worried about health care and
inequality. Fewer than 10 percent of voters choose terrorism as a top
issue, CNN reported.
For Republicans, the economy was the top
issue, with seven in 10 voters saying they were deeply worried about the
economy. Only 10 percent of voters said immigration was a leading
concern.
UPDATE: 6:46 p.m. EDT — Ted
Cruz’s campaign staffers are telling reporters he is in the race for
the long haul, but they also are expecting staffing cuts and more if he
loses Indiana Tuesday night to Donald Trump.
One unnamed aide told the Associated Press the
campaign was preparing for "a very somber" speech in Indianapolis. CNN
reported that the campaign had prepared two speeches – one for a
surprise win, and another for a crushing loss.
"We are in the campaign for the duration. The
duration," a top Cruz campaign official told CNN when asked if Cruz
would drop out if he lost Indiana.
UPDATE: 6:35 p.m. EDT — Nearly
300,000 Indiana voters requested early and absentee ballots, local
media reported. Of those, roughly 184,000 were Republicans and 109,000
were Democrats. About 90,000 voters registered to vote online in the
days before Indiana’s April 4 registration deadline.
UPDATE: 6:25 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump is leading in Indiana with 54 percent of the vote, while Ted Cruz
has 32 percent of the vote, with 1 percent reporting. Hillary Clinton
is winning on the Democratic side, with 54 percent of the vote, compared
with Bernie Sanders’ 46 percent, with 1 percent reporting, The New York
Times reported Tuesday.
UPDATE: 6:05 p.m. EDT — Republican
presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Tuesday he supports Israel
building new settlements in the West Bank. Trump also called Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a very good guy."
"I think Israel, they really have to keep going, they have to keep moving forward," Trump told the Daily Mail in
a story published Tuesday. "I don't think there should be a pause. You
have hundreds and even, I guess, thousands, of missiles being launched
into Israel — who would put up with that? Who would stand for it?"
The Obama administration has argued that
Netanyahu's settlement policies have hurt any hopes of a peace deal.
Trump said he has a solution.
"A lot of people say that's not a deal that's
possible. But I mean lasting peace, not a peace that lasts for two weeks
and they start launching missiles again. So we'll see what happens,"
Trump said. "I'd love to negotiate peace. I think that, to me, is the
all-time negotiation," Trump added.
UPDATE: 5:45 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump has pushed at least one Republican too far. A former senior
adviser for Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign said he would
vote for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton after Trump cited a
National Enquirer report while trashing Ted Cruz’s father.
"[T]he GOP is going to nominate for President a
guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it's on the level," Mark
Salter tweeted Tuesday. "I'm with her."
Trump told Fox News Tuesday that Rafael Cruz was with Lee Harvey Oswald on the day he assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
“I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing
with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?”
Trump said. “It’s horrible.”
Media outlets such as the Miami Herald said the claim had no merit.
UPDATE: 5:29 p.m. EDT — Donald Trump might cost Republicans the White House in November, but former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he will likely vote for the New York business mogul.
“I think Donald Trump is going to have the
hardest time beating Hillary of all the Republican candidates that ran
for president,” Jindal said Tuesday on CNN. He added, "If it comes down
to a binary choice between Donald Trump, I'm supporting the party's
nominee. I'm not happy about it. I don't think he's the best qualified, I
don't think he's the one most likely to be successful, but I would vote
for him over Hillary Clinton."
UPDATE: 5:20 p.m. EDT — A former Ronald Reagan campaign manager has joined Team Trump. Ed Rollins, who managed Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign, told Politico
he would serve as a top strategist for Great America PAC, a pro-Trump
group that plans to raise $15 million toward putting The Donald in the
White House.
“I’m not ready to roll over and play dead and allow Hillary Clinton to be president,” Rollins said.
UPDATE: 5:05 p.m. EDT — South
Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is warning GOP voters to stay away from
Donald Trump. "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed ... and we
will deserve it," Graham said on Twitter Tuesday.
His warning comes as Trump is expected to win Indiana Tuesday night, putting him on a direct path to the GOP nomination.
UPDATE: 4:48 p.m. EDT — 21st
Century Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes have
turned Fox News into the "Donald Trump network," Ted Cruz alleged
Tuesday.
"There is a broader dynamic at work, which is
network executives have made a decision to get behind Donald Trump.
Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes at Fox News have turned Fox News into the
Donald Trump network," Cruz told reporters on Tuesday morning in
Indiana. "Rupert Murdoch is used to picking world leaders in Australia
and the United Kingdom running tabloids, and we're seeing it here at
home with the consequences for this nation. Media executives are trying
to convince Hoosiers, trying to convince Americans, the race is decided.
You have no choice. You are stuck between Donald Trump or Hillary
Clinton, either one of which is a horrific choice for this country."
UPDATE: 4:32 p.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders’ wife said Tuesday his supporters won't switch over to Donald
Trump's camp if Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee. Trump
claimed Monday he could win Sanders' backers if the Vermont
senator leaves the 2016 race.
“I tend to not agree with that,” Jane Sanders said on MSNBC when asked about Trump’s boast. "Across the board, no.”
But Jane Sanders conceded that her husband and Trump are on the same side when it comes to trade policies.
“I think there is agreement on trade,” she said. "[They share] very strong disagreement with Secretary Clinton on trade.”
UPDATE: 3:58 p.m. EDT — Indiana
voters battled some election snafus Tuesday as they headed to the
ballot box. In Hancock County, there were reports of connectivity issues
and printing problems. In Marion County, one voting location was shut
down after voting machines were locked in a room. New voting machines
were being used in half a dozen counties, including Marion, Bartholomew,
Hendricks, Howard, Montgomery and Owen, local media reported. There were also reports of long lines, with more voters turning out than in previous years.
UPDATE: 3:45 p.m. EDT — It
doesn't look like Ted Cruz will be dropping out of the 2016 race after
Indiana's results come in. With Donald Trump far ahead in the delegate
count, some GOP leaders are urging Cruz to
exit the 2016 race, and Indiana has been called Cruz's final stand. But
don't tell that to his campaign. The team is heading to Wisconsin and
Nebraska Wednesday to rally voters.
UPDATE: 3:28 p.m. EDT — Democratic
front-runner Hillary Clinton is scaring off scores of independent
voters, a demographic that could cost her a potential general election
race in November. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that
her favorability rating among independents sank by 15 percentage points
in recent months. Only 20 percent of independents viewed her positively,
according to the survey, while 62 percent viewed her negatively. The
same poll gave her a positive rating of 35 percent and a negative rating
of 54 percent in January, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Clinton has one factor going for her: Voters
also don't like Republican Donald Trump, who would likely be her rival
in November. About 19 percent of independents viewed him favorably,
while 67 percent had a negative view of him.
UPDATE: 3:05 p.m. EDT — A
Republican businesswoman said she was booted from her position as a GOP
convention delegate because she called Donald Trump a “racist,
misogynist flip-flopper.”
GOP officials say Rina Shah Bharara won’t get
to vote against Trump at the Republican National Convention as a
Washington, D.C., delegate because she lives in Virginia, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
But she told the newspaper she offered the GOP proof that she’s a D.C.
resident and isn’t being heard out because of her views.
“This is all Trump-driven. They are searching
for anything to get rid of me,” Bharara said. “I have not been
dishonest; it’s actually the D.C. party that is overstepping its
authority. ... I was elected, and I’m going to Cleveland.”
Bharara was supporting Marco Rubio before he
dropped out of the Republican primary. She has said she might vote for
Democrat Hillary Clinton instead of Trump.
She campaigned to serve as an RNC delegate
with a sign that read: “Vote for a Daughter of Immigrants — Rina Shah —
New Mother, Millennial, Entrepreneur, DC Resident of 10+ years.”
But the GOP’s executive committee said it
voted to remove her from the post after property records showed she has a
home about 20 miles outside the District in Reston, Virginia.
UPDATE: 2:48 p.m. EDT — A
high school student reportedly brought a cardboard cutout of Democrat
Bernie Sanders to prom over the weekend as her date. Chloe Raynaud, who
is heading to Oregon State University in the fall, calls herself
a “stubborn socialist.” She wore a pink dress and pinned a matching
boutonniere on Sanders, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
“I hadn't gotten asked yet and prom was
approaching quickly, so I was thinking about who would make a good prom
date,” Raynaud said in an interview with Revelist. “I really identify with Bernie's political standpoint, so I just went for it!”
She said he was a cheap date. She purchased the cutout online.
“During the slow dance I brought him out to
dance with him, and everyone started laughing,” she said. “Then my
friends made him crowd surf.”
UPDATE: 2:35 p.m. EDT — Democrat
Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump aren’t so different, former
Texas Rep. Ron Paul claimed Tuesday on CNN. “In many ways, Sanders and Trump are similar, but they’re different in the solutions,” he said. “Sanders, you know, is blaming too much freedom, too much free market, so he wants socialism.”
Trump has said he could win over
Sanders supporters unhappy with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton
in a general election, while Sanders and Clinton have both been critical
of Trump’s views on immigration and national security.
Paul said he won’t for Trump if he is the GOP nominee, but he also isn’t backing Clinton or Sanders.
“Right now, I think Sanders is
getting a lot of support, but he’s going in the absolute opposite
direction, because as far as the libertarians are concerned, it’s too
much government, too much interference, too much control of the markets,
too many special interests,” Paul said.
Paul previously called Sanders “ just a
variant of Trump ” in an interview with CNN in March. At the time, he
also compared Clinton to Trump.
“My biggest beef is that from a libertarian
viewpoint there’s no meaningful difference between Hillary and Trump,”
Paul said. “I mean, they both support the military industrial complex,
the Federal Reserve, deficits, entitlements, invasions of privacy.”
Others in recent months have compared Trump and Sanders, who are both fighting mainstream elements in their political parties.
"One is a billionaire businessman, the other a career politician who rails against billionaires," NPR wrote in February. But
Sanders and Trump actually have more in common than you might
think. First, there are are the obvious similarities. They both have
trademark hair and were raised in New York City. And then there's the
way they say 'huge.'"
UPDATE: 2:15 p.m. EDT — Hillary
Clinton clearly isn't too worried about losing to Bernie Sanders in the
race for the Democratic presidential nomination. “I’m really focused on
moving into the general election,” she told MSNBC’s Andrea
Mitchell Tuesday afternoon. Clinton didn't have plans to return to
Indiana on Tuesday night to address supporters there.
UPDATE: 1:53 p.m. EDT —
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence voted Tuesday following his endorsement of Ted
Cruz. But Pence didn't say for whom he voted after his lukewarm
endorsement of Cruz last week, when he said he was grateful for Donald
Trump for taking a stand for Hoosier jobs.
“I’m not against anybody, but I will be voting
for Ted Cruz in the Republican primary,” Pence told Indiana-based radio
host Greg Garrison last week.
Trump has said Pence is really backing his
campaign, and his endorsement of Cruz was just for show. “If you really
take a look at Mike Pence, I think he gave me more of an endorsement
than Ted Cruz,” Trump told Fox News’ Chris Wallace over the weekend.
UPDATE: 1:30 p.m. EDT — Donald
Trump said Ted Cruz doesn't have the temperament to be president after
Cruz insulted Trump's romantic relationships. Trump, who has been
blasted by some establishment Republicans for being too hot-tempered to
serve in the Oval Office, said Cruz was unhinged after Cruz called Trump
"a serial philanderer." So why was Cruz so mad at Trump in the first
place? Trump started Tuesday's barrage of insults by linking Cruz's
father to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The two men then traded
jabs in press conferences and media statements as Indiana voters headed
to the polls.
UPDATE: 12:54 p.m. EDT — A
Ted Cruz surrogate described Donald Trump on Tuesday as “Hillary
Clinton with a penis.” Former Bogota, New Jersey, Mayor Steve Lonegan,
who was appointed to Cruz’s New Jersey leadership team in December, said
in a CNN interview that conservative voters won't nominate Donald
Trump, BuzzFeed News reported.
“If Donald Trump does win tonight and pull out
half the delegates, you will see a very different Donald Trump
tomorrow. Donald Trump will look a lot more like Hillary Clinton than
Ronald Reagan," he said.
UPDATE: 12:34 p.m. EDT — The
wall proposed by Donald Trump that would run along the U.S. southern
border to prevent people from illegally crossing into the country was
instantly met by his critics with scrutiny, but some in the global
soccer community have greeted it with satire instead of scorn. Case in
point: With the Copa América set to kick off next month in California,
some media outlets covering the international soccer tournament are
spoofing Trump's presidential aspirations, SB Nation reported.
One Argentine TV station made a fake
advertisement for the event, featuring Trump, of course, and the
following motto: "The truth is, the best they can do is not let us in."
That ad followed one last year from Mexican TV.
While his proposed wall may seem far-fetched
to some, Trump's popularity has surged since he first made the promise
last summer. The billionaire front-runner candidate is enjoying his
highest rate of approval among Republicans, with 56 percent support,
according to a poll released Tuesday.
UPDATE: 12:14 p.m. EDT — The
GOP primary has had ugly moments before, like that time Donald Trump
defended his penis in a debate after Marco Rubio talked about his hand
size. But Tuesday's exchange of insults got even uglier,
with accusations involving John F. Kennedy's death and venereal
diseases.
Trump went first, saying Ted Cruz's father was
somehow involved with JFK's death. Cruz responded by telling a group of
reporters Tuesday morning from Evansville, Indiana, that Trump wasn't
very respectable.
"Donald Trump is a serial philanderer, and he
boasts about it. I want everyone to think about your teenaged kids. The
president of the United States talks about how great it is to commit
adultery, how proud he is. [He] describes his battle with venereal
disease as his own personal Vietnam. That’s a quote, by the way, on the
Howard Stern show. Do you want to spend the next five years with your
kids bragging about infidelity? Now what does he do? He does the same
projection, just like a pathological liar. He accuses everyone about
lying," Cruz said.
UPDATE: 11:48 a.m. EDT — Bernie
Sanders is urging supporters in California and Indiana to keep his
campaign going. Sanders needs to win 66 percent of the remaining pledged
delegates to get on the general election ballot.
UPDATE: 11:19 a.m. EDT — Leslie
Knope would need to nap for a month if she were elected president, Amy
Poehler tells Hillary Clinton of her former "Parks and Recreation"
character in an ad released by the Clinton campaign Tuesday as Indiana
voters headed to the polls. The ad's message is subtle: Hillary wouldn't
need a nap.
In the spot, the Democratic front-runner asks
Poehler how Knope, the fictional mayor of Pawnee, Indiana, would fare as
president. "Oh, my God, she would run out of gas really fast," Poehler,
44, tells Clinton. Watch the ad here.
Poehler, who portrayed Clinton in sketches on
"Saturday Night Live" several years ago, is backing the former secretary
of state.
UPDATE: 11:04 a.m. EDT — Hillary
Clinton and Bernie Sanders won't be greeting voters Tuesday in Indiana.
Clinton is campaigning in Ohio, a crucial state in the November general
election, while Sanders is stopping in Kentucky, which will hold a
primary this month.
“I am not into legacy,” Sanders told the
Guardian Sunday when asked to sum up his campaign's lasting
achievements. “I hope my legacy will be that I was a very good president
of the United States.”
UPDATE: 10:42 a.m. EDT — Republican
front-runner Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz's father Tuesday of
helping Lee Harvey Oswald before he assassinated President John F.
Kennedy in 1963.
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior
to Oswald's being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is
ridiculous,” Trump said during a phone interview with Fox News as voters
in Indiana took to the polls. “What is this, right prior to his being
shot, and nobody even brings it up? They don't even talk about that.
That was reported, and nobody talks about it.” The reality TV star
continued: “I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee
Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting?”
Trump was referring to a story published by the National Enquirer,
which has endorsed Trump and released critical articles about his
rivals, including one that claimed Cruz cheated on his wife and another
that claimed Hillary Clinton is an alcoholic.
The Cruz campaign called the JFK
story “garbage." The Miami Herald also dismissed the allegations after
looking into the tabloid story. “The explosive suggestion that Cruz’s
father would have had any affiliation with Oswald is not corroborated in
any other way," it determined.
UPDATE: 10:26 a.m. EDT — Carly
Fiorina for vice president? Republican voters aren't feeling it.
Roughly 60 percent of GOP voters said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's decision
last week to add the former Hewlett-Packard CEO to the ticket had “no
impact” on their vote, according to a survey of Republican voters
from Morning Consult. Another 22 percent said they were less likely to
vote for Cruz because he named a running mate before winning the
Republican nomination, the Guardian reported. More
than a third of Republicans said they had never heard of Fiorina or
had no opinion, positive or negative, of her. She dropped out of the
presidential race this year after finishing near the bottom in several
contests.
UPDATE: 10:02 a.m. EDT — Texas
Sen. Ted Cruz had one final message to Indiana voters this week ahead
of the Tuesday primary: Donald Trump is a liar. Cruz's campaign unveiled
an ad in Indiana Monday that sought to attack Trump for calling Cruz a liar by turning around the insult.
"Donald Trump is lying about Ted Cruz," a
narrator says in the 30-second spot, titled "Lying," which focuses on
Trump's vow to fight illegal immigration despite using foreign workers
in his hotels.
"Trump also had a $1 million judgment against
him for hiring illegals," the spot states. "And Trump still brings in
hundreds of foreign workers to replace Americans," it continues,
flashing a darkened image of Trump. "What a phony."
UPDATE: 9:45 a.m. EDT — Some
Bernie Sanders supporters in Indiana aren't eager to back Hillary
Clinton if she becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.
Heath Hensley, a union electrician who lives
in Muncie said he was excited to vote for someone as progressive as
Sanders for president. "I’ve just been nuts about him," Hensley told NBC News.
The mainstream Democratic Party has left
behind working-class people in favor of college-educated professionals,
he said. "I don’t want to see Trump get the nomination, but at the same
time I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in 2008 because I didn’t like
her, and I didn’t trust her then, and I do not plan on voting for her
now," Hensley said.
Kelly Jay, a musician from South Bend,
Indiana, said the Clinton campaign has alienated Sanders supporters. "I
think they’re confident that they can win the general election without
the progressive faction of the party," he told NBC News.
About 25 percent of Sanders backers nationally have said they won't vote for Clinton in November, while 69 percent said they would vote for the former secretary of state.
UPDATE: 9:20 a.m. EDT — Despite
the growing chorus of Republican leaders and pundits urging Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz to drop out of the race if he doesn't win Indiana on Tuesday
night, Cruz says he is looking ahead to California and other upcoming
contests.
David Wasserman of FiveThirtyEight.com
deemed the Indiana primary "a desperate last stand for Ted Cruz and the
#NeverTrump movement."
"A Cruz loss in Indiana means lights out," longtime Republican strategist Scott Reed told Politico. "Game, set, match."
But Cruz insisted
over the weekend that it's going to come down to California's primary
on June 7. "We are all-in," he said. "We are going to be competing for
all 172 delegates in California and in all 53 congressional districts.
It's going to be a battle on the ground, district by district
by district."
Cruz said "no one is getting to 1,237." That's how many delegates are needed for a candidate to win the presidential nomination.
UPDATE: 9:05 a.m. EDT — Indiana voters are also weighing in Tuesday
on a handful of important local races. The 2nd District congressional
race between incumbent Jackie Walorski and Jeff Petermann on the
Republican side and Lynn Coleman and Douglas Carpenter on the Democratic
side could shape the future of the U.S. House, while the Senate primary
race between U.S. Reps. Marlin Stutzman and Todd Young will see the
winner battle U.S. Rep. Baron Hill, a Democrat who is unopposed, in
November. They are competing to succeed retiring Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind.
UPDATE: 8:48 a.m. EDT — Surrogates
for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, including his vice presidential running mate,
Carly Fiorina, and his wife, Heidi, met with voters in Indiana Tuesday
morning to encourage them to vote for the Republican presidential
candidate.
UPDATE: 8:09 a.m. EDT — “A few technical issues” were reported in at least one county when voting began at 6 a.m. in Indiana, an election worker told IndyStar, but all polls were operational shortly thereafter. Social media reports indicated
a heavy voter turnout as many officials had expected ahead of Tuesday’s
primary. Ballots cast ahead of the election hit record highs, with more
than 270,000 voters, local media reported.
Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, has
maintained a lead in polls in the state for months. There are 57
delegates at stake in the state for Republicans. Polls show former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a slight lead over Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders in the state, where 83 delegates are at stake.
UPDATE: 7:34 a.m. EDT —
Donald Trump continues to surpass expectations, achieving milestone
after milestone in his presidential campaign. Tuesday was no
different as the GOP front-runner reached a new polling high
among Republicans, securing 56 percent support of party members,
Politico reported. Just last week Trump's support among Republicans sat
at 50 percent.
The new poll's findings underscore Trump's
surging popularity as he gets closer to clinching the Republican
presidential nomination. His closest rival candidate, Texas Sen. Ted
Cruz, only registered 22 percent support, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich
placed a distant third with 14 percent.
Along with the new poll came more damning news
for Kasich's campaign: 58 percent of Republicans want to see him
suspend his campaign. Even further, polling shows voters are not happy
with the campaigns of Kasich and Cruz teaming up in order to prevent
Trump from reaching the number of delegates needed for the nomination.
Original story:
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump was
poised to win the Republican presidential primary election in Indiana on
Tuesday, putting him closer to the GOP nomination amid increasingly
frantic efforts by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and party leaders to keep
the Donald off the general election ballot in November.
Trump has led opinion polls in Indiana for
months, with the state now being seen as Cruz’s last hope in stopping
him from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to win on the first ballot
at the Republican National Convention in July. There are 57 delegates
at stake in Indiana’s winner-take-all GOP contest.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence threw his backing
behind Cruz last week, but such endorsements have done little to sway
voters in recent primaries, and it’s unclear how well Cruz will perform
in the balloting. Pence also slipped in a few nice words about Trump
while announcing his endorsement, a move that may have confused
undecided voters.
“I like and respect all three of the
candidates in the field. I particularly want to commend Trump,” Pence
said at the time, when he noted Trump’s “strong stand for Hoosier
jobs.” The governor added, “I’m grateful for his voice in the national
debate.”
GOP strategist Russ Schriefer, an adviser of
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign before the candidate dropped
out of the presidential race, said Cruz has sought to persuade
Republican leaders and voters that Trump is not the presumptive nominee.
Last week, Cruz named Carly Fiorina as his running mate, an unusual
move in a competitive primary season and a likely sign that Cruz is
attempting to deflate Trump’s overwhelming support in California before
the primary in that state June 7.
“Cruz is playing the hand that he has been
dealt as well as he can play it,” Schriefer told the Chicago Tribune.
“Whether it’s real or not, optically it’s smart,” he said.
While Christie ultimately supported Trump
after he exited the 2016 campaign, many GOP leaders, including 2012
presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have urged voters to see Trump as an
ethically challenged chameleon who would cost the party the election in
November. A host of conservative groups spent almost $67 million to run
more than 53,000 attack ads against Trump in recent months, to no avail.
In Indiana’s Democratic primary
election, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, like Cruz, may be waging a
losing battle against the party’s front-runner, former U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton. Sanders has said he can pull off a win Tuesday
in the event voter turnout is high. Railing against efforts to move
jobs from Indianapolis to Mexico, he has claimed a victory in the state
would send a message that his fight against corporate “greed” is
resonating with Democratic voters.
“I think symbolically here you have a Midwest
manufacturing state that has prepared to stand up and fight for a
political revolution,” Sanders told IndyStar last week.
Polls show Clinton with a thin lead over
Sanders in Indiana, and the race likely will be close Tuesday. But even a
win for Sanders wouldn’t change the tough road ahead for his
campaign. Clinton has won in most states so far and has built a
commanding lead in delegates and superdelegates. She is expected to
secure the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention
in July.
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