The messy fight for the Republican presidential nomination is shifting to a luxury seaside resort in south Florida as Donald Trump and chief rival Ted Cruz quietly court party leaders ahead of another set of high-stakes delegate contests.
Cruz conceded publicly for the first time that he doesn’t have enough support to claim the nomination before the party’s summertime national convention, but he also vowed Wednesday to block Trump from collecting the necessary delegates as well. The Texas conservative predicted a contested convention that many party loyalists fear could trigger an all-out Republican civil war.
“What’s clear today is that we are headed to a contested convention,” Cruz told reporters in between private meetings with Republican National Committee members gathered at the Diplomat Resort & Spa for the first day of their three-day annual spring meeting.
Campaigning in Indiana, Trump railed against his party’s leadership, even as his senior lieutenants courted GOP officials behind closed doors in Florida.
“It’s a rigged, crooked system that’s designed so that the bosses can pick whoever they want and that people like me can’t run and can’t defend you against foreign nonsense,” Trump charged at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
Roughly at the same time, Trump’s newly hired political director, Rick Wiley, was hosting a series of private meetings at the Florida resort with party officials from states set to vote in the coming weeks. The veteran political operative, who previously worked for the RNC, is tasked with helping Trump play catch-up in the complicated state-by-state nomination process.
Trump’s top aides were set to deliver a private briefing to RNC members Thursday afternoon outlining his path to victory.
Both Trump and the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, were pushing ahead toward Northeast primaries on an increasingly direct path to party nominations after trouncing their challengers Tuesday in New York.
Clinton, now 81 percent of the way toward clinching the Democratic nomination that eluded her eight years ago, can lose every remaining contest and still prevail. Advisers to rival Bernie Sanders offered no signs of the Vermont senator giving up before the Democrats’ Philadelphia convention.
Trump is increasingly optimistic about his chances in five states set to vote on Tuesday: Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. He is now the only Republican candidate who can possibly collect the 1,237 delegate majority needed to claim the nomination before the party’s July convention. Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have been mathematically eliminated, yet both contend they can win the nomination at the convention.
Despite getting shut out of the delegate race in New York, Cruz is aggressively courting delegates across the nation who could hold great sway at the convention.
Kasich and Cruz set their sights on Pennsylvania and Indiana respectively, looking to capitalize on any remaining delegates up for grabs, even as polls show Trump dominating in some of the biggest remaining races. Trump, meanwhile, joined his wife and adult children on NBC’s “Today” Thursday for a town hall that discussed family and politics.
Trump weighed in on the decision to put Harriet Tubman on the face of the $20, replacing Andrew Jackson, a move he described as “pure political correctness.” He said Tubman is “fantastic,” but Jackson has “been on the bill for many, many years” and “really represented somebody that really was very important to this country.”
Trump also said transgender people should be able to use whichever bathroom they choose, responding to North Carolina’s so-called “bathroom law” which directs transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the gender on their birth certificates.
“There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble,” he said.
The side-by-side GOP efforts at this late stage — with Trump amassing primary victories while Cruz digs for the support of delegates who could settle the nomination — are unprecedented in recent presidential campaigns and add to the deeply uncertain nature of the race.
While the primary campaign is a focus of the RNC meeting, party leaders are painfully aware that any changes in the nomination process could fuel Trump’s charges of an unfair system. Party chairman Reince Priebus has discouraged any rule changes this week.
Priebus believes the convention rules should be left to the separate rules committee elected at the convention, made up of delegates being elected to seats across the country, said RNC senior strategist Sean Spicer.
“The chairman’s view is that the rules of the convention should be set by the delegates, by the grassroots Republican voters,” Spicer said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Cruz was not my first choice in the rather large field of GOP hopefuls. He has a number of shortcomings but he is the best of what is still possible. Trump is bombastic and crude but he has excited the electorate and taken politicians out of their comfort zones. It was a hope that Trump would cause the politicians to stop and take a loser look at their own positions on the important issues. It is not of a great concern to most that the GOP elites will not be able to control a President Trump. But it is of some concern that he is unpredictable and unreliable. We can not be sure what he would actually do as President. In this regard Cruz would be the better choice as the GOP candidate. However, if Trump is the nominee we should all support him. To refuse to vote at all or even worse to vote for the Socialist Democrat would be foolish. We may not fully know what to expect from Donald Trump but we do know what to expect from either Hillary or Bernie and it is not good. We as a nation can not afford four years of either of ten and their continued socialist agenda. Hillary has already demonstrated her ineptitude as Secretary of State. It is up to Congress to reassert the authority granted to it by Article I, section 8 of the Constitution. And to restrict the Executive Branch to those powers specifically granted to it by the Constitution. It is past time for Congress to stand up and do the job it was elected to do.
ten was a typo. it should have been them.
I think you meant to say “closer look”, or maybe not.
Most people see right through this low life bum Cruz. All the lies , cheating and backdoor deals and now counting on the convention. When they get there he’s in for another shock. He’ll lose there to. No matter what you think of Trump he is winning because the people vote for him and not backroom, back stabbing deals. People wake up and get behind a winner and not a loser.
I totally agree. Who is still voting for someone like Kasich who has no chance and now Cruz has been eliminated. Cruz said Kasich should get it, now he is in the same position. He should bail, but he won’t. It’s all about ego with these guys. I can’t stand Cruz and Kasich.
I SECOND all that both of you have said….All of the LIES that Cruz has told…All of his UNDERHANDED TACTICS etc…SHOW that he is just another SCUMBAG POLITICIAN…Who is ONLY Concerned about what Benefits HIM….
Meanwhile, John Kaisik prounouces himself to be the only ‘TRUE’ Republican, make that RHINO in the race. Has he looked at his numbers?????
I guess he doesn’t understand that HE is part of the problem in the G.O.P. (party politics come first~~constituents be damned)
And yet THEY can’t understand why THEIR party is in the crapper!!!!
If both Cruz and Kasich are trying to STEAL the nomination OUT OF OFFICE by staying in the race without possibility of sufficient delegates, what in the world makes folks believe that they wouldn’t commit THEFT IN OFFICE if they were there?
And don’t nitpick, you all know what I’m talking about!
I totally agree. They both make me sick!!
I am an Indiana absentee voter who has already cast my vote for DONALD TRUMP and as one of millions of WE THE PEOPLE WE shall see this through. WE THE PEOPLE might see the ” GOP” STEAL the nomination from DONALD TRUMP but WE THE PEOPLE will not cow down to anybody, most especially the elite, career politician or the establishment. WE THE PEOPLE will be behind DONALD TRUMP until HE becomes President… GO DONALD TRUMP GO…
These guys are such hypocrites – Cruz and Kasich. Kasich says he won’t go ‘negative’ like Trump, but what is his campaign all about – stopping the frontrunner and trying to suppress the people’s will. Cruz is the same way. He said Kasich should get out when he was mathematically eliminated and now he has been, but won’t leave the race. He’s an ass.
Why people even consider Cruz is they are like a lot of Americans, they have no idea what a Mason or a Mormon believe. They assume they are ok, like a CFR member, “Mrs Cruze” People you better wake up cause if you make another mistake like the last two its all over. Cruze is a Mason,not a Christian. Mrs Cruze is about the same. Democrats are not much better, both are Communists and both will send us into a Eternal nose dive. Mormons believe Jesus and Satan are brothers. Masons believe Satan is the real God. What do I know? I was a Mason before I became a Christian.
Exactly….
Many people that are Mason…or the Womens side…the Eastern Star….As my mother was many years ago…Do not really understand what the Masons are really about….As someone who has studied the Bible and Biblical History…Masons are not Christians….Neither are Mormons…Jehovah Witnesses…and many more such like them….They are Cults…Christians are only those who believe in Jesus or the Bible…
Since Ted Cruz is all but Mathematically ELIMINATED….They only way he can win is by STEALING THE NOMINATION….What he us trying to do by BLOCKING Donald Trump from getting the needed 1237 Delegates….SHOWS THAT HE IS ONLY CONCERNED about TED CRUZ….and like most of the Establishment Politicians….DOES NOT GIVE A DAM ABOUT THE COUNTRY OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE…
I have no problem with Sen. Cruz devising a strategy to win a brokered convention. My problem with the senator continues to be a question of his eligibility. Through much of the Obama administration the “birthers” questioned his eligibility to serve based on the fact that he might not have been born in Hawaii as claimed. With Sen. Cruz there is no question about his birth location.
The rules should apply equally. If location of birth was relevant for President Obama it should be relevant for Ted Cruz.
What has Mr. Cruz done to receive such venomous hatred from so many people? A real Conservative Christian. A man who keeps his word/promises. A man who isn’t scared of embracing his faith and openly sharing it. This is the problem. He is a lightning rod for those attacking everything Christian. Forces in our country/world are in an all-out assault on Christian values/beliefs. All of you people swallowing the lies about Mr. Cruz will live to regret your gullibility.