Ted Cruz and John Kasich join forces to stop Donald Trump

In an announcement made on Sunday night, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio agreed to coordinate a last-ditch effort to deny Donald J. Trump the Republican presidential nomination. Jeff Rowe, Ted Cruz’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the Cruz campaign would quote “focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Governor Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico.”

Kasich’s press release

Mere minutes after Mr. Roe’s statement, a spokesman from the Kasich campaign released a similar message. The Ohio governor’s chief strategist, John Weaver, said that his campaign “would shift its resources the to states in the West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana.”

According to the agreement between the two camps, Kasich will not campaign in Indiana and Cruz won’t run in Oregon and New Mexico. The rationale is that they will not split the anti-Trump vote in these crucial states, thereby increasing the odds that one of them will win, denying Donald Trump the delegates he needs to be the nominee before the Republican convention.

The magic number for the nomination is 1,237 delegates, and right now, all of the polls are consistently saying that Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination — without a strongly contested primary in one of these key states. According to the polls, Trump currently leads by a comfortable margin in both Indiana and California, which would, according to the projected numbers secure him the nomination victory.

The whole Republican contest could very well come down to Indiana. This is because the state has 57 pledged delegates, and it awards those delegates on a winner-take-all basis. As a result, the difference between a narrow win and a loss is huge for the Trump campaign. If he wins statewide — even by a single point — it will be fairly easy for him to reach 1,237 delegates that he needs to secure the nomination.

The alliance by Kasich and Cruz was already falling apart the day after it was announced. Kasich announced that he “still wants the people of Indiana to vote for him,” as Donald Trump quickly responded on Twitter saying — “typical politician that- cant make a deal work.”
The magic number is 1,237 delegates, and right now, all of the polls are consistently saying that Donald Trump will win the republican nomination, that is of-course without a strongly contested primary in one of these key states.

According to the Polls Trump currently leads by a comfortable margin in both Indiana and California, which would, according to the projected numbers secure him the nomination victory. The whole Republican contest could very well come down to Indiana. This is because the state has 57 pledged delegates, and it awards those delegates on a winner-take-all basis. As a result, the difference between a narrow win and a loss is huge for the Trump campaign. If he wins statewide — even by a single point — it will be fairly easy for him to reach 1,237 delegates that he needs to secure the nomination.

In the most recent polls Mr. Trump is currently leading in Indiana with around 40 percent of the vote. “That’s a number low enough for him to be vulnerable” according to the NewYork Times.

With Trump expected to do well in at-least five other northeast primaries on Tuesday, the move left some Republican operatives asking why something like this wasn’t agreed to sooner. “What took them so long?” asked Jim Merrill, a Republican strategist who advised Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, who posted on Twitter just after the announcements.

Cruz has in the past rebuffed calls from Republican leaders — including members of the Kasich campaign and Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee — to divvy up states in an effort to complicate Trump’s path.

However could this all prove to be too little too late, the next day the temporary alliance between Senator Ted Cruz and Governor John Kasich was already in danger falling apart. On Monday, only hours after it was announced to great fanfare, Kasich announced that he “still wants the people of Indiana to vote for him,” Donald quickly respond on Twitter calling him a “typical politician that- cant make a deal work.”

Kasich just announced that he wants the people of Indiana to vote for him. Typical politician – can't make a deal work.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016

Trump appears unfazed by the alliance formed against him. He typical Trump fashion he responded to the announcement on Twitter late Sunday, branding Cruz and Kasich “mathematically dead and totally desperate.” Early Monday, Trump’s campaign released a complete statement that suggested such actions could be considered illegal in a corporate business setting, on Trump’s website saying, “Collusion is often illegal in many other industries and yet these two Washington insiders have had to revert to collusion in order to stay alive,” the statement continued “They are mathematically dead and this act only shows, as puppets of donors and special interests, how truly weak they and their campaigns are.”

Lyin' Ted and Kasich are mathematically dead and totally desperate. Their donors & special interest groups are not happy with them. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016

In the past Trump, has argued repeatedly that the republican leadership have been conspiring to stop him, all as part of what he calls a “rigged election system.” This new anti-Trump alliance against him could provide further evidence for his argument, and actually help to embolden his grass-roots supporters. Today Mr. Trump taunted his opponents approach to undermining his campaign, and seemed to revel in the continuing strain between his two remaining political rivals. On Twitter, he jovially mocked “Lyin’ Ted Cruz” and “1 for 38 Kasich” the latter referring to Kashich’s dismal winning record thus far in the republican race. Essentially bosting in an attempting to ridicule them for being unable to beat him on their own accord.

Lyin' Ted Cruz and 1 for 38 Kasich are unable to beat me on their own so they have to team up (collusion) in a two on one. Shows weakness!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016

Many voters saw the Cruz-Kasich plan as the typical backroom politicians trying to subvert the will of the people. Ted Cruz’s facebook page was flooded with comments like those below —

There are a number of “Stop the Steal” websites online and protests being organized in advance of the July G.O.P. nominating convention. As Ted Cruz said when he still had a chance of winning, a “brokered convention would cause a ‘manifest revolt’ across this country”