Jim Geraghty:
Right now, as a #NeverTrump guy, I’m rooting hard for Ted Cruz. We haven’t seen any polls conducted after Rubio’s departure from the race – either in key upcoming states or nationally – so we don’t have a good sense of whether anti-Trump Republicans are coalescing around him.
Tuesday Arizona holds its primary and Utah holds its caucus. At first glance, those are natural Cruz states, right?
[Cue ominous music.]
Notice that we’ve had two polls of Arizona Republicans – you know, not too far from Texas* – and Trump’s well ahead of Cruz in both. The two polls were conducted before Rubio dropped out, so maybe Rubio’s 10 to 12 percent will shift to Cruz and help the Texas senator make up the deficit of… 12-14 points. Uh-oh.
The last Utah poll was in mid-February, and had Rubio 24, Cruz 22, Trump 18. Caucuses usually have low turnout, but the Utah one may turn out quite different:
For its presidential preference caucus next week, the Beehive State’s Republican Party will allow any Utahn outside or inside the state to vote online. This will be the first time any political party has allowed online voting for a presidential primary election in the nation.
“We’re stepping out on the national stage in a way we never have before,” Bryan J. Smith, the executive director of the Utah Republican Party, said during a recent Utah caucus preparatory meeting. “This time it matters in more ways than you think.”
The Utah Republican Party said its new method of voting will mainly help families, workers, missionaries and military workers throughout the world, who can’t be in town for voting. It also may help Utah mothers, who find themselves swamped with child care and work.
A week from now, if Trump wins Arizona and Cruz wins Utah… do people begin to doubt whether Cruz can win a one-on-one race against Trump? Or do anti-Trump Republicans begin to really turn their ire against John Kasich for sticking around?
Politico reports, “Marco Rubio is close to endorsing Ted Cruz, but the two proud senators — and recent fierce rivals — have some details to work out first. Cruz has to ask for the Rubio’s endorsement, and both sides need to decide that it will make a difference, according to sources familiar with the thinking of both senators.”
If you’re Cruz, why wouldn’t you ask?
Meanwhile, one more ominous note for the #NeverTrump forces. According to the Associated Press count, Trump has 678 delegates, and needs 1,237. He’s 559 delegates away from winning the nomination, and 1,059 remain. Can Trump win 53 percent of the remaining delegates?
I don’t know about the rest of Utah, but in Utah county they forgot to get those papers out to the voters so we could vote online rather than go in person to the caucuses.
So, Tuesday night that’s where I’ll be.
Now that Rubio dropped out we’ve waited for the official Mormon order on who they are planning on voting for.
It is Kasich.
The old ex-gov endorsed Kasich and the older men at the ”stakes” (churches) as well as at the main temple in SLC.
NEWSFLASH:
Romney, who went campaigning for Kasich just came out for Cruz!
So, about 1/2 of the population is Mormon.
They aren’t big on coming out to vote.
The other 1/2 include nearly all the Dems, all the gays, a lot of the minorities. Then there’s us and out type: Republicans but not Mormon.
So, we’ll see.
This coming Tuesday will be very telling. Cruz has a higher hill to climb than Trump but still possible. If a neither reach the magic number its contested or brokered. I just wish for both candidates to be treated fairly no rule changes mid game.
It has been found that both his parents were registered Canadian voters at the time of his birth. Only Canadian citizens are allowed to vote. During that time period one had to renounce their citizenship as Canada did not recognize dual citizenship. So therefore there is a very large chance that his mother was a Canadian citizen. This begs the questions when did ted cruz become a US citizen and is he a US Citizen? Until May 2014 he was a Canadian citizen when he renounced his Canadian citizenship. This is not going away. This man knows he is screwing over the American people because as he stated in college he is after world dominance. I am on my ipad or else I would provide documentation. Too much to hunt and peck.
I am sick and tired of the establishment. They truly believe they are royalty and deserve their perks, power and wealth. As they said in Alice in Wonderland – off with their heads.
@Enchanted: #3
I hope that Cruz is eligible. Just as I have read every book that Trump has written and followed most of his speeches, I have watched almost every speech that Cruz has given, including those in the Senate. I believe that either of the two front runners would make good Presidents, much better than Ma Barker or The Berning Man.