You may have noticed that the week leading up to Super Tuesday, both Rubio and Cruz went on the attack in an effort to bring down Trump. Fortunately for both candidates, Trump has a lot of skeletons in his closet, but they are too late. Trump has his supporters and prying them from his talons will be a difficult process. The Donald didn’t receive nearly any criticism for a long time from other candidates because they didn’t want to isolate Trump’s supporters when he “inevitably implodes”. Unfortunately for America, they might be too little-too late. I think there’s hope, but it requires something drastic.
Trump’s Super Tuesday performance was good, but not as good as his camp was hoping for. I spent some time talking about the long game in Republican politics, it is more true now than it was when I dropped the article. Trump’s team is assured a win if the GOP nominees don’t team up and bring him down.
Over the next few days, many more states will be decided, but the real prizes will be Ohio and Florida on March 15th (check out this 2016 primary schedule for reference).
Again, don’t always trust polling data, especially because throughout Super Tuesday, Ted Cruz has performed much better than polls suggested he would- especially in Texas.
In Ohio, Trump leads with 31%, Kasich is at 26%, Cruz at 21%, and Rubio is at 13% (I won’t mention Carson’s numbers because he has dropped out).
In Florida, Trump leads with 40%, Rubio is at 20%, Cruz at 15%, and Kasich is floundering with 5%.
Here is a run down of what will be required of each candidate if we want to prevent a Donald Trump presidency:
- Dr. Ben Carson – Moments before publishing this article, I received word that Carson dropped out of the race. I am very happy. I have supported him as a presidential candidate since the prayer breakfast, but after Iowa, I knew Carson could not go all the way. He needs to rally his support behind Cruz, who shares his values.
- John Kasich – I think Kasich is staying in to win Ohio, a major swing state, and then is going to vie for VP. He needs to stop being manipulative and selfish and just drop out- he could very well be the reason Trump wins the nomination.
- Marco Rubio – He does not have a path to victory. He has won 1 state since the primaries began and he isn’t even projected to win Florida (see above). He also doesn’t have a job because he isn’t running for reelection in the Senate. Drop out and throw your support behind Ted Cruz.
- Ted Cruz – The only candidate in a position to beat Trump and win the General Election in November, Cruz is only 90 delegates behind Trump and that gap will close further once counting is completed. Cruz needs to get the remaining nominees to rally behind him. Ask Rubio to drop and join his ticket as his Vice President, and call for Carson’s endorsement.
If this happens, we can safely combine Cruz, Rubio’s and Carson’s support, which will lead to Cruz winning Ohio with 34%+ support, and be in a position to catch up to Trump in Florida with 35%.
Here is what Donald Trump needs to do in order to prevent him from losing this primary:
- Donald Trump – Keep everyone divided.
This race is going to require everyone to vote. If you are not registered (and its not too late), get out and register to vote! We need to be part of keeping Trump out of the White House. I just hope that this group of nominees collapse and throw their support behind Cruz.
the Readable Republican 