Unconventional #6: How Cruz and Kasich’s new plot to stop Trump could backfire (and more!)

Sen. Ted Cruz shakes hands with Gov. John Kasich at a CNN debate in Coral Gables, Fla., in March. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Unconventional is Yahoo News’ complete guide to what could be the craziest presidential convention — or conventions — in decades. Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Cruz and Kasich coordinate to keep Trump from hitting 1,237 before Cleveland

The first time John Weaver, the chief strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, approached Jeff Roe, his counterpart for the Ted Cruz campaign, about divvying up the remaining primary states in an effort to stop Donald Trump from clinching the Republican nomination before the convention, Roe wasn’t interested. It was right after the March 10 GOP debate in Miami, and Roe couldn’t stand the thought of ceding a bunch of high-profile contests in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to a candidate with far fewer delegates than Cruz.

Now Roe seems to have changed his mind.

Late Sunday night, Roe released a statement saying that going forward, the Cruz campaign would “focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico.”

Minutes later, Weaver confirmed the new arrangement with a statement of his own: Kasich, he wrote, had agreed to “give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana.”

Just when you thought the 2016 Republican primary couldn’t get any weirder.

For Kasich, the new cease-fire with Cruz represents an opportunity to augment his meager delegate tally before Cleveland — perhaps by enough to pass Marco Rubio, who still leads the Ohio governor by 24 delegates even though he suspended his campaign on March 15. Together, New Mexico and Oregon award 52 delegates (albeit proportionally).

For Cruz, the détente will give him a clear shot at winning Indiana, one of the two remaining tossups on the calendar. (The other is California.) After a big loss in New York — and likely losses Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland — Cruz will need a victory to slow Trump’s momentum. Indiana is his best chance. Trump leads in the latest polls by an average of 6.3 percentage points, but Cruz has several structural advantages in the Hoosier State. If some of Kasich’s support — which is concentrated in the Indianapolis suburbs and currently stands at nearly 20 percent, on average — transfers over to Cruz, the Texan could come out on top.


By Andrew Romano.
Culled from Yahoo News.