Rubio Encourages Supporters to Vote for John Kasich in Ohio
Everyone working together to stop Trump?
Officials from Marco Rubio’s campaign are encouraging Ohio-based supporters to vote for John Kasich in the upcoming primary. Why? Strategic voting — as it’s termed. Rubio is unlikely to cary Ohio, but encouraging supporters to toss their votes behind Kasich might help keep Ohio out of Trump’s win column.
BREAKING: @marcorubio communications director @AlexConant tells us Rubio supporters in Ohio should vote for @JohnKasich.@ThisHour
— John Berman (@JohnBerman) March 11, 2016
Kasich, however, is not interested in a Rubio bump:
Kasich spox Rob Nichols on Rubio news: "We were going to win in OH without his help, just as he's going to lose in FL w/o ours"
— Kathleen Ronayne (@kronayne) March 11, 2016
From the "no good deed goes unpunished" files https://t.co/SBymxm4VHY
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) March 11, 2016
But is it tough talk, strategy, both? Likely both.
Cruz’s campaign claimed they were opening ten field offices in Florida to take out Rubio, but that was nothing more than psychological warfare, apparently. It would appear the “everyone stop Trump” train has more cars than Cruz.
How it goes down: Cruz backs off in Florida, ceding it to Rubio, Rubio backs off Kasich, giving him his home state, and Trump is deprived a large stash of delegates.
Erick Erickson detailed what looks to be a broad deal:
Cruz’s campaign, after a lot of bluster about going all in in Florida admits it was all a head fake. They had one event scheduled for today with Sean Hannity in Orlando that was previously scheduled and will be nationally focused, not Florida focused. Then Cruz is bailing on Florida. For the Rubio folks complaining, I’m told the campaign did try to make adjustments, but couldn’t for reasons not in the campaign’s control.
Cruz’s campaign takes down its Florida ads. The Cruz Super PACs follow suit allegedly — at least some of them have signaled they too are getting out.
Marco Rubio revs up his Florida presence and is nowhere to be found in Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina.
The Cruz campaign redirects all its resources to those three states, with Cruz rallies, ad buys, GOTV etc.
Now Rubio’s spokesman goes on national television and says Rubio supporters should vote for John Kasich in Ohio.
Kasich is going all in in Ohio and ceding Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina to Cruz. In fact, Kasich suddenly has no events in Illinois, and only one event in Pennsylvania after the Ohio primary.
In other words, Kasich is now only campaigning in Ohio; Rubio is only campaigning in Florida; and Cruz is avoiding events in Florida and Ohio.
Increasingly, it looks like the remaining candidates are willing to go to the convention without a nominee. Which is fine by me. Bring on the battle royal.
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Comments
I am trying to understand this strategy. If a Party Regular is chosen from a deadlocked open convention it would be Romney. If the convention is not deadlocked it will be either Trump or Cruz. So what does Rubio gain?
I think Rubio’s strategy is to sytart winning states after Florida, judging he is more popular than Cruz. He has a problem in staying on the ballot in Pennsylvania, where he is being challenged. One state Rubio probably is ccounting is winner take all California.
He’s also counting on Trump not endorsing Cruz. Or maybe people figuring that would create a danger of losing the election, so people lookinmg for somebody else..
A deadlocked convention wouldn’t turn to Romney.
Just curious. Who do you see a deadlocked convention turning to?
Why would Trump endorse Cruz, rather than the reverse?
What a destructive little snake Rubio is. He allows himself to do what his donors and PAC people tell him to do.
Kasich is a nice person with a lot of problems, e.g. squishy on illegal immigration, and supporter of TPP. Among others.
More on this issue, see the presser in which Carson endorses Trump. Richt after 45:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjeM6jnX32M
Huh? How is Rubio a destructive little snake? No… but the Trump campaign has BIG problems with manager Corey who apparently was arrested for an incident prior to this
Don’t hope to make too much of this. The other campaigns have plenty of issues with their people on occasion. Politics.
—
Trump rally is the longest line in St. Louis I’ve ever seen (Trymaine Lee):
https://twitter.com/trymainelee/status/708335163629899776?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
And here is a big problem with this “plan”: TRUMP. If he wins Florida and Ohio, and does so very convincingly, then this little plan that the remaining candidates have is useless.
There is another story about that Cruz folks are telling their people to vote for Rubio in Florida.
This story is absolutely false.This is a total fabrication and a treacherous one at that, partially originating from a CNN story about Ted’s super pac backing off of more ad buys to attack Marco. They reason Rubio is already not going to win FL and their money can be better spent elsewhere. This part is true. But it is NOT Ted’s campaign. I was with them yesterday in Miami and day before.
The other source, and this is the egregious lie, comes from Eric Erickson at Resurgent. He started floating a “rumor” last night that Ted & Marco are planning to become a “team”.
EE has been pushing for unity ticket for some time. He continues this morning with 3 more articles at resurgent , floating a false meme, without citation of source, concerning an agreement involving Cruz and Marco.
He’s evidently trying to obfuscate by blending a cnn story regarding Ted’s super pac spending (unrelated to Ted’s campaign), some hypothetical meeting between Jeb Bush and candidates (No one anywhere can confirm if such occurred or what was or was not discussed IF it did occur) and Rubio’s man Conant announcing Rubio’s support for Kasich in Ohio to beat out Trump there….far more likely than Marco taking FL. Erickson’s presenting as fact that which has no factual basis, it is treacherous and disgraceful.
Do not fall for EE despicable disinformation scheme.
Ted has been in FL Wednesday, Thursday and today in Orland campaigning. Our campaign offices in Miami and Broward county are busy and volunteers remain actively pursuing votes for Ted down here. Indeed, one of Ted’s surrogates from NJ gave a presentation in Hialeah today discussing Ted v Trump business tax plan, the dangers of a 45% tarrif and CNN is due at our office tomorrow morning. In case you don’t know, this particular locale is considered to be one of Marco Rubio’s “strong holds”.
If you are in FL, Vote Ted Cruz!
It’s a free country and voters will decide. I also see that Trump’s numbers in Florida have been falling in the last two days. Watch them to do so further now that the Breitbart reporter has filed a police report against Trump campaign manager
Cite?
It would be nice if these plans to gyp the voters out of the candidate they actually seem to want were not quite so obvious.
But, that’s the modern GOP … what the voters want doesn’t really have anything to do with it.
Of course, the Dems are even more obvious, with their Superdelegate system.
Cruz’s campaign, after a lot of bluster about going all in in Florida admits it was all a head fake.
And that’s a cause for concern. So, what else about the Cruz campaign is a fake?
“It would be nice if these plans to gyp the voters out of the candidate they actually seem to want were not quite so obvious.”
If your candidate doesn’t win half of the delegates than OBVIOUSLY he isn’t given the nomination. How in your world does that gyp the voters? If more than 50% didn’t want that candidate than forcing that candidate on them gyps the voters, not the reverse.
How in your world would it then be more fair to nominate someone who got even less of the vote?
“How in your world would it then be more fair to nominate someone who got even less of the vote?”
Where did I say that? Don’t jump to conclusions just because we disagree on who can win in the general.
Are you really that stupid, or just pretending? Whoever gets the nomination will by definition have the support of the majority of delegates, who represent the majority of voters. If the majority of delegates get together to support one candidate, the voters have not been “gypped”. There is absolutely no reason why a candidate who got a minority of the vote deserves to be nominated, just because he got more votes than anyone else.
The “head fake” comment originated from Erickson website article from some alleged Cruz campaign staffer but without citation. It is categorically false.
I can assure you our campaign offices in Miami Dade and Broward counties are NOT faking.
Please help quell this false information.
A head fake is a maneuver to outsmart your opponent. It’s a feint. It’s quite legitimate in politics as it is in war and sports. Or should we hate all NFL running backs for being fakes?
Stretch more.
Kasich hasn’t reciprocated, but it is not necessary for him to do so – and it will still help Rubio in Florida.
Someone needs to produce a website showing what states and congressional districts are winner to all, and who can reasonably hope to gain delegates where, and who cannot.
The New York Times reported that some Jeb Bush people (they were talking mainly to people who had gone so far as to donate money or fundraise) intended to vote for Bush.
Bitterness or the prospect that the anti-Trump can’t be helped anyway, or disliking the anti-Trump in that state or CD as much or more than Trump, might prompt people to vote for whom they really favored.
This election is turning a little bit into something like Contract Bridge, where what you bid isn’t necessarily what you want.
The only Cruz Superpac ads that I ever saw in Florida aired on am talk radio and I assumed were national.
Rubio’s Superpac is airing hit pieces against Kasich in Florida.
I think Rubio has signed on with Romney, although not necessarily with Kasich.
Cruz is way behind Kasich who is only slightly behind Trump…in Ohio. As an avid Cruz supporter who sees these primaries as state-specific contests, I’m pulling the lever for Kasich. It doesn’t mean the GOP will pick Romney. It means Trump doesn’t get all 66 delegates. Cruz isn’t going to win in Ohio as long as Kasich is in and Kasich isn’t getting out before next Tuesday.
I’m certainly not hoping for a brokered convention, I’m playing Stump Trump specifically in Ohio where it has a chance of working. If Ohio awarded delegates proportionally, I’d vote for the only Conservative still running–Cruz!
I’d like to see Rubio and Kasich drop too, but it just isn’t going to happen until after next Tuesday.
Both Rubio and Kasich need to dropout after Tuesday. If they don’t, I will support their opponents in whatever path they take forward in the public arena.
Kasich sounds like a real d-bag with his quote, I can’t wait for him to fail although he strikes me as the kind to stick it out on pure spite.
Rubio I hope drops out Wednesday, if he doesn’t then we are once again the Party of Stupid. I fear the fanboys get all excited with every twitch of life from Rubio. The donors seem smarter – I think his funds dry up come Wednesday and he is forced out anyway.
But again the level of delusion is potentially high – field needed to consolidate 2 weeks ago, hopefully it will after Tuesday.
I always though Kasich was a good man. He’s too moderate to get my vote, but I respected and liked him. He did good work in the House. This incident really lowered my opinion of him. This is his second run for prez. He got nowhere the first time, so this whole primary may be especially mortifying to him. But I’ve lost my regard for him and sympathy for him losing again given his response to Rubio. The sooner he’s gone. the better.
And then there’s Ben Carson. I really liked him a lot and almost voted for him, being free to vote for whomever I liked since I knew my state full of dumbassed hillbillies would go to humpatrump. I’m especially glad now to have voted for Cruz now that Carson has endorsed the hump.
You know, I’m still trying to figure out why people are supporting Donald Trump. I never in my life thought the Republican side would have our version of Obama, but here he is.
Also, I think Gary Britt is played by multiple posters. He has different communication styles, different grammar, different spelling proficiency at different times. NTTAWWT
He’s just sick. And I DO mean pathological.
“Also, I think Gary Britt is played by multiple posters. He has different communication styles, different grammar, different spelling proficiency at different times.”
Actually I believe he does lots of cut and paste from other sites without crediting the authors. His posts get really repetitive also.
This. And he gets grouchy when you ping him on it.
Neither do I — different strokes for different folks, I guess. But at the end he can’t get the nomination and we still have to get along.
“You know, I’m still trying to figure out why people are supporting Donald Trump.”
You mean aside from the obvious: 1) he’s the one who has shown the greatest guts and perception regarding the existential threat to the nation represented by uncontrolled immigration and the lawlessness that led to it; 2) he’s the one who realizes that preserving national identity is the ultimate conservative value and to bring foreigners into the nation to make billionaires rich is no conservative value at all; 3) he’s the one who has the best chance of piecing together a winning coalition; 4) he’s not a slimy and corrupt pay for play puppet of neocons and billionaires like little Marco; and 5) he’s a more appealing person than Cruz.
Oh, c’mon. Wanna stop Trump? Vote for Cruz.
I won’t play election meta-games with my vote ever again. I’m voting my conscience in FL primary Tuesday. That’s Cruz, the constitutionalist. And if that helps Trump beat Rubio, fine. I don’t want to encourage Rubio to stay in any longer. He needs to lose FL to get the message: the gang of eight betrayal hasn’t been forgotten.