As we await final results from Colorado, it appears that Ted Cruz will obtain more delegates in addition to the 17 he already has.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has locked up the support of 21 Colorado delegates and may scoop up even more Saturday.Slates loyal to Cruz won every assembly in the state’s seven congressional districts, which began April 2 and culminated Friday with 12 delegates selected.The Texas senator is well-positioned to pad his total Saturday, when 13 more delegates were to be chosen at the party’s state convention.According to an Associated Press count, Trump has 743 delegates, Cruz has 532 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 143. It takes 1,237 to clinch the nomination, though there’s a real chance no candidate will reach that mark by the national convention in Cleveland in July.Of Cruz’s Colorado delegates so far, only 17 were formally pledged to him, and in theory the other four could change their vote in Cleveland. But they were all included on the senator’s slates and are largely state party officials who said they were barred from signing a formal pledge for Cruz but have promised to back him in balloting at the convention.
ABC goes on to note that Cruz’s “superior organization” has helped him substantially in Colorado, and NBC News is reporting that Trump’s performance in Colorado reveals a “chaotic, overwhelmed Trump campaign.”
According to the Denver Post, prior to today, Cruz had the 17 aforementioned bound delegates, Trump had two delegates, and Kasich none. Should Cruz gain the 13 Colorado delegates today, his total delegate count for Colorado will be 30.
Indiana’s GOP is selecting delegates to the national convention today—27 of them, and according to reports, Trump is getting “trounced” there, too. The Indiana delegates will be bound to the results of the May 3 Indiana primary, but are expected to change should it go to a second ballot.
This will make New York and its 95 delegates still more crucial for Trump.
Iohud, the Journal News reports:
Tony Sayegh, a Republican consultant and Fox News contributor, said Clinton and Trump are both running flawed campaigns and have been dogged by historically high “unfavorable” ratings in polls of likely voters.“In the case of Trump, if he doesn’t win the 50 percent, or for Clinton, if she wins narrowly, it just reinforces how weak the front-runners are,” Sayegh said. “I think (Sanders) is certainly capable of getting shockingly close and embarrassing Hillary Clinton.”. . . . Under the primary system adopted by New York Republicans this year, each of the state’s 27 congressional districts carry three delegates. A candidate who receives at least 50 percent of the vote gets all three. If they win with a lower percentage, they get two and the second-place finisher gets one.The 14 remaining “at-large” GOP delegates in the state are pledged to cast their votes with the winner of the statewide vote.
Trump’s campaign told ABC News that they didn’t expect to do well in Colorado:
While Cruz’s campaign spent months recruiting slates of delegates and securing pledges, Trump only this past week hired a Colorado state director.The Trump campaign said it wasn’t worried and had always expected to fare poorly in Colorado because its assembly process is dominated by party insiders. “If we had a primary, yes, we would have done very well here,” said Trump senior adviser Alan Cobb.Cruz also appeals to activists who dominate party functions — a deeply conservative, religious crowd with a libertarian streak.”Coloradans, naturally having that pioneer spirit, gravitate toward someone like Cruz,” said state Rep. Justin Everett, one of Cruz’s pledged delegates.
It seems, though, that the Trump campaign didn’t carefully consider the importance of locking in delegates until very recently. This is the same mistake that Hillary Clinton made in 2008 when she lost to Obama. Of course it’s too early to tell whether or not Trump will earn the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination.
In the meantime, we await news from Colorado and Indiana about their delegates and will keep you updated.
UPDATE 11:15 p.m. Eastern (by WAJ) – Cruz sweeps all delegates.
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