U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in suspending his campaign, said it. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said it. Even Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said it.
“It’s time for the Republican Party to unite.”
But Ohio Gov. John Kasich is having none of it. Despite remaining officially in fourth place in the delegate count, and nearly 900 delegates behind Trump, he’s still campaigning for an open convention, where he plans to make the case he’s the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton.
“Sen. Ted Cruz just dropped out of the presidential race and it’s up to us to stop Trump and unify our party in time to defeat Hillary Clinton,” Kasich campaign manager Beth Hansen wrote to the governor’s supporters Tuesday night about an hour after Cruz bowed out. “Seventeen polls in a row show the same thing: Gov. John Kasich is the only Republican who can defeat Hillary Clinton.”
To even have half a chance to securing the nomination, Kasich would first have to prevent Trump from reaching 1,237 delegates before the convention, which is highly unlikely to happen. Then, he would need to have delegate majorities in at least eight states to qualify for nomination.
Currently, he has just one—his home state of Ohio. There are just nine states left to vote, meaning he would need to not only win most of them, he would have to win most of the delegates in each one, which is even more unlikely than preventing Trump from securing the support of 1,237 delegates ahead of the convention in July.
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