A spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign said Monday that a smart political campaign adapts to realities on the ground, after the campaigns of Mr. Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced a strategic alliance in upcoming states to stop GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
“We have to deal with the world as it is,” Cruz campaign spokesman Ron Nehring said on CNN’s “New Day.” “The nature of the campaign itself has changed, going down from 17 candidates down to two or three at this point — only two who can really ultimately emerge as the Republican nominee. So we have to adapt to that.”
“It’s an extraordinary election,” Mr. Nehring said. “We have to deal with [the] reality as it is now and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
On Sunday, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns announced that Mr. Kasich would effectively clear the way for Mr. Cruz in Indiana and Mr. Cruz would get out of Mr. Kasich’s way in Oregon and New Mexico in an effort to stop Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump, in turn, slammed the announcement as “collusion” and a “horrible act of desperation.”
“A smart political campaign is one that adapts to the strategic realities that are on the ground today,” Mr. Nehring said. “When we set out this campaign our goal, of course, was to reach a flat-out majority at the convention — that was always the goal. That was the best scenario for us, to reach that majority on the first ballot, just like most other conventions have gone that way.”
“But that’s not going to happen, and Donald Trump, even though he has the most delegates, is unable to consolidate the Republican base around him,” he said.
“We want to make sure that by some accident, by some fluke of the rules whereby Donald Trump is gaining more delegates than he has earned [a] share of the vote, he doesn’t become the Republican nominee and lead this party to a disaster,” Mr. Nehring said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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