MIAMI — Donald Trump on Wednesday urged his rivals to halt their attacks and rally to his side with the “millions” of new voters he has delivered to the Republican Party as Sen. Ted Cruz signaled he is open to a one-on-one contested convention to pick the party’s presidential nominee.
Sen. Marco Rubio fought for survival, again denying reports that he was considering throwing in the towel.
“If the Republican Party unites we can’t lose to anyone,” Mr. Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe. “We will beat Hillary Clinton so easily. We’ll win Michigan. We’ll win New York. We’ll win places that they could have never even discussed.”
There are growing signs, meanwhile, that the party is warming to the idea that Mr. Cruz is the most viable alternative to Mr. Trump. The Texas Republican won the Idaho primary Tuesday, marking his seventh win but putting him well behind Mr. Trump, who has collected 15 wins. Still, he is well ahead of Mr. Rubio, who has two victories, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has been blanked.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina endorsed Mr. Cruz on Wednesday, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has repeatedly fought with Mr. Cruz in the Senate, also has said he would rather settle for him than Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cruz also is signaling that he is open to the idea of a contested convention as long as it is a two-person race. He noted that President Ford and Ronald Reagan battled it out in such fashion in 1976.
“That’s what conventions are for,” Mr. Cruz said in a Fox News interview Wednesday night. “If you are fighting between the candidates who have earned the votes of the people and it is the delegates at the convention who have been elected to do that, that is the way the system works.”
Six days out from watershed contests in Florida and Ohio, Mr. Trump’s rivals were coming to grips with the hard reality that their only chance of stopping the New York billionaire from capturing the presidential nomination could hinge on a knockout blow at the Republican National Convention this summer.
Mr. Trump racked up wins Tuesday in Mississippi, Michigan and Hawaii, continuing his trajectory toward the magic number of delegates — 1,237 — needed to wrap up the nomination outright on the first ballot at the mid-July convention.
The results shifted more attention to the lingering idea that the most viable way to sink the businessman’s campaign is by pushing the nomination fight beyond the first ballot and onto the convention floor, where the anti-Trump forces could team up to steer the nomination elsewhere in ensuing delegate votes.
“For most Republican leaders, now the main objective is to get to a second ballot in Cleveland because if we can get to a situation where delegates can take into account who can beat Hillary Clinton, then many will be willing to shift allegiances to a candidate who can do that,” said Mark Weaver, an Ohio-based Republican Party strategist who is uncommitted in the race.
The odds of that happening could increase if Mr. Trump fails to walk away with the 165 delegates up for grabs in the winner-take-all contests Tuesday in Ohio and Florida, where Mr. Kasich and Mr. Rubio also will be looking to salvage their campaigns in their political backyards.
But the possibility of tripping up Mr. Trump in Florida could be waning after Mr. Rubio’s disappointing showings in recent contests and overall lack of momentum in the race.
Mr. Rubio’s campaign spent Wednesday nursing wounds from the election drubbing Tuesday. That’s not where he wants to be on the eve of a high-stakes debate, which is being co-sponsored by The Washington Times, and closing in on the make-or-break primary next week in his home state of Florida.
Unable to score any significant victories in the first two dozen contests, Mr. Rubio has wagered his campaign on the winner-take-all Sunshine State. But just days away, he trailed Mr. Trump by double digits in most polls.
No wonder Rubio insiders suggested that he quit now to avoid an embarrassing home-field defeat, which was first reported by CNN and was repeatedly denied by Team Rubio.
“We are 100 percent focused on Florida,” Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Conant told The Washington Times. “We know Florida better than anyone. Marco’s won there as an underdog before and will do so again.”
The jury is out on whether a comeback in Florida with its prize 99 delegates would be enough to save Mr. Rubio’s flagging run.
The Rubio campaign, though, sounded an optimistic note Wednesday by touting the findings of an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that showed the Florida Republican is the only remaining candidate who is not losing to Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election matchup. The poll showed them tied at 46 percent.
“According to this poll, If Trump is the GOP nominee, Republicans would be crushed by an historic margin against either Clinton or Sanders,” Mr. Conant said in an email blast.
The poll, however, also showed Mr. Rubio had slipped to fourth place in the Republican nomination battle, and a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed that Mr. Trump holds a 16-point lead over Mr. Rubio in Florida.
The same survey showed things look a little brighter for Mr. Kasich in Ohio. Mr. Trump holds a 6 percentage point lead there over Mr. Kasich, who could silence those who have called for him to drop out of the race and emerge as a hero of the anti-Trump forces by delivering his first win in his home state.
“The storyline will change when Kasich wins Ohio,” Mr. Weaver said.
The debate Thursday at the University of Miami will be a golden opportunity — perhaps the last chance — for the three underdogs to shake up the race and dent Mr. Trump’s campaign.
Otherwise, the trajectory for most of them is becoming clear.
Scott Jennings, a Republican Party strategist, said the chances of defeating Mr. Trump before the convention are dwindling because his three remaining rivals have signaled that they plan on sticking around, at least through next week’s contests, allowing Mr. Trump to avoid a head-to-head matchup, where polls suggest he is more vulnerable.
“The other three candidates remaining all must surely be thinking that a contested convention may be their best hope to get the nomination,” Mr. Jennings said. “It is highly unlikely Kasich and Rubio could get to 1,237 at this point. And while it is more possible for Cruz, it is still a long shot.”
Indeed, the delegate math favors Mr. Trump.
Josh Putnam of the Frontloading HQ blog, which tracks elections, said Mr. Trump needs less than 60 percent of the remaining delegates on the board to become the nominee, compared with more than 67 percent for Mr. Cruz, more than 83 percent for Mr. Rubio and 91 percent for Mr. Kasich.
If Mr. Trump wins Florida and Ohio, the tycoon will need to win about 54 percent of the remaining delegates, compared with 77 percent for Mr. Cruz and 95 percent for Mr. Rubio, while Mr. Kasich would no longer be able to clinch the nomination outside of a contested convention, Mr. Putnam said.
The results of the primary and caucuses determine how many delegates from each state are bound to vote for a candidate on the first ballot at the national convention. If no candidate has a majority of delegates coming into the convention, most of the delegates would become free agents after the first ballot, leading to what many predict would lead to chaos on the convention floor as candidates and their rivals jockey for support.
“If the anti-Trump forces do manage to get it to a second ballot, and if it is true that Cruz, Rubio and Kasich have more friends on the floor than bound delegates to begin with, you could see major shifts from one ballot to the next,” Mr. Jennings said.
• Seth McLaughlin reported from Washington.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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