Democratic front-runner former Secretary of Sate Hillary Rodham Clinton and GOP front-runner real estate tycoon Donald Trump cemented their leads on way to their Party’s nominations. While Sanders and Cruz won pyrrhic victories in Kansas and Nebraska [Sanders] and Kansas and Maine [Cruz], they added little to their delegate totals hoping to catch Hillary and Trump. Unlike Sanders who has some appeal in the delegate-rich Upper Midwest and Northeast, Cruz has little path going forward, having ceded most of his Southern state evangelical firewall to Trump. When Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump Jan. 28, it pulled the rug from underneath Cruz’s key strategy, mapped out in 2000 by former President George W. Bush. Cruz’s far-right views don’t resonate with the majority of conservatives, picking Trump as the more moderate alternative.
Since Bush-43 took office Jan. 20, 2001, a new brand of right-wing conservatism pushed on the radio by Rush Limbaugh and on TV by the Fox News Channel pulled the Republican Party too far to the right. Trump’s success isn’t so much a voter revolt against conservatism but a rebellion against the GOP-controlled Congress that finds any excuse to battle Democrats to loggerheads. Voters in 2016 want the partisan bickering and gridlock to stop, seeking a more pragmatic, less ideological voice like Trump. Cruz’s wins in Kansas and Maine don’t portend things to come but rather the GOP last-ditch attack, let by former GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who, like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, sees no path to the nomination other than disenfranchising GOP primary voters at a brokered convention. Romney and Kasich, whose failed campaigns didn’t get them enough votes, can only win by subterfuge.
Pumped up by wins in Kansas and Maine, Cruz asked the rest of the GOP to join his right-wing campaign, knowing full-well he has no path forward in delegate-rich states in the upper Midwest, Northeast and, of course, the biggest prize of all, California. Cruz’s overly right-wing brand played best in the South where Trump prevailed in most the important contests, other than Cruz’s home state of Texas. Cruz’s loss in evangelical-rich Louisana with backing by Tea Party favorite former Gov. Bobby Jindal showed his lack of appeal where he should win easily. For a Northeasterner like Trump, with his New York values, as Cruz likes to say, to march to victories in the evangelical South was truly remarkable. “Ted Cruz has shown that he can win his home state and neighboring state, Oklahoma and small rural caucuses, like Iowa and Alaska, and now Kansas,” said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant.
Only winning Minnesota, Rubio has almost nothing to show for his presidential campaign, leading MSNBC’s former congressman Joe Scarborough to predict he’s close to destroying his political career if he loses his home state of Florida. Rubio’s a zombie candidate, no longer viable, having lost almost everything with mostly third and fourth place finishes. He has no path forward other than dropping out and returning to the drawing board. “As a party we should come together and stop the foolishness,” Trump told a new conference at his golf resort in South Florida. Watching disgruntled former GOP nominee denounce Trump and praying, like Rubio and Kasich, for a brokered convention, is like all joining a circular firing squad. Even ultraconservative GOP tax crusader Grover Norquist asked his Party to stop “whining.” Trump welcomed the chance to take Cruz one-on-one.
Rubio’s abysmal results stem from his change of tactics, deviating from his affable image, throwing as mud as possible at Trump. Marco was too malleable, taking bad advice from his campaign consultants to go negative on Trump, hoping to gain much-needed traction. Like former Florida Jeb Bush, Rubio’s popularity sunk like a rock, leaving him at the end of the line. If doesn’t drop out now, he’ll face a humiliating loss to Trump in his own home state. After losing all caucuses and primaries except Minnesota, Florida voters have already moved on from Marco, believing he can’t win. Trump holds an aggregate lead of over 15% in Florida. Cruz promised also to ramp up efforts in Florida before March 15 to guarantee that he knocks Marco out. If Marco continues, as Scarborough warns, it’s likely to wreck his chances of running for governor or any other elected office.
GOP officials face some tough choices continuing to rant about Trump or accepting the will of 2016 voters that it’s time for a change. Cruz and Rubio admonish voters to back a “true” conservative, the same message as Jeb, wasting $150 million in donors’ cash with the exact same message. Voters in 2016 don’t want today’s brand of right-wing conservative, they want a pragmatic candidate that can get things done in Washington. “What we’re seeing is the public coming together, libertarians coming together, men and women who love the Constitution, standing together as one campaign,” said Cruz, hoping to pressure Rubio to drop out. Cruz kids himself that he has any appeal in the delegate-rich population centers in the Upper Midwest, Northeast and West Coast. His campaign hit too many potholes in the South, getting closer to facing mainstream GOP voters.
