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To refresh your memory: Washington State has 44 delegates, winner-take-most (majority takes all) proportional primary (20% threshold), with statewide and CD delegates. Closed primary (deadline to switch is next week; deadline for first-time voters is next month), but it’s all mail-in. …And, just think! Five months ago, I would have had to write another three or four sentences to explain all of that. Now I can just assume that most of you folks will be able to follow along. It’s an ill wind, huh? Anyway, it turns out that Ted Cruz has already done the work – before the deadline...

It’s safe to say each of the CNN Town Halls this week painted the remaining Republican presidential candidates in a positive light and that’s a good thing for those of us who see the number one priority as the need to defeat Hillary Clinton (or Bernie Sanders) in November. Instead of #NeverTrump, we were reminded that #NeverHillary is a much more important objective than the need to settle scores, even if there’s good reason to carry grudges in the first place. Ted CruzAnd while it’s somewhat likely the Republican candidates’ favorability ratings could get a boost courtesy of CNN’s idea...

Donald Trump won North Carolina’s Republican primary last month, but many of the state’s GOP convention delegates elected so far prefer the second-place candidate: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. That could spell trouble for Trump if he doesn’t arrive at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July with the 1,237 delegates required to win on the first ballot. For the first round of voting, North Carolina’s delegate count must proportionately match the state’s March 15 primary results: 29 votes for Trump, 27 for Cruz, nine for John Kasich, six for Marco Rubio and one for Ben Carson. Any delegate who...

Donald Trump's campaign is going all out to win delegates in Nevada, offering to cover transportation and lodging costs for Nevada supporters who travel to Reno in mid May to participate in delegate elections. Trump's Nevada activities contradict his claim that he has deliberately declined to invest resources in the election of delegates to the Republican nominating convention in Cleveland because the process is "corrupt." "With overwhelming success throughout each county, we're in a strong position going into the state convention being held in Reno on May 14th and 15th," Charles Munoz, Trump's Nevada state director, wrote in an email...

BOOM EXCLUSIVE WOW BOMBSHELL OUTRAGEOUS CHEATING STEALING!!! Donald Trump inexplicably waited until YESTERDAY to name a State Political Director in California. The California primary on June 7 could determine whether Trump reaches the magic 1237 majority delegate number prior to the July convention. By all reports, Cruz is far ahead in the ground game in California, which awards delegates not only on the statewide vote but also by congressional district. Even if Trump wins the state, he may underperform in enough congressional districts due to Cruz’s superior campaign preparation that Trump is stopped short. Or he may fail to file...

Donald Trump could be in "big trouble" if he doesn't cinch the GOP presidential nomination on the first ballot at the party's convention in July, GOP pollster John McLaughlin said Sunday. In a "Cats Roundtable" radio interview with businessman and former GOP mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis in New York, McLaughlin said the front-runner "should win this on a first ballot." The remarks begin at about the 42:37-minute mark. "If he doesn’t, he’s in big trouble, because he’s been out-organized” by the campaign of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, McLaughlin said. “You’ve got the Cruz campaign putting in people that may be...

The Republican nomination is going to be close. Nate Silver has Trump coming up short. I have Trump winning by a slim margin. I am looking at some states where I likely underestimated Trump’s delegate count more than enough to matter. Connecticut A new Connecticut Poll came out on April 10-11. That’s just one poll, but it’s significant. Moreover, if Trump wins big in New York on Tuesday, April 19, momentum will likely carry over for the Connecticut primary a week later. According to Green Papers, Connecticut awards 13 at-large delegates in a winner-take most fashion. If someone gets over...

In addition to winning more primaries, more convention delegates and 2 million more votes than any other Republican presidential candidate running this year, billionaire developer Donald Trump has won a significant national following with his repeated pledge, as a shrewd negotiator, “to beat China, Japan and Mexico at trade.” Trump offers a simple explanation for the problem: “Their leaders are much smarter than our leaders.” But they’re not smarter than the no-nonsense negotiator Trump: “I beat China all the time.” If that is true, then why has candidate Trump been so publicly and griping about his campaign’s having been cheated...

Virginia's 10th Congressional District Republicans today nominated their three delegates and three alternates to the Republican National Convention in July, and all three main delegates are backers of Sen. Ted Cruz (R). State Sen. Dick Black, Mick Staton (Black's son-in-law) and Beau Correll were elected as delegates, while two supporters of front-runner Donald Trump – former Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio and past 10th District chairman Howie Lind – were elected as alternates. Blaine Dunn, a Cruz supporter, was selected as the third alternate. Trump narrowly won March's GOP Primary in the commonwealth -- although Sen. Marco Rubio comfortably took...

BETHESDA, Md., April 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Washington D.C. Law Professor Victor Williams has filed an Emergency Petition with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie demanding that the Canadian-born Ted Cruz be disqualified from the ballot. (Full details at his website – www.VictorWilliamsforPresident.com) Ted Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada and held his resulting Canadian citizenship until May 2014. Scholars across the nation agree that Edward Rafael Cruz is not a "natural born [American] Citizen" as required by Article II of the U.S. Constitution. Victor Williams charges that Ted Cruz falsely certified his constitutional eligibility for office to gain ballot access...

The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift argued that Republican presidential candidate Texas Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “makes Donald Trump look like a raving liberal” and “most Democrats would look at the two of them, and would prefer Trump over Cruz” on Friday’s “McLaughlin Group.”Clift said, “We’ve paid so little attention to what Cruz actually stands for, and when — the attention I’ve paid is — I get pretty scared, actually. He makes Donald Trump look like a raving liberal, actually.” When asked who should we would vote for between the two candidates if she had to pick, Clift responded that...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We have a guy on here from Southampton, New York, named Bill. Greetings, Bill. Great to have you. What is the point that you wanted to make here? You've been holding on for quite a while now. CALLER: Thank you, Rush. My conclusion is that if Donald Trump is denied the nomination -- and in line with everything that you've just been saying -- that the big lesson for all of us is that there is no political solution available for our grievances to be addressed in America today. RUSH: I did not say that. See, that's......

Via Red State, not a huge deal but worth flagging in case there’s another poll this weekend showing his numbers dipping a bit in New York on the eve of the primary. That would suggest a trend, and that would be a big deal given what’s at stake. To be clear: Trump’s going to romp in NY on Tuesday night, winning by 25 points or better, and will pick up something like 75 delegates even in a worst-case scenario. But since his path to 1,237 is so difficult, it matters a lot whether he ends up with 75 in New...

As the Republican presidential race has narrowed to a contest between two candidates the Republican elites despise, each one with a razor-thin path to the nomination, the conversation among party figures in Washington has rapidly shifted from the desperate to the absurd. They talk of an “open convention” in Cleveland, where party leaders could parachute in a third, more favored candidate and render the entire GOP primary process null and void. House Speaker Paul Ryan, one focus of such talk, ruled himself out at a press conference on Tuesday. “I do not want, nor will I accept, the Republican nomination,”...

He won a big victory in Wisconsin. He pierced the Donald Trump mystique. He even got some of the Capitol Hill lawmakers who regard him as a revolutionary and renegade to slink cautiously into his corner. By all logic, this should be a Ted Cruz moment — if only the next primary weren’t in New York. But on Tuesday, New Yorkers go to their polling places, and though Cruz has been the beneficiary of the calendar before — his performance on Super Tuesday helped force out of the race Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a demographically identical and philosophically similar...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Donald Trump's presidential campaign has all but thrown in the towel in Wyoming ahead of Saturday's Republican convention. The billionaire businessman's campaign made a conscious decision not to commit resources to Wyoming, according to Alan Cobb, a senior Trump adviser. Trump picked only up a single delegate in last month's Wyoming county conventions while rival Ted Cruz scored nine. There are 14 more delegates at stake at this weekend's state convention. In a telephone interview with The Associated Press from the convention site in Casper, Cobb said Friday that he expects Cruz to sweep what remains of...

Why are the Trumpists so angry at Cruz? In fact, doesn’t it seem like they are always angry at something or someone? It’s true. It’s either “lyin’ Ted,” the Washington insiders, the press, which is bit surprising considering how much free air time he is given, or whatever. It almost appears Svengali Trump has figured out that he must continually invent new villains to keep his followers amped up. This reminds me a bit of the leaders of the hard left, who must keep some form of “The Man” in perpetuity, holding down the oppressed democrat faithful, who are then...

Probably one of the most unlikely scandalettes of the 2016 primary has to be the National Enquirer “exposé ” of Senator Ted Cruz’s alleged serial infidelity. Nobody knows to this day where the story originated, although some reporters suggested after it was run that the Rubio campaign had shopped it to them earlier in the cycle. But Donald Trump is known to be quite close to the publisher of the Enquirer (a man aptly named David Pecker) so it’s always possible the story was run for his benefit. Cruz denied it and it faded in the excitement of the campaign,...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Donald Trump's presidential campaign has all but thrown in the towel in Wyoming ahead of Saturday's Republican convention. The billionaire businessman's campaign made a conscious decision not to commit resources to Wyoming, according to Alan Cobb, a senior Trump adviser. Trump picked only up a single delegate in last month's Wyoming county conventions while Cruz scored nine. There are 14 more delegates at stake at this weekend's state convention. In a telephone interview with The Associated Press from the convention site in Casper, Wyoming, Cobb said Friday that he expects Trump's rival Ted Cruz to sweep...

After Ted Cruz won every delegate up for grabs at the Colorado Republican convention, Donald Trump began complaining that the process at such conventions is unfair. His claim is that party insiders should not be making these choices, but rather that the power should be vested with the voters. As a consequence, Cruz is “stealing" delegates from Trump, and in so doing defying the will of the voters. Trump's accusations are specious and disingenuous. The process that has been playing out is perfectly legitimate. Trump's real problem is that he is being outhustled by the Cruz campaign. The Republican nomination...