Posted on 04/02/2016 1:29:04 PM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
The Republican establishment breathed a huge sigh of relief last fall when GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump signed a loyalty pledge binding him to endorse the GOP nominee, whomever it is, and precluding a third-party run. At the time, a close associate said the candidate felt he’d been “treated fairly” by the party, which had been Trump’s stated criterion for deciding to sign the pledge.
A lot of things have changed since then — including both the relationship between Trump and the party and the candidate’s commitment to the pledge, apparently. As the New York Post reports, the GOP frontrunner is leaving the door open for a third-party bid, should he not walk away from the party convention as the nominee.
Donald Trump is refusing to rule out a third-party bid for The White House.
During a Fox News interview airing Sunday, Trump said he would prefer to run on the Republican line, but left himself the option for an independent bid should the party reject him at the July national convention in Cleveland.
“I want to run as a Republican. I will beat Hillary Clinton,” he told Fox’s Chris Wallace, in an excerpt released Friday.
When pressed on a potential third-party candidacy, Trump added: “I’m gonna have to see how I was treated [before making a decision]. It’s very simple.”
A third-party run by anyone has the potential to dramatically alter the general election outcome — and by someone with as much staunch support behind him as Donald Trump, it’s pretty much unchartered territory.
Rivals Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich both were also noncommittal recently about supporting the Republican nominee, regardless of who it ends up being, when asked by Anderson Cooper during a recent CNN town hall.
(Excerpt) Read more at allenbwest.com ...
There are three states that I know of that have sore-loser laws that would keep him off their ballots, Texas being one of them.
That would be a major hurdle.
May Meyers what works at the propane place?
She's nice.
Even if he doesn’t run third party there will be a lot of enthusiastic voters who will write in Trump if he is not the nominee.
Do you have a link to Texas party rule?
The GOP has already done more than enough to guarantee I will not be voting for anyone but Trump.
“Donald Trump is refusing to rule out a third-party bid for The White House.”
Hillary’s stalking horse opens his yap yet again. Hillary in a landslide is DJT’s ultimate goal.
South Dakota and Texas have sore loser laws that apply to presidential elections. I was wrong about there being three.
Let me google that for you:
https://ballotpedia.org/%22Sore_loser%22_laws_for_presidential_candidates
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/13/politics/trump-third-party-run-barriers/
I will be happy to vote for Ted Cruz or Paul Ryan if they win the Primary fair and square!
“There are three states that I know of that have sore-loser laws that would keep him off their ballots”
More establishment crap.
Same here. If they derail his nomination I'll probably just not vote in November. Perhaps what this country needs is to just hit bottom, then we can (in a couple of generations) wake up and have a revolution or something. Electing establishment people of either party over and over again is just death by a thousand cuts.
If Trump runs on a party’s ballot that already has 50 state access, there is no law to stop him. There are several such parties.
Exactly, Reform Party is one, and the American Independent Party is another if I’m not mistaken.
I read here this week that some states have registration deadlines before the convention. Hard for someone to bolt after the convention and run in all 50 states.
... same with Cruz supporters.
That was awesome
That’s what I’m thinking too.
It’s Trump, or I write in Trump, or I vote against the GOPe nominee in the General election.
And the Republicans need to get their act straight, because this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth for future elections.
I could see Cruz as he has campaigned and won delegates but Ryan who gave Obama the farm with that budget has done nothing to work and earn the nomination.
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