After the first vote, delegates must be free to vote for any eligible candidate. Otherwise, there would be a permanent deadlock. The problem is that the Cruz campaign is doing a much better job on the ground in each state making sure that Cruz supporters are selected as delegates.
According to Trump supporters, if any delegates that were pledged to Trump jump ship and vote for another candidate after the first vote, they are stealing the election from Trump.
On the other hand, if any delegates that were pledged to candidates other than Trump refuse to jump ship and vote for Trump after the first vote, they too are stealing the election from Trump.
Basically, if any of the delegates do not see the error of their ways and pledge their fealty to Trump, they are stealing the election from Trump.
So far, Trump has won approximately 37% of the votes cast. It is a very vocal and enthusiastic 37% and many have said that they will refuse to vote for anyone else. Meanwhile, most of the 63% of Republican voters that voted for someone other than Trump are refusing to come around and support Trump and many have said that they will refuse to ever vote for Trump.
So basically we are screwed and can look forward to at least 4 years of President Hillary, unless the pissed-off Republicans that refuse to vote for whoever gets the Republican nomination are substantially outnumbered by the pissed-off Bernie Sanders supporters that refuse to vote for Hillary.
Some delegates are bound through the second vote. Florida’s 99 are bound through the third vote. One or two or bound to a 2/3 majority change rule.
Trump has 21 states w 6,020,000 winning votes.
Cruz has 10 states w 1,724,000 winning votes.
Cruz lost the entire South. He did not win a single district in Ohio or Florida. He lost Virginia. He would be defeated again by larger %’s in the battleground states. While all that would be happening, the DNC would be trying to remove him from each and every state ballot as an unqualified candidate.
He has ZERO cross-over appeal for dems or indies.
He is not a winning candidate for the GE.
He is the designated spoiler at the convention or designated loser to Hellary.
A poll from April is not definitive of how someone will vote in November. There are also discrepancies in polling that suggest some pollsters deliberately want to control or manipulate the outcome of the results.
The crowds that have mobilized and waited for several hours to hear Trump is a very strong sign of popularity and support. His appeal is trans-regional.
See post #25.
If Ted was not from Texas, he would have less than 1/2 million winning votes.
His lack of popularity among voters should not be overridden by a handful of delegates.
If states were willing to uphold the will of the people (like California), Cruz would have withdrawn from the race last month.
In a race where the winning candidate gets to select his delegates, Cruz loses.
His only chance of survivability is undermining the will of the people.
Instead of “We the People” we now witness “We the Delegates.”