It is very unlikely that delegates loyal to Trump and Cruz won't together add up to a majority of the delegates.Delegates pledged to Trump or Cruz aren't necessarily Trump supporters, they're just assigned to them following primaries and caucuses. Most (though not all) of them are just low-level party hacks who will vote for whoever the RNC tells them to vote for once they're unbound.
Trump has 743 delegates, and Cruz has 545. Together they already have 1,288. That's 55 more than the 1,237 required for the nomination.
They should join forces now. They can credibly say they are doing so to ensure that the voice of the people is heard. They can back that up by saying that the remaining primaries are still relevant because they will pledge one of the following:
- 1. That they will honor the voice of the voters by pledging that the candidate who gets the most votes (votes, not delegates) will be at the top of the ticket. All primary votes, even those that were cast before the alliance is formed, will count. This would put the screws to state parties who try to force the GOPe choice on us.
- 2. Or, they could choose to use the delegate count to decide who's on the top of the ticket.
- 3. Or, another option would be to simply pledge their delegates to the candidate who gets the most delegates (or votes), and leave them free to choose their own VP.
Whether they choose any of these options, or formulate their own, the time has come for them to pledge to ensure that one of them gets the nomination, and to devise a way to make the remaining primaries still relevant.
In any case, they need to find a way to definitively stick it to the GOPe.