Donald Trump romps, Ted Cruz drops, but John Kasich...
Donald Trump has wrapped up the GOP nomination, causing Ted Cruz to drop out, the Republican National Committee to call Trump the "presumptive nominee" – and John Kasich to continue in the race, seeking to pull off a miracle.
Technically, Trump has yet to clinch the nomination outright. His victory in Indiana Tuesday is likely to put him between 183 and 190 short of the 1,237 delegates he needs. But even using conservative projections of his performance in upcoming states, Trump will hit the total, including unbound delegates who say they back him, by the time the GOP primary process ends June 7.
Still, Kasich has long insisted he would beat Trump in a head-to-head matchup. Late Tuesday, his campaign vowed to continue, saying it would try to deny Trump the delegates he needs to hit 1,237 and force a contested convention in July in Cleveland. There, Kasich says, delegates will turn to him over Trump.
But the message in the GOP Tuesday night was one of resignation and growing unity behind Trump, not a desperate search for the kind of miracle Kasich is seeking.
'This race is over'
National GOP Chairman Reince Priebus, who had been open to other candidates' attempts to force a contested convention, changed his message Tuesday night. “Donald Trump will be presumptive GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating Hillary Clinton. #NeverClinton,” he tweeted.
Still, Kasich's campaign sought to position the Ohio governor as the last alternative to those put off by Trump's candidacy.
"Now more than ever, there are two paths," the campaign tweeted. The tweet referenced a speech Kasich gave last month, saying Trump represented a "path to darkness."
"The future of the Republican Party and America is at stake. Gov. Kasich will not simply give up," Kasich strategist John Weaver said in a memo emailed to reporters. "Appreciate @Reince & his hard work for @GOP, but until someone has 1,237 bound delegates there is no presumptive nominee. CA here we come," he tweeted, referencing the party's June 7 end-date.
Other Republicans proclaimed the race for the nomination over.
“There’s a lot about Donald Trump that I don’t like, but I’ll vote for Trump over Hillary any day,” tweeted Ari Fleischer, once the spokesman for former President George W. Bush.
Even Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann declared, via Twitter: "This race is over." Hartmann, a former GOP candidate for statewide office and county chairman for Mitt Romney and Bush's presidential campaigns, has vowed not to support Trump if he wins the nomination.
Should he drop? Ohio insiders, Kasich considering
Trump won emphatically in Indiana Tuesday. With nearly all precincts reporting, he had 53 percent of the vote to Cruz's 37 percent. Kasich, who didn't campaign in Indiana as part of a desultory agreement with Cruz, had only 8 percent.
With the defeat, even GOP insiders in Ohio have started to question Kasich's candidacy. Taking on Trump one-on-one would require millions more in cash than Kasich has. His campaign's and his political action committee's coffers had dwindled to $1.2 million each by the end of March.
With two opponents taking on Trump, Cruz and Kasich had hopes of taking on different states and congressional districts where they each would appeal to different sets of voters. Cruz's campaign and his political action committee could spend its larger cash reserves on advertisements opposing Trump.
Kasich's comments in recent weeks have shown he's thought about dropping out and understands the speculation about his campaign's end date. Two weeks ago, he started a press conference at the RNC spring meeting by soberly declaring he had done a lot of thinking and had a decision to make: whether to continue his presidential campaign – or run for mayor of New York City, he joked.
On Thursday, he told an Oregon audience he had talked with his wife the previous day about whether to end his campaign. "I’ve decided to keep going,” he said, according to a New York Times report. “And there are going to be people who are going to criticize me for that. And it’s not always an easy road. I’m going to do my very best.”
Kasich pondered dropping out Wednesday
When Cruz made the decision Tuesday, he told Indiana backers in a televised address: "We gave it everything we've got, but the voters chose another path."
Meanwhile, Kasich's campaign still was fundraising.
"It's up to us to stop Trump and unify our party in time to defeat Hillary Clinton," campaign manager Beth Hansen said in an email sent at 10 p.m. "17 polls in a row show the same thing: Gov. John Kasich is the ONLY Republican who can defeat Hillary Clinton."
Kasich does have one potential financial lifeline: The main political action committee opposing Trump, Our Principles PAC, sent out a statement similar to that of the Kasich campaign.
"We will continue to educate voters about Trump until he, or another candidate, wins the support of a majority of delegates to the Convention," OPP Chairwoman Katie Packer said in a statement.
A different side of Trump, presumptive nominee
Trump, as the presumptive GOP nominee, showed a different side Tuesday night, calling for "unity" in the Republican Party and throughout the country.
“It’s going to become one, beautiful, loving country. We’re going to love each other. We’re going to cherish each other," Trump said in remarks from Trump Tower in New York, televised on news networks. He praised Cruz – whom he had excoriated as "Lyin' Ted" – for having a bright future, running a competitive campaign and having a "beautiful family."
And he said he was "going after Hillary Clinton," the likely Democratic nominee, despite her loss to Bernie Sanders in Indiana, 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent in late returns. In response, Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta said Trump "has demonstrated he’s too divisive and lacks the temperament to lead our nation and the free world."
Sanders wins Indiana, but Clinton looks to November
Of Kasich, Trump only said, without naming him: "I guess (it's) down to one. I don’t know – is there a second? … I’m going to have to ask you (reporters) to explain the status of that.”
Despite the Kasich campaign's statements, Trump's status as the presumptive nominee cements the drop-out watch for the Ohio governor.
His campaign sent out an email Tuesday afternoon advertising a "15% Off Sale!" on Kasich swag, making him an easy target for jokes on social media about going-out-of-business sales.
The Ohio governor's public travel schedule has dwindled in recent days. Instead, he's focused on phone calls and meetings with delegates and donors. He is holding press conferences Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, D.C., bookending meetings with donors and advisers. The campaign has several fundraisers scheduled, Weaver tweeted:
USA Today's David Jackson contributed.