By: Adam Ishaq
As Republican voters head to the polls in Indiana on Tuesday, the possibility of contesting Donald Trump at a brokered convention may be in their hands. Though Trump cannot win the nomination in Indiana, recent results from a NBC News/Wall Street Journal/ Marist poll shows Trump leading Ted Cruz by 15 percentage points. If Trump holds that lead, he is positioned to win nearly all 57 delegates from the state. With 996 delegates already committed to Trump, a large victory in Indiana would position Trump closer to winning the 1,237 delegates needed to win the convention outright. Doing so would allow Trump to avoid having to deal with delegates who would become unbounded to Trump in a convention which does not have a candidate who can reach 1,237 delegates on the first vote.
Interestingly, the “alliance” announced between Ted Cruz and John Kasich was looked at poorly by voters in Indiana, with 58 percent of them saying they disapproved of the two teaming up. While the alliance was an attempt to have both candidates campaign in different states in order to decrease Trump’s chances at winning his target delegate count, it has seemed to fail. By allying together, it appears Cruz and Kasich are being looked at as attempting to collude and interfere with the usual primary system.
Trump has not been shy in viewing Tuesday’s primary as the end of the Republican primary contest. This past Sunday Trump responded to a question concerning whether, if he won Indiana, the Republican race would end, saying “Yep, its over.” Though at times it seemed Trump’s candidacy was wavering, especially during a string of losing contests in Wisconsin, Colorado, and Wyoming in April, he has performed very well as of late. Winning all 5 Northeastern states up for grabs on April 26, Trump comes into Indiana with a momentum that seems to be unstoppable by Kasich and Cruz. Though Trump cannot outright win the nomination on Tuesday, all signs seem to point to Indiana as the deciding state in terms of whether or not the movement to stop Trump will be able to enter a contested Republican National Convention.