After Trump’s sweep of five northeastern states in April, Ted Cruz has been mathematically eliminated from winning the Republican nomination in the first round of voting at the presidential convention.
Even if Cruz were to win all the remaining delegates, he still wouldn’t reach 1,237. The only path for winning the GOP nomination would be to deny Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates, and force a contested convention.
Denying Trump a victory in Indiana is crucial to preventing him from crossing the 1,237 threshold, but a new NBC poll has Trump with a 15-point lead in the state.
“In Indiana, Trump is positioned to corral all the [state’s 57] delegates, which will be a big prize toward winning the nomination outright,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.
The NBC poll was conducted April 26-28, after Trump’s northeastern victories.
One thing that appears to have irked Indiana voters is the short-lived Cruz-Kasich alliance to deny Trump any delegates. 58% of respondents said that they disapproved of the strategy.
