Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducay
In theory yes, he can un-suspend his campaign, but I imagine Rubio will hope/instruct his delegates to go for Kasich. You could end up where Kasich has ~700 combined delegates, Cruz maybe 900, and Trump over 1000, and it just turns into a bloodbath.
Problem is any scenario where Trump has 1,000 - 1,100 delegates and gets canned at the convention runs the risk of him running as a third party.
His argument, and its a good one, is that Trump is the people choice (at this point) given how many more votes he has than anyone else. Getting in shady delegate dealings can make a mess for the party.
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I think it makes sense for Rubio to not tell his delegates to do anything right now... there's no need to act on it until the convention.
However, here's the wrinkle: for many of the states where Rubio has gotten delegates, the actual delegates have not been picked, and if Rubio's suspended his campaign, these delegates are going to be picked knowing that they are essentially going onto the convention as free agents.
By many accounts, Cruz has been the best candidate at ground-gaming delegates, and if he can influence the actual delegate-picking, then as soon as Rubio releases them, he could have a secret army of his own delegates ready to declare for him on the first ballot of the convention.
Of course, the state-level establishment has the most influence on the delegate-picking process, and they're going to be trying to put establishment friendly delegates in play.
This fight for Rubio's existing delegates is going to be really interesting.