Ted Cruz will make a “major announcement” at his rally April 27. (Getty)
Ted Cruz said that a “major announcement” will be forthcoming at his April 27 rally. Cruz, who won the Iowa caucus and several March GOP contests but has seen his campaign take a disastrous turn through April, did not specify the nature of his announcement, leading to speculation as to what he might be revealing.
Here’s a look at the possibilities:
Running Mate Announcement
Cruz announced in April that he was shortening his list of potential picks for Vice President should he win the nomination. Notably, that list included former GOP rival and Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Early speculation on the announcement leans toward him announcing a running mate.
It’s unusual for a losing candidate to announce a running mate, but if it’s Fiorina, it wouldn’t be the first time that Cruz and Fiorina have bucked tradition in the 2016 GOP campaign. In late 2015, a Cruz-backing Super PAC, Keep the Promise I, donated $500,000 to the Fiorina campaign, a move election insiders and journalists couldn’t find a precedent for. While the donation has been the subject of ugly and unfounded rumors, Fiorina and Cruz have had a close professional relationship since Fiorina ended her campaign, which a VP pick would certainly cement.
Cruz, who mathematically cannot win the pre-convention race, may also be playing the convention game with a Fiorina pick. Fiorina is well-liked by centrist Republicans, a constituency that has looked to Cruz only out of necessity in the wake of Trump’s rise.
End of the Cruz-Kasich Alliance
Ohio governor John Kasich, who still trails Marco Rubio in delegates more than a month after the Florida Senator dropped out of the race, is like Cruz mathematically eliminated from the race. Their only hope is to keep Trump from amassing the necessary 1,237 delegates allowing him to win the nomination without convention intrigue. To that end, the two announced an alliance wherein Kasich would pull his campaign from Indiana and Cruz from Oregon, giving both a clear shot at taking down Trump.
The April 26 primaries, however, were a disaster for both campaigns. Worse, Kasich has undermined the tactic himself, saying that he had no intention of telling voters not to vote for himself and calling the strategy “not a big deal.” Given Kasich’s words and new campaign realities, it wouldn’t be surprising if Cruz called an end to the alliance.
Dropping Out
A Cruz dropout is by far the least likely of the three scenarios, but it’s still possible. As has been stated, Cruz is mathematically eliminated from the GOP race, and even if he manages to deny Trump before the convention, the establishment Republicans don’t like him a whole lot more than Cruz. Trump also has a history of wooing former campaign rivals, though none have the acrimony he’s shown Cruz.
As stated, this scenario is pretty unlikely. While Cruz faces a challenge in wooing delegates at the convention, he’d be up against the least-liked-candidate in favorability polling history. Cruz is likely to stay in the race until the bitter end.
