{"id":28758,"date":"2016-03-03T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T17:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/stopping-the-donald-gop-looks-for-a-way\/"},"modified":"2016-03-03T09:00:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T17:00:13","slug":"stopping-the-donald-gop-looks-for-a-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/stopping-the-donald-gop-looks-for-a-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Stopping The Donald: GOP looks for a way"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI<\/strong> \u2014 Gripped by chaos and dismay, Republican leaders searched on Wednesday for a last-chance option to derail Donald Trump\u2019s momentum fueled by seven commanding Super Tuesday victories.<\/p>\n

Overshadowed by Trump\u2019s wins, Ted Cruz came in a close second in the night\u2019s delegate haul, thanks to a win in his home state of Texas. The strong showing bolstered the senator\u2019s case to be the party\u2019s Trump alternative, even as rival Marco Rubio vowed to continue his fight.<\/p>\n

The unrelenting division represented the biggest crisis for the GOP in decades, with the party seemingly on track to nominate a presidential candidate it can\u2019t contain. Some party leaders are considering the once unthinkable option of aligning behind Cruz, whom many dislike, while others are talking of a brokered convention. Some influential outsiders even raise the option of forming a new party.<\/p>\n

Though convention fights are much more talked about than actually occur, an Associated Press delegate count indicates Trump will have to do better in upcoming contests to claim the nomination before the party\u2019s national gathering in July. So far, he has won 46 percent of the delegates awarded, and he would have to increase that to 52 percent in the remaining primaries.<\/p>\n

The GOP mayhem contrasts sharply with the increasing cohesion on the Democratic side, where Hillary Clinton locked down solid victories in seven states and was on the path to regaining her status as the inevitable nominee. Clinton\u2019s dominance with black voters carried her to wins across the South. Still, Bernie Sanders picked up wins in his home state of Vermont as well as Minnesota, Oklahoma and Colorado, and he said he would fight on.<\/p>\n

The Democratic drama paled in comparison to the existential questions Republicans wrestled with in the wake of the most significant election night of the primary. Trump won handily in states as politically opposite as Massachusetts and Alabama, a sign of his broad, outsider appeal and energizing impact on voter turnout.<\/p>\n

Along with Texas, Cruz took neighboring Oklahoma and also Alaska. Florida Rubio won only liberal Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s commanding victories, many Republican leaders remained deeply skeptical he could beat Clinton in a head-to-head matchup in November \u2014 and some questioned whether they\u2019d want him in the White House if he did. They turned to the sort of \u201cbreak glass\u201d options once thought impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cTed Cruz is not my favorite by any means,\u201d Sen. Lindsey Graham, a former candidate whose disdain for his Texas colleague is well known, told CBS News. \u201cBut we may be in a position where rallying around Ted Cruz is the only way to stop Donald Trump and I\u2019m not so sure that would work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Graham also cast doubt on whether elder GOP statesmen could wrest hold of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt what point do you realize the Republican Party is unorganized – like the Democratic Party? There\u2019s no secret group of people,\u201d he scoffed.<\/p>\n

The comments came as #NeverTrump hashtag spread across Twitter and an anti-Trump Super Pac released a new online video and said it would increase its daily attacks ahead of primaries on March 8 and March 15. Our Principles PAC latest attack blasts Trump for not clearly repudiating David Duke, a onetime KKK member who endorsed Trump\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Other prominent Republicans called for more drastic measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be necessary for men and women of principle within the party to set the self-detonation sequence as they escape the ship to a new party,\u201d wrote conservative blogger Erick Erickson. Erickson was among those calling on the party to coalesce around Cruz.<\/p>\n

In his victory speech, Trump sent a clear message to the GOP establishment, warning to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had declared earlier Tuesday that \u201cthis party does not prey on people\u2019s prejudices,\u201d that if the two don\u2019t get along, Ryan is \u201cgoing to have to pay a big price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delegate math would seem to underscore the problem for Republicans who reject Trump.<\/p>\n

For the night, Trump won at least 234 delegates and Cruz won at least 209. Rubio was a distant third with at least 90. There were still 40 delegates left to be allocated.<\/p>\n

Overall, Trump leads with 316 delegates and Cruz has 226. Rubio has 106, John Kasich has 25 and Ben Carson eight.<\/p>\n

The math was also tough for Sanders. Clinton was assured of winning at least 457 of the 865 delegates at stake Tuesday. Sanders gained at least 286. When including party leaders, Clinton has at least 1,005 delegates and Sanders has at least 373. It takes 2,383 to win the nomination.<\/p>\n

Top Sanders advisers argue that Super Tuesday was the best day on the primary calendar for Clinton. But the map will get more difficult for her moving forward, said Sanders senior adviser Tad Devine.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Kathleen Hennessey reported from Washington. AP writers Stephen Ohlemacher, Julie Bykowicz and Julie Pace in Washington and Jill Colvin in Palm Beach, Florida, contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 Gripped by chaos and dismay, Republican leaders searched on Wednesday for a last-chance option to derail Donald Trump\u2019s momentum fueled by seven commanding Super Tuesday victories. Overshadowed by Trump\u2019s wins, Ted Cruz came in a close second in the night\u2019s delegate haul, thanks to a win in his home state of Texas. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":28759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28758"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}