Republican frontrunner Donald Trump may be making headlines with his victories in delegate-rich states, but Ted Cruz is also winning. Texas Sen. gathered delegates in the states of Maine, Minnesota, South Carolina and Utah.
Cruz won 19 of the 20 delegates at the Maine GOP convention. The Texas senator won the state’s GOP primary last month and was expected to win 12 delegates, nine of which went to Trump’s second-place finisher and two to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who finished third, according to Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage.
The governor said in response to the delegate split that Cruz’s campaign had backed out of a deal to “draft a unity slate that respects the will of the thousands of Maine people who voted in the primary.”
According to a statement obtained by CNN, Cruz’s campaign responded by saying LePage supports Trump and said Cruz does “stand with the everyday people who helped us win the Maine primary.”
As of Saturday, Cruz’s campaign had won a total of 65 delegates, Politico reported, including nine from three congressional districts in Minnesota, one from a congressional district in South Carolina and at least 36 of Utah’s 37 national delegates, having won the state’s Republican primary last month.
Cruz continues to trail Trump in delegate totals, with polls showing the real estate tycoon leader double-digit votes in Tuesday’s primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Therefore, depending on how next week’s primaries play out, Cruz may not mathematically get the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination before the convention.
Of course, if Trump also fails to get 1,237 delegates, there’s no telling how the election will play out in Cleveland.
