Tuesday, May 3, 2016

It's Fork Time

Preliminary results are in for the primary election in Indiana. As I write this at 5:20 p.m. Pacific time, some 48% of the votes have been counted and reported. As it now stands, Trump has 52.9% of the Indiana GOP vote. Cruz has 36.7% and Kasich 7.8%. My source is RealClearPolitics.

Indiana's delegates are apportioned thusly: the overall state winner gets 30, the winner of each of 9 congressional districts gets 3, for a total of 57. Five of the nine districts have been called, all for Trump. Presuming none of those "calls" is overturned by subsequent returns, Trump has won at least 45 of 57. He probably will win several more, possibly all 57.

On the Democrat side, the race is too close to call with 48% reporting. Hillary has 178,000 votes and Bernie has 161,000.

If the #NeverTrump people wanted to stop Trump, they waited too long and were too half-hearted in supporting Cruz. He may continue to fight for the CA delegates but I believe we can now view Cruz as finished. Stick a fork in him, he's done.

Fifteen minutes later ... Politico reports Ted Cruz has suspended his campaign, saying "We've given it everything we've got, but the voters chose another path." Give him credit, he's a decisive realist.