Republican rivals team up to slow down Donald Trump

Republican party presidential nominees Ted Cruz and John Kasich announce they will be co-ordinating their strategies in an attempt to stop fellow Donald Trump from attaining the necessary votes to have an outright win

Republican candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich
Republican candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich

Republican party presidential nominees Ted Cruz and John Kasich have announced they will be co-ordinating their strategies in order to stop fellow Republican nominee Donald Trump’s progress.

Republican strategists have been urging such a deal for weeks, with analysts saying it may now be too late to stop Trump’s progress.

Texan senator Cruz will cut campaigning in the Oregon and New Mexico primaries to help Ohio governor Kasich, while the latter will give Cruz a "clear path" in Indiana. The two candidates announced the move in simultaneous press statements, with Cruz’s campaign manager Jeff Roe saying that having Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be “a sure disaster for Republicans,” both because he would lose against Democratic nominees Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, and because “having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation.”

Trump, who has termed his rivals as “totally desperate”, currently holds a clear lead in delegates but he may still fall short of the 1,237 needed to win outright. Should he miss the target, the vote will go to a contested convention where a different nominee may be chosen through party negotiations.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders spoke to a rally of 14,000 supporters in New Haven, Connecticut, on Sunday, where he accused Clinton of earning money through “speeches behind closed doors on Wall Street”.

However, Clinton retains a clear lead in delegates and will hope the north-eastern state votes will effectively put an end to Sanders' dogged campaign, with the pair trading increasingly hostile remarks in recent weeks.