Since Marco Rubio withdrew from the 2016 presidential campaign, there has been fallout affecting other people. Those “other people” are the politicians who publicly endorsed the Florida senator during his campaign.
On Wednesday, popular South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who previously endorsed Rubio, switched horses and changed her support to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Prior to the South Carolina Primary last month, Governor Haley made comments about bigotry and racism in the campaign. It is obvious she was referring to Donald Trump.
The very conservative Texas senator Cruz should be happy to receive the endorsement, as the Governor hitches her political reputation to him. Unfortunately, the endorsement may only be “anyone but Trump.”
Governor Haley may have set herself up for a second fall.
Cruz has been “solid and strong the entire way.” – Gov. Haley
When confronted with questions, she didn’t want to say what she would do if Donald Trump becomes the nominee. She said, “Ask me when the time comes again, but as of now I strongly believe I will support the Republican nominee. The only thing I can say now is my hope and my prayer is that Sen. Cruz can come through this. That’s who, privately, I’m fighting for.” These comments were made during a Statehouse press conference about family services and the Department of Social Services.
Obviously Haley doesn’t think Ohio Governor John Kasich has a chance of winning the nomination. He is one of the three candidates still pushing on, competing for the GOP nomination. She declined to give Kasich any unsolicited advice on whether he should remain in the campaign or withdraw. For him to win, everyone else would have to drop out. In other words, he has no chance.
Kasich apparently plans to keep running until July, which is when the national convention is held in Cleveland.
Governor Haley has hitched her wagon to a candidate for president who now has an uphill fight for delegates, because he is less well-known than Donald Trump. Cruz would have more of a chance if Kasich were to drop out and hand his endorsement to Cruz. For some reason, Kasich doesn’t want to do that.
The only thing Cruz has over Trump in this is that Kasich made it clear he would never consider being Donald Trump’s vice president, but did not mention Cruz. So this also answers the question about whether a President Trump would have Kasich as his Commerce Secretary.