With Wisconsin’s primary election just days away, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz is making a bold move and personally meeting with hundreds of California delegates on Thursday morning in their state.
Cruz traveled to California for a Wednesday night appearance on the late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! He also has a lunch hour fundraiser in Newport Beach on Thursday, where an estimated 250 people are expected to attend at a reported $1,000-per-person event. The invitation lists Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt as attendees. Former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina was listed on the invitation, but she is also slated for meet-and-greet appearances in Wisconsin on Thursday with Heidi Cruz.
Ted Cruz’s trip to California comes as the Wisconsin primary is just five days away.
This week Cruz picked up the influential endorsement of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who formerly left the presidential race citing a need to narrow the Republican field against frontrunner Donald Trump. Walker said in October after leaving the race, “If more Republican [candidates] sat back and say ‘Boy, I can have an impact in narrowing this field so that… a true conservative with a positive message is the viable alternative, maybe it is time to suspend the campaign’… I think you’ll get a viable alternative.”
Cruz’s California trip also comes as a new Marquette Law School poll showed Cruz soaring to 40 per cent in Wisconsin, a 21 point jump from their poll just one month prior. That puts Trump in second with 30 per cent in the new March poll, that is the same result Trump received from the organization’s February poll, but now puts him significantly behind instead of ahead of Cruz.
“Wisconsin, I believe, will play a critical role continuing to unify Republicans behind our campaign. The only way to beat Donald Trump is with unity,” Cruz told the Associated Press last Friday. Following Walker’s endorsement Cruz spoke of uniting the party and defeating Democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton.
Wisconsin will hold it’s primary this coming Tuesday. Trump and Cruz have each indicated plans to grab the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination prior to the July Republican convention in Cleveland. The Badger State offers up another 42 Republican delegates.
California will hold it’s primary contest on June 7. The state offers a whopping 172 Republican delegates.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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