http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/ted-cruz-john-kasich-team-up-222377 Cruz, Kasich coordinate in new anti-Trump effort
By Katie Glueck
04/24/16 10:21 PM EDT
Ted Cruz and John Kasich are ceding states to each other as part of a broader effort to stop Donald Trump, an abrupt change in strategy that the campaigns announced Sunday night.
“To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead,” Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement.
Previously, the Cruz campaign had largely refused to acknowledge the Ohio governor’s presence in the race except to dismiss him as a spoiler.
“Who?” Roe replied last week, when asked by reporters about Kasich.
The Cruz campaign had also previously planned to compete in those states, especially in New Mexico, with a memo from the campaign last month saying data showed that Cruz could win a majority of that state’s delegates.
Also Sunday, Kasich chief strategist John Weaver announced, “we will shift our campaign’s resources West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana.
In turn, we will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon, both areas that are structurally similar to the Northeast politically, where Gov. Kasich is performing well. We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.”