The Donald Trump and [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] campaigns are trying to block Ohio Gov. John Kasich from being on the ballot at the Republican National Convention in July.
Trump told one of his supporters on Sunday that “Kasich shouldn’t be allowed to continue and the RNC shouldn’t allow him to continue.”
The Cruz campaign feels similarly. A senior Cruz campaign advisor told MSNBC’s Ari Melber, “I expect the Rules Committee to require a level of support that would leave only two candidates on the ballot at the convention.”
Barry Bennett, a Trump adviser, suggested that Cruz and Trump delegates will dominate the 112-member Rules Committee and succeed at passing rule that will effectively block Kasich.
“The committee is not going to oppose” a rule that the two leading campaigns support, Bennett told MSNBC.
A former Cruz aide agreed, saying Kasich “will have no opportunity to even be voted on. The rules will be written in such a way that they can’t submit Kasich’s name for nomination.”
Kasich cannot mathematically win the nomination at this point and an open convention is his only chance at becoming the nominee.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told “Meet the Press” Sunday that a rule change is unlikely, but longtime Rules Committee member Morton Blackwell anticipates that rule 40B, which requires a candidate to have won eight states, will keep Kasich out of the convention.
“Under the rules, it appears that Kasich can’t meet the eight-state threshold,” Blackwell told MSNBC.
“The rules were established by people who largely are for Kasich right now — the establishment — and changing the rules in the middle of the game is quite generally understood as unfair,” Blackwell added, referencing how some delegates will argue against rule that would allow Kasich on the ballot.