Thirty-four of Florida Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore]’s 171 delegates will not be bound to him on the first-ballot at the Republican National Convention, NBC News reports.
The 34 unbound delegates are in Louisiana, Minnesota and Oklahoma, according to NBC, and Donald Trump, [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] and John Kasich are free to woo them.
Rubio sent a letter late March to state Republican parties saying that his decision to suspend his campaign does not mean he wishes to unbind his delegates.
Many of the delegates bound to Rubio have not yet been selected at state conventions. Cruz’s path to the White House remains stopping Trump from winning on the first ballot and then getting the nomination during subsequent rounds.
The Cruz campaign is making the pitch to the delegates that will be bound to Rubio that they should support the Texas senator when they become unbound in later rounds. “Ted could move the country more in the direction Marco wanted to go than Trump wants to go,” a source close to the Cruz campaign told NBC.
The 34 delegates that remain un-bound on the first ballot could help push Trump over the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination. There is more than a month between the last primary and the July convention for the New York businessman to convince these delegates to support him.