It looks like Cruz is going to win the winner-take-all state of Nebraska and all 36 of its delegates in May when they hold their primary. And that’s great news!
But that’s not what this article is about. Rather, it points out that Trump is missing a great opportunity to hit back at Cruz in Nebraska like he’s been getting hit in Louisiana, South Carolina, and elsewhere.
Just as Cruz has been converting Trump delegates into Cruz delegates for the 2nd round of voting at the convention, Trump could be doing the very same thing in Nebraska as they are now electing their delegates to go to the convention.
But just like in Colorado, Trump has no ground game there and thus all the delegates are going to be Cruz supporters:
POLITICO – Another week gone, another opportunity lost for Donald Trump to pick up Republican National Convention delegates.
Nebraska is tailormade for Ted Cruz, and when the state holds its winner-take-all primary on May 10, party leaders say Trump is an all-but certain loser.
Facing those dim prospects, Trump’s best hope in the state might have been to get a few of his supporters on the list of people who will fill those delegate slots — supporters who, in later rounds of voting at a contested convention, would be inclined to abandon Cruz and help Trump.
But that’s where the billionaire appears to have missed his chance: Party officials say they saw virtually no organization by the mogul’s campaign last week when Republicans in all 93 Nebraska counties held local conventions. Those county conventions picked 800 delegates to May’s Nebraska state convention, where 33 delegates to the national convention in Cleveland will be selected.
Because there was little resistance, many county conventions became Cruz pep rallies, according to interviews with party insiders and convention attendees.
“I didn’t see any Trump supporters,” said John Orr, chairman of the Washington County Republican Party. Party leaders, who attended dozens of the conventions around the state, reported similar voids.
It could have been the reverse of a phenomenon that has plagued Trump for weeks. Cruz allies have repeatedly parachuted into states where Trump won primaries — South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee — and helped turn the mogul’s edge into a likely delegate deficit. That could put Trump at a steep disadvantage should he fail to acquire the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination without a contested convention in July.
In Nebraska, where Trump had a chance to return the favor, he didn’t.
If Trump is this bad at campaigning now, he’s going to get massacred in the general election by Hillary if he’s the nominee. Let’s pray it doesn’t even come to that.