Anti-Trump forces are looking at the California primary as the final battle to shut out Trump from getting the delegates necessary to win the nomination outright before the convention.
Here’s how they’re going to try to do it:
…three veteran California Republican operatives are launching an effort to keep Trump from winning a mass of delegates in California, localizing the stop-Trump effort, by focusing on the fight, district-by-district.
Rob Stutzman, a campaign veteran, is leading the effort with two of his colleagues, Richard Temple and Ray McNally, and their goal is lofty.
“I think it’s possible Trump gets shut out in California,” Stutzman told NBC News.
Trump must win 59 percent of overall remaining delegates to win the nomination – an increasingly difficult task in a three-person field with only 16 contests remaining. California is critical because of its huge prize – 172 delegates – or a gigantic 14 percent of the 1237 delegates needed for a candidate to win the nomination.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump’s main challenger, is looking ahead to the state. He’ll make two campaign stops there Monday.
Stutzman said that California’s system makes it more possible to defeat Trump by focusing very specific, targeted messages to Republicans in each district. Only 13 of California’s delegates are awarded to the winner of the state, the rest are doled out based on the winner of each Congressional district.
His focus on delegate allocation falls in line with the new focus of national stop-Trump movements, which have transitioned from focusing on state-wide wins to delegate-wins.
This is where Trump fails the most because he sucks so bad at basic organization and depends on his celebrity and the overwhelming media attention that the press gives him.
Here’s how Californians look at the toupee’d totalitarian right now: