Cruz: I’m fine with contested convention

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/09/16 10:30 AM ET

Ted Cruz says he would have no problem with a contested convention over the summer in the event neither he nor Donald Trump secures enough delegates before then to lock up the Republican presidential nomination.

Noting the last contested convention, when President Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan battled for the nomination in 1976, Cruz told Fox News in a town hall airing Wednesday night, “That’s what conventions are for.”

{mosads}”If you’re fighting between the candidates who have earned the votes of the people, and it’s the delegates at the convention who’ve been elected to do that, that’s the way the system works.”

Cruz has previously argued against the Republican Party holding a multi-ballot “brokered” convention to determine the winner, predicting such a scenario would lead to a GOP “revolt.”

“A contested convention is a different thing where you go, if no one gets 1,237 [delegates] and you’ve got two front-runners,” Cruz said in a clip released by Fox, mentioning Ford, who won on the first ballot, and Reagan.

Cruz currently sits second to Trump in the delegate count, with 458 pledged to Trump, 359 to Cruz, 151 to Marco Rubio and 54 to John Kasich after voting in four states on Tuesday.

Trump suggested Wednesday morning on “Fox and Friends” that Cruz was making the statement “because he had such a bad night last night.”

“Two weeks ago, he said that would be a terrible thing,”

“He cannot get to the 1,237, so as a person that can’t get to 1,237, I agree with him, he should be saying exactly that,” Trump added. “The difference is I can get there.”

Kasich earlier Tuesday predicted the GOP race would head to a contested convention as he and Rubio to their home states of Ohio and Florida, respectively, to deny Trump the necessary number of delegates.

Tags 2016 GOP primary 2016 presidential election Brokered convention contested convention Donald Trump Marco Rubio Ted Cruz