Trump, Cruz focus on Wisconsin primary
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — Donald Trump is planning to make his first campaign visit to Wisconsin, where the upcoming Republican presidential primary could mark a turning point in the unpredictable GOP race.
But rival Ted Cruz has gotten a jump-start on the contest, racking up influential endorsements, campaigning in key regions and supported by bullish advertising campaign.
A solid Cruz win in Wisconsin would narrow Trump's path to the nomination, heap pressure on the billionaire to sweep the remaining winner-take-all primaries this spring, and increase the chances of a contested party convention in July.
“The results in Wisconsin will impact significantly the primaries to come,” Cruz told The Associated Press after a rally in Oshkosh Friday. “Wisconsin, I believe, will play a critical role continuing to unify Republicans behind our campaign. The only way to beat Donald Trump is with unity.”
Cruz is positioning himself to win Wisconsin, next Tuesday's only contest, and the first primary since he began collecting the backing of establishment Republicans, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, adamant about eliminating Trump.
As Cruz campaigned across the state ahead of the Easter holiday, he was following a winning road map drawn by Wisconsin governor — and former 2016 presidential hopeful — Scott Walker in 2010, up Wisconsin's rural and working-class midsection — the same demographic that has driven Trump's success thus far.
Cruz has mined the GOP vote-rich swath of farms and factories from south-central Wisconsin, up the Fox River Valley's corridor of paper mills and small towns.
The Fox River Valley, suburban Milwaukee and the rural counties outside Madison are home to 75 percent of Wisconsin's most reliable Republican primary voters, said Keith Gilkes, a veteran Walker adviser who worked for his 2010 GOP primary campaign.
Trump has slightly fewer than half of the Republican delegates allocated so far, short of the majority needed to clinch the nomination before the party's national convention this summer. Cruz has more than a third of the delegates, but is focused equally on stopping Trump and uniting most of the party against him.
If Cruz wins most of the 42 delegates — which, in Wisconsin, are allocated on the basis of state and congressional district winners — then the remaining winner-take-all contests, in Delaware, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey and North Dakota could determine the future of this competition.
