NEW YORK — (CNN) Ted Cruz came in second in the recent Louisiana Republican primary behind Donald Trump but could win more delegates — and the the real estate mogul is crying foul.
Trump beat the Texas senator in the March 5 contest by 3.6%. Under party rules the pair each won 18 delegates. But Cruz’s campaign is using its organization muscle to sway ten more delegates toward his camp, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday — a situation that seems to have caught Trump’s ire.
“Just to show you how unfair Republican primary politics can be, I won the State of Louisiana and get less delegates than Cruz-Lawsuit coming,” Trump tweeted Sunday evening.
Trump’s missive reflects the still-unclear path his campaign faces in claiming the 1,237 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that would make him the nominee. The Wall Street Journal article detailed the Cruz campaign’s efforts at seating his supporters on crucial convention committees, potentially denying Trump the GOP nomination.
In Louisiana the 10 additional delegates Cruz’s campaign is seeking come from two places: five from former Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio and five unpledged delegates, who are not required to support a particular candidate.
Both tranches of delegates are likely to go for Cruz, the Journal reported.
Even these relatively small amounts of delegates could be important for Cruz in trying to overcome Trump’s delegate lead. Trump has won 742 pledged delegates compared to Cruz’s 462 delegates.
Later Sunday night the Cruz campaign hit back at Trump’s threatened litigation over delegate rules.
Tweeted Ron Nehring, national spokesman for the Cruz campaign: “Maybe your time is better spent reading rules than sending hate-tweets.”
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