In the end, Kasich was trounced in the East Coast states where he was expected to do best. In recent primaries across six East Coast states, Kasich won just a single county: Manhattan.
The rest all went to Trump. The mogul soon applied one of his famous nicknames to Kasich: “1-for-38.”
In Indiana, Kasich first appeared to agree to a deal with Cruz, in which Kasich would withdraw and leave Cruz to face Trump alone. In turn, Kasich would not be challenged by Cruz in two later and less-important states, Oregon and New Mexico.
But Kasich appeared to undercut that deal quickly, by saying that his supporters in Indiana should not shift their votes. “I’ve never told them not to vote for me, they ought to vote for me,” Kasich said.
For weeks, it had been clear that Kasich would not reach the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination. In fact, even as the race dwindled to three active candidates, Kasich was in fourth place — with fewer delegates than Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), who’d dropped out weeks prior.
Fundraising was also a problem: the Ohio governor raised less than $17 million in all by the end of March, forcing him to run a lean campaign. He began April with just $1.1 million in the bank. (Cruz, by comparison, raised nearly $80 million.)
Because of his meager fundraising, Kasich has leaned heavily on two super PACs, which together brought in more than $26 million and financed much of his television advertising.
Kasich’s last hope was that Trump would also be denied 1,237 delegates, and that he would be chosen in an open party convention. But even that backup dream began to fade, as Cruz got his own supporters elected as delegates.
David Weigel and Matea Gold contributed to this report.
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