‘Never Trump’ insists never means never

But Trump is poised to win the majority of Indiana’s delegates and narrow his opponents’ path to a Cleveland upset.

That prospect has forced Republicans aligned against the front-runner to mull their remaining options for blocking him and reckon a future without the party, at least for a time, if he can’t be stopped.

“If he’s the nominee, this would be the first time in my lifetime I haven’t voted for the Republican at the top of the ticket,” said Rory Cooper, 38, a GOP operative in Washington who hastened to add that “I sure won’t vote for the Democrat either.”

Cooper, who volunteered on his first campaign in 1992, at the age of 15, advises a super PAC of experienced Republican digital strategists that calls itself #NeverTrump, after the Twitter hash tag popular among Republicans who oppose the billionaire populist.

Trump is sitting at 996 delegates out of the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination, followed by Cruz at 565 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 153. For Republicans of all stripes, there’s a lot riding on Indiana’s presidential primary.

By winning there, Cruz would reduce Trump’s delegate lead. Perhaps more importantly, the senator would generate momentum heading into the remaining primaries in May and June, including the final contest on June 7 in California. Without a clear nominee, a contested convention — where Cruz could activate his superior delegate operation to overcome Trump’s lead — would be within reach.

If Trump wins Indiana, stopping him could be impossible. In the RealClearPolitics.com average of recent public opinion polls, Cruz trailed the billionaire by just over 9 percentage points, 42 percent to 32.7 percent. Republicans running super PACs and other groups opposed to Trump are conceding the obvious: A Cruz loss in Indiana could devastate their ability to raise resources.

“We will proceed, but no question Indiana will either create a head wind or a tail wind,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist in California who is running a newly formed group dedicated to defeating Trump there. California awards most of its 172 delegates proportionally, via congressional district.

Our Principles PAC is the main anti-Trump group playing in the GOP primary. #NeverTrump is another such group, as is Stutzman’s outfit in California. The Club for Growth, an established activist group that focuses on electing conservatives to Congress, has also been active against Trump. Then there’s “Conservatives Against Trump,” a loose affiliation of veteran conservative activists.

Led by Georgia radio talk show host and prominent blogger Erick Erickson, this federation of Republican operatives and insurgents is set to meet Wednesday to plot its next move. If Cruz wins Tuesday, it’s full steam ahead. If not, Conservatives Against Trump will have some decisions to make.

Erickson said in a telephone interview that it is likely the group will encourage Cruz to continue his campaign in the hope that he can win more delegates and, at the very least, exert influence on the rules and platform committees that will meet just prior to the Cleveland convention and set the agenda for the Republican Party going forward.

The next decision Erickson’s group has to make, if Cruz loses, is whether to immediately push ahead with attempting to field a third party conservative presidential candidate, or wait until the California primary to determine if Trump wins enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee at the convention.

Like many anti-Trump Republicans, Erickson believes Trump will lose to likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, possibly in a landslide, and cause a wipeout for Republicans running down ticket. They see a third-party conservative candidate as a means to maintain turnout among traditional GOP voters and preserve majorities in the House and Senate — and protect the party’s gains in statehouses.

“Principled movement conservatives won’t vote for him, and evangelical conservatives won’t vote for him,” Erickson said Monday.

Some Republicans speculate that Trump might be able reassure skeptical conservatives, and diminish the numbers of never-Trump Republicans. Trump could do this by picking an admired ideological conservative as his running mate. Or, Trump could tack right on foreign policy or social issues, where he has exhibited leftist tendencies that have particularly alarmed committed conservatives.

But the concern among the core of the #NeverTrump movement is that Trump is simply unfit for the presidency.

They view him as erratic, unprincipled, authoritarian and ignorant. To the extent Trump has revealed policy priorities, these Republicans fear that he might transform the GOP from a conservative party that supports a robust U.S. leadership abroad and limiting the size and scope of government at home, into a populist, nationalist party that promotes an isolationist foreign policy and celebrates government power in Washington.

What’s unknown is whether the Trump phenomenon is short-lived, allowing the Republican Party to return to its conservative roots after 2016, or whether Trump remakes the GOP in his image going forward and drives conservatives to seek a new permanent political home. In the short term, Trump opponents inside the party are resolute, and pessimistic.

“There are no good options,” said Doug Heye, a Republican consultant in D.C.