Over the next two weeks, the non-Donald Trump candidates (except for Ben Carson) will stay in the race. That’s fine. And the good news (if you’re in the anti-Trump camp) is that all they have to do is pursue their enlightened self-interest, and that their interests pretty much coincide.
It’s in John Kasich’s interest to put some effort into Michigan next week, where he could win some delegates. But he really needs to focus everything he has on his home state, winner-take-all Ohio, which votes March 15, and would provide him by far his largest possible haul of delegates. Winning there is necessary to keeping his candidacy alive.
It’s in Marco Rubio’s interest to contest some states this Saturday and next Tuesday in order to pick up some delegates, but he should focus the vast majority of his time and resources on his winner-take-all home state, Florida, where he also needs a victory to stay viable.
And it’s in Ted Cruz’s interest not to waste time or resources on Ohio or Florida, which he’s very unlikely to win and where he’d get no delegates as a loser. He will want to get the most delegates possible in all the other proportional states.
So we should have a de facto division of labor among the candidates for the next two weeks, during which the interests of the Kasich, Rubio, and Cruz, properly understood, happen to coincide with the national interest in stopping Trump.
