Last month, Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich struck a deal. Kasich would stop campaigning in Indiana, in exchange for Cruz to stop campaigning in some Western states.
WBOI’s Lisa Ryan spoke with several voters in Allen County today, and reports that the deal might not work in Cruz’s favor.
Just days after the deal was announced, media outlets started reporting it as a failure. People who had voted early for Kasich thought they had wasted their vote. Some thought Kasich had completely pulled out of the state, even after he emphasized that he had only stopped campaigning.
“Really made me mad when he decided not to run, so I didn’t vote for him because he didn’t campaign here,” said Robert Wuthrich, a 67-year-old resident of the Aboite Township in Allen County.
He didn’t vote for Kasich, but that doesn’t mean Cruz got his vote. He voted for Donald Trump.
“I didn’t think there was a whole lot of choice,” Wuthrich said.
Jill Caudill, a 42-year-old Aboite resident, felt the same way. She had originally been leaning toward Kasich. She’d also considered voting for Cruz before he and Kasich struck a deal.
“And then I saw all the negative campaigning that Cruz did against Kasich after the agreement,” Caudill said. “That just kind of rubbed me the wrong way.”
Now, she’s voting for Trump as well.
