“Kasich-Hickenlooper 2020” wouldn’t fit on a bumper sticker, John Kasich quipped on NBC’s “Meet the Press” recently. But seriously, the Republican governor of Ohio was asked, are he and the Democratic governor of Colorado really thinking of mounting an independent bid for president?

“The answer is no,” Governor Kasich said, responding to reports that just such a “unity ticket” may be in the works....

Not that a denial puts anything to rest. Politicians are famous for saying “nothing to see here” until there is something to see. In Kasich’s case, the denial about a joint bid with Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) of Colorado could mask a more likely scenario: that Kasich will make a third run for president, and challenge President Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020.

Still, chatter about the Kasich-Hickenlooper trial balloon – born of common-ground efforts on policy and joint public appearances – amounts to more than just political gossip. It speaks to widespread disaffection among Americans with the two major parties, as seen in Gallup data that show “independent” as the preferred political affiliation since 2009. Today, 41 percent of Americans self-identify as independent, with Republicans and Democrats at 28 percent each.

“Third parties work great until you have to caucus,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.

Read more from Linda Feldmann at The Christian Science Monitor

Republican front-runner Donald Trump is expected to sweep all five GOP primaries today — including nearby Rhode Island and Connecticut — but faces perhaps his toughest test in the month of May with little margin for error in his battle to clinch the nomination on a first ballot.

“Based on the polling, tomorrow should be a big night for him,” said GOP operative Ford O’Connell. “It’s probably going to be the last great night he’ll have before we hit New Jersey and California (on June 7).”

Trump leads by double-digits in polls in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, which will award a combined 172 delegates today.

A critical showdown for Trump comes May 3 in the Indiana primary. It’s the biggest prize in May — 57 delegates — and a big test for the new Cruz-Kasich alliance that essentially lets the Texas senator go head-to-head against Trump in the Hoosier State. Kasich, in return, gets Cruz to back out of Oregon and New Mexico.

“If he (Trump) wins Indiana, he could break Cruz and Kasich’s back,” said O’Connell. “If Cruz wins Indiana, these guys are more likely to work the alliance until the end of the calendar.”

Read more from Chris Cassidy at the Boston Herald

A growing sense of desperation from establishment Republicans to stop front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party’s nomination has been simmering for months. But it may be too little, too late for the businessman’s competition as the number of delegates up for grabs winnows in the primary season's final stretch and Trump looks to polish off his lead with wins in several delegate-rich states over the next two months.

Some Republicans have argued recently that Trump’s window to secure the 1,237 delegates necessary to clinch the party’s nomination outright has closed, but the math behind that rationale paints a different picture. Trump, who needs roughly 392 delegates to lock up the nomination and avoid a contested convention — assuming the party establishment doesn't change rules at the last minute to unbind delegates and allow them to vote for whomever they want — has a very narrow path forward to outright beat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

“Trump is the only one who can mathematically win on the first ballot,” Ford O’Connell, who worked on Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, said. “Cruz and Kasich are mathematically eliminated."

“After Indiana and tomorrow we are really looking at Donald needing to clean up in California and New Jersey,” O’Connell said. “The problem is in May; the states in May, after Indiana, are not that favorable to Trump.”

Read more from Clark Mindock at International Business Times

With little hope of catching Donald Trump, Ohio Gov, John Kasich is increasingly taking aim at Ted Cruz, hoping to unseat the Texas senator as establishment Republicans’ go-to alternative in the GOP presidential race.

Mr. Kasich recently labeled Mr. Cruz a “smear artist” in the wake of an ad attacking the Ohio governor in Wisconsin. Ahead of the April 19 New York primary, Mr. Kasich’s campaign also released several ads that specifically targeted Mr. Cruz, hitting the Texas Republican for his line in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses deriding Mr. Trump for embodying “New York values.” 

“He’s trying to break up the Cruz narrative that the party is consolidating behind Cruz to defeat Trump,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “He wants to find a way to remain relevant, and when it comes convention time he can say ‘wait a minute — I’m as viable an option as anyone else.’”

Read more from Dave Sherfinski at The Washington Times

The GOP presidential contenders are waging a shadow campaign for delegates ahead of their party’s nominating convention this summer. 

Political strategist Ford O'Connell said the campaigns "have separate operations that no one actually hears about" focused on picking off delegates in case no candidate reaches the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination.

John Feehery, a contributor to The Hill, and O'Connell explain the dynamics in an interview with the Hill's Molly K. Hooper.

Watch the video and read more at The Hill

The presidential primary has been a wrenching experience for the GOP so far — and it’s about to get even worse. 

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich have all backed away from their pledge to support the party's eventual nominee, foreshadowing a fight at the convention and beyond that could cleave the GOP into warring factions.

Instead of helping to unify the GOP behind a candidate, as the primary process typically does, the race has instead created deep wounds between the candidates that are unlikely to heal.

The antagonism has been heightened by a particularly vicious stretch of campaigning involving allegations of adultery and pictures of the candidates’ wives.

Many Republicans strategists say they don't think Trump will attempt a third-party bid if he fails to win the nomination, given that it’s too late to get on the ballot in most states. 

But should Trump opt for a write-in campaign, it could effectively dash any Republican hopes of beating the Democratic candidate.

"Republicans — the core Republicans — are going to rally around” the nominee no matter who it is, O'Connell insisted.

Still, "the enthusiasm is with Trump. How other candidates might pick that up if they're the nominee is an open question," O'Connell added.

Read more from Jesse Byrnes at The Hill

When Donald Trump signed a “loyalty pledge” with great fanfare last September promising to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee, few took him seriously. 

Because no one tells Mr. Trump what to do. He even said so at the time. 

Now Trump has formally rescinded his pledge, and the remaining GOP competitors – Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich – have come close, refusing to say whether they would honor their own loyalty pledges at a CNN town hall Tuesday night.

In a way, the death of the pledge is merely symbolic. It’s already been clear for some time that the Grand Old Party is coming apart at the seams, with a presidential front-runner who barely adheres to Republican philosophy and yet commands a big, loyal following.

But that symbolism is important. After all, what is the point of having a political party, if its members don’t intend to support one another?

The unraveling of the pledge is “clarifying,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “It tells us how much these men can’t stand each other.”

Read more from Linda Feldmann at The Christian Science Monitor

The GOP presidential contenders' recent backtracking on a pledge to support the party's eventual nominee doesn't matter, political operative Ford O'Connell says.

The Republican National Committee's original pledge was designed to prevent Donald Trump from running as a third-party candidate, O'Connell says in an interview with The Hill's Molly K. Hooper.

But at this point in the cycle, O'Connell said that’s "pretty much impossible because of the time, money, manpower needed to mount a successful independent campaign in the general election."

Watch the video and read more at The Hill

Few people expected John Kasich to make it this far. The Ohio governor has improbably outlasted a long list of Republican rivals in his effort to win his party’s presidential nomination—and continues to run a long-shot campaign. It is now mathematically impossible for Kasich to secure the Republican nomination. Still, Kasich refuses to quit, hoping to prevail at the Republican convention in July with the argument that he’s the best candidate to unite the party and defeat Hillary Clinton.

Some Republican strategists agree that Kasich’s presence in the race could help slow Trump’s momentum in the Northeast. If the Kasich and Cruz campaigns worked strategically to deny Trump delegates that could also help the anti-Trump movement. For now, however, it’s difficult to envision that kind of coordination taking place. “Asking politicians to put their ego aside for the good of the party is a lot like asking a thief not to steal,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who worked on John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Read more from Clare Foran at The Atlantic

After a critical win on his home turf, Ohio Governor John Kasich begins a new phase of his long-shot presidential campaign that his aides hope will ultimately propel him past Republican front-runner Donald Trump by triggering a rare contested convention.

Kasich's victory in Ohio's primary on Tuesday, along with the departure from the race of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, makes him the party establishment's last hope of stopping the New York billionaire businessman from winning the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election.

Trump and his closest rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, are deeply unpopular among Republican insiders.

With most of the remaining states allocating delegates proportionally, Kasich’s aides believe he could prevail at a convention at which no candidate enters with a majority.

Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist who has stayed neutral in this year's nominating fight, said Kasich's victory should earn him more help from party insiders.

"There are really just two options left: Either Trump gets enough delegates, or nobody does," O'Connell said. "Kasich's win in Ohio means Trump must now win roughly 60 percent of the remaining delegates before the convention. I would say we now have a 50-50 chance of a brokered convention."

O'Connell said that under Republican party rules, a candidate must receive a clear majority of primary votes overall to become the nominee. 

The history of Republican nominating fights is littered with candidates who received a plurality of the votes, but not a majority, and never became the nominee.

Read more from Tim Reid at Reuters