GOP Caucus in DC Is 'Race No One Wants to Win'

But that could come back to haunt the candidates
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 12, 2016 3:20 PM CST
GOP Caucus in DC Is 'Race No One Wants to Win'
Washington resident Jayne Zirkle, 14, joins others outside a Washington hotel where Republicans take their pick for the Washington GOP caucus on Saturday.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Saturday's Republican caucus in Washington DC could very well be "the one race no one wants to win," the Wall Street Journal reports. That's because, as Politico notes, the remaining candidates have spent the campaign turning the phrase "DC Republicans" into a "campaign epithet." For example, Donald Trump routinely calls them "stupid," and Ted Cruz says they scream every time he wins a contest. "It seems smart for campaigns to avoid trying to win the DC vote because it looks like they would be an establishment figure—that they would be part of the problem," Republican consultant Ron Bonjean tells the Journal.

The lack of interest in winning Washington DC's 19 delegates is apparent. None of the remaining candidates have campaigned there, and one consultant says he's seen only a single GOP yard sign in the entire town (it was for Trump). But this is the one year in recent memory that strategy could come back to bite the candidates. "In terms of being a DC Republican, we have not mattered this much in a presidential primary since Frederick Douglass was a precinct captain here," the DC GOP's executive director tells the AP. With such a contentious race, Bonjean tells the Journal it's "political malpractice" not to try to win DC, which has as many or more delegates than Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Hawaii. (More Election 2016 stories.)

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