Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, left, talks to media members as he leaves a news conference, Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at the Republican National Committee Spring Meeting in Hollywood, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, left, talks to media members as he leaves a news conference, Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at the Republican National Committee Spring Meeting in Hollywood, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

 

Hollywood, FL – Ted Cruz is conceding he cannot win the Republican presidential nomination before the party’s national convention this summer.

But the Texas senator insists that GOP front-runner Donald Trump can’t clinch the nomination before the convention either.

Cruz addressed reporters on Wednesday at the site of the Republican National Committee’s spring meeting in Florida.

He says, “What’s clear today is that we are headed to a contested convention.”

Party leaders are convening this week to discuss the rules governing the messy nomination process. Trump is accusing GOP leaders of a rigged system that’s allowing Cruz to collect delegates even though he’s losing the popular vote in some states.

Cruz says the nomination will ultimately be decided at the party’s national convention in July.

He says, “I believe we have a tremendous advantage in that battle.”

Donald Trump picked up 89 of New York’s 95 delegates, putting him on a narrow path to clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries — if he keeps winning.

John Kasich won four delegates and Ted Cruz was shut out.

The last two delegates will have to wait until the absentee votes are counted.

Trump has won 47 percent of the delegates awarded so far. He has to win 57 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination and avoid a contested convention.

Cruz and Kasich can only hope to block Trump, forcing a convention in which no one has a clear majority of the delegates.

The AP delegate count:

Trump: 845.

Cruz: 559

Kasich: 148.

Needed to win: 1,237.

As reported by Vos Iz Neias