The chief strategist for the presidential campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich says the deal with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to stop Donald Trump was two months too late.
In an interview with Cleveland.com posted Monday, John Weaver, who also has worked for Arizona Sen.. John McCain and Jon Huntsman, said Kasich had a credible path to the nomination, even with just one victory — in his own state.
"[The agreement with Cruz] should have been done two months earlier," Weaver tells Cleveland.com.
"At the end when they came to us, finally, with a deal offer, they came to us with just Indiana. And I made them do Oregon and New Mexico. Look, we were going to finish third in Indiana because of resources. So what would you have preferred? Spending limited money that we didn't have to finish third in Indiana?"
Weaver argues he never expected the deal to benefit the Cruz campaign.
"What the Cruz camp never understood is that our voters were never going to go with Cruz," Weaver told Cleveland.com. "They'd go to Trump or not vote at all. There was a win-win there if we could get past Indiana. We got that, but it was too late."
Weaver said after the race finally came down to the one-on-one contest Kasich always wanted, the path to the nomination had grown "as narrow as you can imagine" — a "one-in-1,000" shot.
"He got in last, had little national name ID, and got out last as the most popular Republican in the country," Weaver tells the outlet. "He did it the hard way, but he did it the right way. He never deviated from his policies. He ran a positive, uplifting campaign. He never once took the low road when every other campaign did so periodically."
Weaver also tells Cleveland.com Kasich won't serve as Trump's running mate —
despite Trump's claim he would consider him — nor would he work for the campaign.
But he didn't rule out Kasich's possible launch of a bid in 2020.
"He's already in great demand to appear and campaign for Republicans across the country," Weaver said.
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